The Kansas Authors Club, supporting writers since 1904, announces the finalists for the 2026 Kansas Authors Club Book Awards. Each year the organization recognizes published books in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, Kansas history, poetry, children’s books, and book design. Finalists within each category are selected by a panel of readers made up of members, community members, and book professionals. The finalists from each category are then delivered to judges for the award decisions and announced at the 2026 fall gathering, this year taking place as the 2026 Kansas Writing Convention held at Rock Springs Ranch near Junction City, October 2-4, 2026.
A Gathering of Kestrels, by T.D. Keane
A Gathering of Kestrels by T. D. Keane is a collection of poems inspired by the varieties of life in the Kansas prairie, specifically the Flint Hills. Mr. Keane knows the prairie well as he has been studying it for over 30 years as a Professor of Landscape Architecture at Kansas State University, Manhattan, which is on the northern edge of the Flint Hills. He has taken numerous students, semester after semester, out on the prairie to observe and study in depth the animal and plant life of the prairie and he has taught the effects of human interaction with the prairie. His poems reflect the beautiful and delicate landscape using unique and skillful poetic power. His poetic techniques fill the reader with wonder, delight, and careful sound, as one would step with respect and care into the complex world of the great plains. This collection of beautiful poems reflects the spectrum of light one will see watching the prairie, hour by hour, minute by minute, without ever seeing the same shade twice, and creating a relationship with beating heart of the grasses, the tiny insects, the coyote. Reading these poems, carefully and slowly, is a transformational experience. Each poem is a meditation that calls us to respect and love the world around us, especially the Flint Hills prairie of Kansas. (Blue Cedar Press, 2025)
A Gathering of Kestrels by T. D. Keane is a collection of poems inspired by the varieties of life in the Kansas prairie, specifically the Flint Hills. Mr. Keane knows the prairie well as he has been studying it for over 30 years as a Professor of Landscape Architecture at Kansas State University, Manhattan, which is on the northern edge of the Flint Hills. He has taken numerous students, semester after semester, out on the prairie to observe and study in depth the animal and plant life of the prairie and he has taught the effects of human interaction with the prairie. His poems reflect the beautiful and delicate landscape using unique and skillful poetic power. His poetic techniques fill the reader with wonder, delight, and careful sound, as one would step with respect and care into the complex world of the great plains. This collection of beautiful poems reflects the spectrum of light one will see watching the prairie, hour by hour, minute by minute, without ever seeing the same shade twice, and creating a relationship with beating heart of the grasses, the tiny insects, the coyote. Reading these poems, carefully and slowly, is a transformational experience. Each poem is a meditation that calls us to respect and love the world around us, especially the Flint Hills prairie of Kansas. (Blue Cedar Press, 2025)
Essential Workers, by Michael Poage
In his 18th book, Michael Poage explores the lives and yearnings of “essential workers” in a time of reaction and repression. Powerful poetry from a prolific poet trained by Richard Hugo and Madeleine DeVries. (Spartan Press, 2025)
In his 18th book, Michael Poage explores the lives and yearnings of “essential workers” in a time of reaction and repression. Powerful poetry from a prolific poet trained by Richard Hugo and Madeleine DeVries. (Spartan Press, 2025)
When I Go West: New and Selected Poems, by William Sheldon
In When I Go West, William Sheldon compiles nearly twenty-five years of poetic reflection into one august volume. These poems present snapshots of a life well-lived-working in one's garden, wandering through the woods, admiring the gift of an "orange-pink sky"-guiding readers to appreciate the simple joys and quiet beauty of life and reminding us how we are part of the same cycles as all of the natural world: birth, growth, and eventual decay. To Sheldon, death is not something to be feared, but rather a natural and necessary part of life. Ashes and compost will feed the next year's crops, and "purpose is assured only in the ground." (Meadowlark Press, 2025)
In When I Go West, William Sheldon compiles nearly twenty-five years of poetic reflection into one august volume. These poems present snapshots of a life well-lived-working in one's garden, wandering through the woods, admiring the gift of an "orange-pink sky"-guiding readers to appreciate the simple joys and quiet beauty of life and reminding us how we are part of the same cycles as all of the natural world: birth, growth, and eventual decay. To Sheldon, death is not something to be feared, but rather a natural and necessary part of life. Ashes and compost will feed the next year's crops, and "purpose is assured only in the ground." (Meadowlark Press, 2025)
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