This is a good time to remind members that we are accepting yearbook submissions. Here is the link: https://kansasauthorsclub.submittable.com/submit  

The guidelines are in the yearbook and at the submittable link, but here they are again for ease of sharing: 
Due Between August 1 and October 15, 2018, electronic receipt or postmark

• Every Member having paid current dues is invited to submit ONE literary contribution for the yearbook. That submission can be either prose or poetry. Prose is limited to one printed page (no more than 500 words). Poetry is limited to one printed page (no more than 40 lines including spaces between verses).
• All literary contributions remain the property of the individual authors. Authors may continue to use or distribute their work without requesting permission from the Kansas Authors Club. No work printed in the KAC yearbook may be copied or distributed in any form without explicit permission from the author.
• Yearbook Submissions are preferred via the online site, Submittable. There is NO CHARGE to submit a yearbook entry.
• The Submittable Site will be open to accepting yearbook entries between August 1 and October 15, 2018.
• Prepare your document as you normally would for print submission.
• The link for submission is:   kansasauthorsclub.submittable.com
• Complete required information. (Name, address, etc.)
• Select file and upload for submission.
• Please do not submit 2019 yearbook entries before August 2018.

Gretchen Eick is a writer of history, biography, fiction, and some poetry best known for her book Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954-72 (University of Illinois Press, 2001, 2007). She is a Professor of History, winner of 3 Fulbright Fellowships, and formerly a foreign policy lobbyist and director of an interfaith lobby in Washington, D.C. Most recently she taught at a Muslim university in Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina with her husband, the poet Michael Poage.

She will be speaking to District 5 of the Kansas Authors Club about writing flash fiction as a way to develop story lines and summon your muse. Part of the meeting will be devoted to participants' writing from prompts. Please come prepared with pen and paper or electronic device.

This meeting is free and open to the public.

When: Saturday, August 11, 2018 at 1:30-3:30 p.m. 

Where: Larksfield Place, 7373 E. 29th St. N., Wichita KS (just west of Rock Rd. on the south side of 29th Street).

Park in the Visitors lot and enter the Welcome Entrance walking left through the main dining room to the Lakeview Dining Room.

The newest Flint Hills Review is out with two D5 poets in the issue, Robert Dean and April Pameticky. There is also a review of past KAC President, Roy Beckemeyer's newest book, Amanuensis Angel.

KAC members from other districts are also in the issue. These include a review of Lindsay Martin-Bowen's book, a review of Tracy Million Simmons' book, as well as Maryfrances Wagner, and Cheryl Unruh.

The Flint Hills Review is a national literary journal housed at Emporia State University. 

Submitted by Robert Dean. 

​Attention Kansas Authors Club District 5 Members--
This is a Call for Poetry Submissions for:
 
Epistrophy: An Afternoon of Poetry and Music
 
Happening Sunday, October 21st, 2018, 2:00-4:30 pm
Venue: Wichita Public Library Advanced Learning Library
 
This is an opportunity to read your poem to musical accompaniment by musicians Susan Mayo (Cello) and Von Hansen (Percussion) improvising to your words. This will not be an open mic event - you must submit your poem for consideration to be chosen for participation.

Submissions due by July 31st, 2018.

You will be notified as to acceptance by August 31st. The event will involve each poet reading through her/his poem once while the musicians and audience listen. Then the poet will read the poem again, and the musicians will improvise accompaniment. We expect 8-12 D5 members to be able to participate, depending on the length of the poems chosen.

Kevin Rabas, Kansas Poet Laureate, and several other invited poets will also be reading. Jazz ensemble Billy’s Bounce will provide musical intermissions.
 
Guidelines for Submission:

• You must be a current member of Kansas Authors Club District 5.
• One poem only may be submitted—make it your best.
  • Length: poem must not take over 4 minutes to read aloud at a relaxed pace. Shoot for anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes.
  • Submission to include a cover letter. Letter and poem should both in a single .doc or .rtf file. Letter and poem must be on separate pages, as the poems will be judged blind. The cover letter to include your name and contact information, a 50-word bio and the title of your entry; poet's name should not appear on the poem page. Entry single spaced; margins 1 inch.
• Your submittal is your verification that you will be available to read on the date of the event.
• Submit your entries as an attachment to an email message addressed to:
  • epistrophypoetry@gmail.com
• Entry must be submitted prior to midnight, July 31, 2018.

EPISTROPHY is an event cosponsored by The Kansas Authors Club District 5, The Wichita Public Library Advanced Learning Library, The Wichita Jazz Festival, River City Poetry, and Reverie Coffee Roasters, with funding by Bill and Marjean Harshbarger. 

Watermark Books & Cafe is hosting Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for an author talk and signing of Miriam's Well, a modern day retelling of Exodus. 

Kansas Poet Laureate from 2009-2013, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the author of over 20 books including Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems, Needle in the Bone, and Everyday Magic: Field Notes on the Mundane and the Miraculous. Miriam's Well is her most recent book.  

When: Saturday, June 30, 2018. 4PM - 5PM

Where: Watermark Books & Cafe, 4701 E. Douglas, Wichita, Kansas

Please nominate members for Awards of Merit. The nomination form and other information are on pages xv and xvi in the 2018 KAC Yearbook.   Forms can be sent to Diane Wahto by email or by postal mail. The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2018.

The KAC Award of Merit is awarded to KAC members for achievement in writing, service to Kansas Authors Club, or a special accomplishment. Award winners are selected by ballot by a committee of Kansas Authors Club members. 

Please give careful consideration to your reasons why the nominee is worthy of an award and list them on the nomination form. Nominations may be made by any individual member of the Kansas Authors Club, by a group or a district. ​

Kansas Poet Laureate, Kevin Rabas, will be presenting Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary at the KAC District 5 July meeting. 

Poetry can illuminate the path through our daily lives, revealing beauty in the mundane tasks and objects that we often overlook. As poet Naomi Shihab Nye observed, “Poetry helps us to see something worth seeing everywhere, whether inside or outside of us.” Emotions triggered by everyday items—the memory of a lost mother, or the anxiety that comes with hope—often go unseen but are given voice through poems that span continents and generations. As Kansans, most of us can appreciate memories connected to limestone postrock, birdhouses, soap dishes, soup bowls, and sunset light. With words and music, this presentation will uplift our daily experiences by exploring what poet Pablo Neruda called “odes to ordinary things.”

Kevin is a poet, jazz musician, and professor who teaches poetry and playwriting at Emporia State University. He also chairs of the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism. His collection of poems, Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, was a Kansas Notable Book in 2010 and a winner of the Nelson Poetry Book Award. He is the winner of the Langston Hughes Award for Poetry, the Victor Contoski Poetry Award, and the Jerome Johanning Playwriting Award, among others.
 
His most recent poetry collection, All That Jazz, was published by Spartan Press in the summer of 2017.

This presentation is courtesy of Humanities Kansas  and is free and open to the public. 

When: Saturday, July 14, at 1:30-3:30 p.m. 

Where: Larksfield Place, 7373 E. 29th St. N., Wichita KS (just west of Rock Rd. on the south side of 29th Street).

Park in the Visitors lot and enter the Welcome Entrance. The presentation will be in the Larksfield Place Independent Living Auditorium to the left of the entrance. 

She currently has one book, The Sisterhood of the Coin, published by The Wild Rose Press, and has just sent in her edits for the second book in the series and currently starting to work on the third book in the series. These books are historical, romantic suspense. They take place in 1820 -1823 which is considered the Regency period.  She also has a contemporary book set in 2004 which she is currently looking for a publisher.

How many years has she been writing? She just found a letter for RWA - Romance Writers of America - stating she now had Pro Recognition. The letter was dated May 2, 2003.  Pro status was given to any author who had received a reject letter from a publisher. Her writing endeavor started approximately 23 years ago.

She likes to go one step further with her stories that just WHAT IF. Her characters are ordinary, everyday people, who are forced to the extraordinary to survive. She lives in rural Kansas with her husband, John. Three grandsons live in Northern California. You can learn more about her writing and read an ongoing story at her website, zminor.com.

This meeting is free and open to the public.

When: Saturday, June 9, at 1:30-3:30 p.m. 

Where: Larksfield Place, 7373 E. 29th St. N., Wichita KS (just west of Rock Rd. on the south side of 29th Street).

Park in the Visitors lot and enter the Welcome Entrance walking left through the main dining room to the Lakeview Dining Room.
​