District 2 announces two officer appointments. One is Susie Nightingale, Secretary, replacing outgoing Secretary Jean Jackson, who had announced her intention to resign earlier. [Thank you, Jean, for your work as secretary.] The other appointment is Gordon Kessler, who will serve as Co-President of the district effective October of this year.  Tom Mach and Gordon Kesser will share equal responsibiities as Co-Presidents.  Gordon will develop agendas and set up meeting sites in Jackson County for 5 or 6 months of the year, while Tom will develop agendas and set up meeting sites in Douglas County for the balance of the year. 8/22/2007

2007 Past Meetings:

Saturday, November 10, 2007, meeting was held at the Lawrencve Lbrary, 9:30 a.m. Our speaker was Nancy Pickard author the The Virgin of Small Plains and winner of the Agatha Award for Best Novel.

Saturday, September 8, 2007 meeting was held at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont Street, Lawrence, KS, at 9:30 am. Our newest district member is Deanna Pendelton of Overland Park, bringing our total new member total for this year to 22, the highest level of any of the KAC districts.  Our committee of Tom Mach, Joann Williams, Diane Palka, and Jean Jackson met with a representative of the Holiday Inn Holidome in Lawrence and reviewed costs and accommodations.  The motion to hold the 2010 KAC Convention in Lawrence was made, seconded, and approved by the members.  Ted Barnes, author of In Everything Give Thanks made a wonderful presentation.

Saturday, August 11, 2007 meeting was held at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont Street, Lawrence, KS, at 9:30 am.
Our speaker was Denise Low, our new Kansas poet laureate. She read some of her poetry and shared with us as to what makes a good poem.

Saturday, July 14, 2007, at 9:30 am at the Lawrence Library . The speaker was  author Ursula Turner, District 3, Coffeyville. Ursula is author of two books, A Mother's Sins (a romance) and Hello There...Have a Nice Day (a compilation of columns she wrote for the Coffeyville Journal.  Ursula will share with us about growing up in Germany and the difficulties she faced in writing in another language (English). She shared insights of her early life in Nazi Germany through a work-in-progress called Sirens. Her father was a Nazi (not by choice) and she had to hide in the basement during frequent air raids. She able to survive the hardships of a destroyed post-war Germany and even more hardships coming to the U.S.--and rise above all of that to be an accomplished writer.

Saturday, May 12, 2007, at the Blue Valley Library, 9000 W. 151st, Overland Park, Kansas. Our speaker was Kevin Groenhagen, who is the editor of two monthly newspapers, The Kaw Valley Senior Monthly (serving Northeast Kansas) and The Rock Valley Senior Monthly (serving Northwest Illinois).  Kevin is also the publisher of reprints of two out-of-print books.  The first is Benjamin Drake's 1838 book on Black Hawk and the Black Hawk War of 1832. The second is Richard Cordley's 1895 A History of Lawrence, Kansas. The latter deals with the settlement of Lawrence in 1854 up until Quantrill's Raid.

Saturday, April 14, 2007, at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont Street, Lawrence, Kansas. District 2 contest results were announced. District 2had the honor of introducing author William Poy Lee at the close of their contest awards meeting at the Lawrence Public Library.  William Lee who was in Lawrence speaking at the Hall Center for the Humanities came to the Authors Club Meeting and remained at the library to talk about his book, The Eighth Promise. Many writers, including Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem, have praised the book.

District 2 now has a newsletter editor--Judy Brewster, District 2, Leawood, who is also one of our district's newest members. Thank you, Judy!

District 2 has eleven new members. We welcome Judy Brewster, Leawood; Don Phillips, Lawrence; Eileen Roddy-Phillips, Lawrence; Todd Mildfelt, Richmond; Norm Ledgin, Stilwell; Sally Jadlow. Overland Park, Jack Granath, Kansas City. KS; Mary Repine, Lenexa; J. Scott O'Shea, Lenexa; Kelly Hamilton Demo, Prairie Village; and Maril Crabtree, Mission.

District 2: 2007 Writing Contest Winners Announced

Poetry
Classic Forms
First Place--Patsy Colter, Trail of Tears
Second Place--Faye Adams, Artists All
Third Place--Anne Haehl, Palestinian Pantoum
Free Verse
First Place--Jan Duncan O'Neal, Wheelbarrow Stories
Second Place--Anne Haehl, Ordinary Tragedy
Third Place--Barbara Stuber, I Will Not Die
Honorable Mention: Jan Duncan-O'Neal, Dad's Last Thanksgiving
Honorable Mention: Marie Marshall, Sight-Seeing
Honorable Mention: Phil Dillon, The Romantic's Ghetto
Rhymed Verse
First Place--Ruth M. Bahr, My Tomato Seasons
Second Place--Faye Adams, A False Alarm
Third Place--Marie Marshall, Frugal Cook
Honorable Mention: Andrew J. Deckert, Answered Prayers
Honorable Mention: Dorothy Jenks, To A Fisherman
Haiku
First Place--Jean Jackson, Summer Morning
Second Place--Diane Pallka, Silent Splash
Third Place--Jean Jackson, Old Cat's New Grave
Honorable Mention--Jean Jackson, Planting Bulbs
Honorable Mention--Jean Jackson, Clouds Lift
Honorable Mentioin--Diane Palka, Walking Home

Prose
Short Story
First Place--Constance Severson, Scattering Daddy
Second Place--Andrew Deckert, Deadheads
Third Place--Andrew Deckert, The Man Who Wrote Like Gertrude Stein
Honorable Mention--Constance Severson, Moments to Remember
Honorable Mention--Tom Mach, The 144-Year Wait
Honorable Mention--Fred Farris, Cello Bells
Memoir
First Place--Marie Marshall, The Red Sweater
Second Place--Tracy Million Simons, That Old Barn
Third Place--Eileen Roddy-Phillips, The Reluctant Bride
Honorable Mention--Joann Williams, Pistol Packin' Granny
Honorable Mention--Judy Brewster, One Widow's Way
Honorable Mention--Patsy Colter, Grandpa Oliver
Inspirational
First Place--Barbara Stuber, Grave Matters
Second Place--Joann Williams, Never Again
Third Place--Bonnie Swade, My Bret
Honorable Mention--Joann Williams, The Great Communicator
Honorable Mention--Phil Dillon, A Lesson Learned on the Rubber Chicken Circuit
Children's Story
First Place--Kristin Anderson, A Tail of Two Kitties
Second Place--Kristin Anderson, Rose Blows Her Nose
Third Place--Kristin Anderson, A Dream of You
Honorable Mention--Kristin Anderson, A Spanish Dream
Honorable Mention--Sally Jadlow, Billy's Dare

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