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Margaret A. Shauers, District 6, Great Bend, died March 17, 2012, at her home. Freelance author and novelist, Margaret published novels, short stories, poetry, and also non-fiction. She worked as staff writer at Barton County Junior College in Communication Department, taught Creative Writing @ Barton County Community College. She also published in periodicals, particularly Sunday School children's material. Her funeral was held in Great Bend on March 20, 2012, at First Presbyterian Church. Margaret was active in KAC a, joining as a regular member in 1972 and receiving the Octogenarian Award in 2010. In 2009 she received the over 20 years membership award. She was the State Contest Manager in 1975-76, and the State non-member contest manager in 1986. She was also active in various KAC District and State positions. She will be greatly missed. Margaret's memory page is available online. 4/13/2012
Clyde Martin, husband of Gail Martin, District 5, El Dorado, and father of Cynthia Ross, District 5, Towanda, passed away on April 3, 2012. Family and friends will have a Celebration of Life service in Clyde's memory, to be held Saturday, April 14, 2012, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 430 Eunice, El Dorado, 2 p.m. Clyde's obituary is available online. 4/5/2012
Dr. William "Joe" McFarland, District 1, Topeka, joined KAC in 2009, but passed January 27, 2012 at age 82. A 1951 graduate of Sterling (Kansas) College, he lettered in five sports. Joe was drafted into the Army from 1951 to 1953 and served 16 months in Korea. He later earned an M.A. degree at the University of Northern Colorado, and a doctoral degree at Indiana University. He also received honorary doctorates fr
om Sterling College and Geneva College (Beaver Falls, PA) where he was President Emeritus. Many of his activities have been chronicled inhis autobiography, My Time on the Clock; The Shaping of a College President(2008). The faith, fortune and foibles of the author are humorously presented in this informative and entertaining book. Joe officiated college and high school football games for over 50 years. He won Tri-State Senior Olympic honors in the javelin throw. Physically fit even in later years, he made his first parachute jump at age 70 and his second at age 80. He held a private pilot's license for 25 years, and he also claimed a hole-in-one in golf! Joe's obituary is available online. 2/2/2012
Irma Wassall, District 5, Wichita, passed away at on Juanary 26, 2012, the age of 103She had been a member of KAC since 1936,and served as President of District 5 in 1955. Wassall was born September 23, 1908. More than 1,000 of her poems have appeared in newspapers, magazines, anthologies and her six collections of published poetry. Her first collection, Loonshadow, was published in 1949; her latest, The Ruby-Emerald Jungles, in 1999. She received the Kansas Governor's Art Award in 2001 at the age of 92. Her husband, Fred Wassall, was a painter. He died in 1970. Irma's obituary is available online. Her memorial service was held at Picadilly Market & Grille on Feb. 5, 2012. The Wichita Eagle published an article about Irma's life. A memorial has been established with the Kansas Authors Club in care of 400 S. Pershing, Wichita, KS 67218. 1/30/2012
Barnes & Noble: The bookstore's last stand, by Julie Bosman, NYTimes, 1/28/2012
Tablet and E-Reader Sales Soar, by Julie Bosman, NYTimes, 1/22/2012
Ebook sales surge after holidays, by Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today, 1/9/2012
Defining English online, as it evolves: Defining Words, Without the Arbiters, by Anne Eisenberg, BlueRidgeNow.com, modified 1/2/2012
For Libraries and Publishers, an E-Book Tug of War, NYTimes. 12/25/2011
Top Ways to Make Yourself Irresistible to the Media, a link. 12/3/2011
Nell Nadine McLain, District 7, Satanta, passed Wednesday, November 23, 2011, at St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City. Burial was in the Haskell County Cemetery in Sublette. Nell was a KAC member from 1990 to 2009, and served as secretary of District 7 from 1997 to 2000, and contest manager in 2003. Her literary interests ranged between fiction, poetry and various articles for county newspapers. One poem, entitled "While Picking the Last of the Cherries," originally published by Capper's Weekly in 1987, is reprinted in the KAC Yearbook, 2001. 12/2/2011
Tracy Million Simmons, District 2, Emporia, who edits our Yearbook, has posted her photos from the 2011 KAC Convention in Coffeyville on Flickr. Please visit and enjoy Tracy's photos! 11/27/2011
Amazon signs up authors, writing publishers out of deal—NYTimes, by David Streitfeld, 10/16/2011
Internationally-acclaimed poet Albert Goldbarth has been named this year’s recipient of the 2011 Don Coldsmith Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. The Don Coldsmith Award pays tribute to a distinguished Kansas author whose lifetime contributions have utilized the written word to enhance the proud literary legacy of the Sunflower State. Read news release in the Kansas City Star. 9/20/2011
Ervin E. Grant, District 5, El Dorado, 86, died Sunday, August 21, 2011 at his home. Ervin was born and raised in El Dorado and attended school and community college there. He served in the U.S. Navy and attended St. Thomas University, University of Kansas, and University of Kansas Law School. He joined his father in the practice of law in 1951 and retired after 60 years just two weeks prior to his death. He joined KAC in 2007 and registered his literary interest in fiction novels, religion, short stories and biographical memoirs. Two years ago he began writing a weekly column in the El Dorado Times on the history of Butler County, and is also the author of two books -- Reawakening and Trials of a Small Town Lawyer. He was given the octogenarian award in 2010. His wife, Mary Jo Grant, also a KAC member, is a poet and non-fiction writer. Ervin's obituary is available in the El Dorado Times. 9/20/2011
Fifteen KAC members are among poets with work chosen in celebration of the Kansas Sesquicentennial. Besides this poetry being available online at Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Merriam-Goldberg's "150 Kansas Poems" website—with poems added regularly throughout this 150th birthday of the state of Kansas—a commemorative volume of the selected poems is being published by Washburn University's Woodley Press. The book will be entitled Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems. A series of reading by poets included in this volume is being scheduled at locations throughout the state, beginning in early November. Check the online schedule of readings and consider attending a reading near you. You may also visit the book's page on Facebook. 8/25/2011
Kansas Authors Club Speakers Bureau
Do you enjoy speaking about the writing life? Do you conduct workshops or give lectures of interest to writers?
All KAC members are invited to submit their program information and terms of availability to our new Kansas Authors Club Speakers Bureau database, now online.
This database is linked from our KAC web site's Links page. If you want to type in a long address, you'll find the database on-line at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/kac/speakersbureau.html
By submitting information to this database, you are confirming that you are a KAC member in good standing and you are willing to be contacted by KAC members and district representatives for inquiries about your availability to speak at KAC events and district meetings. 9/30/2010
Need a KAC logo? Find them here in various sizes and formats
KAC Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2011 Download as a PDF file
KAC Newsletter, Spring 2011 Download as a PDF file
KAC Newsletter, Winter 2011 Download as a PDF file
KAC Newsletter, Summer 2010 Download as a PDF file
KAC Newsletter, Spring 2010 Download as a PDF file
KAC Newsletter, Winter 2010 Download as a PDF file
Ann Everett, District 5, Wichita, reminds members to share events and accomplishments with Carol Yoho, the KAC web site manager. Check out our "Writers in the Community" page, linked at the left of our Welcome page, for community-related acitiviity postings by members.
Documenting our community-related activities will aid KAC in our goal of gaining 501(c)3 status as a "non-profit" organization. That designation, in turn, will help us in asking for funds from businesses that look for tax incentives when donating.
The 501(c)3 form asks for our web site address, and someone will check online for collaboration of our reported activities.
Our efforts as “Writers in the Community” make us much more than just a social organization! Share your public service as a writer. 7/28/2008
KAC logo is available for download.
Don Pady, our Kansas Authors Club State Archivist, prepares reviews and synopses of books donated to the Kansas Authors Club Collection in the Kansas Collection at the Spencer Library at the University of Kansas. He delivers books to Spencer Library and encourages members to donate one autographed copy of each of their published books for this collection. Books should be mailed to Don Pady. Questions concerning content of the Archives and the history of the Kansas Authors Club may be addressed to the Archivist.Wordnik.com —Word-of-the-Day 1/2/2012
Win £500 and publication with Aesthetica
Creative Writing Competition
Deadline for entries: 31 August 2012
Winners and Finalists will be announced on the 31 October. Entry fee is £10 per item.
Details online at www.aestheticamagazine.com/submission_guide.htm
Kansas City Voices literary magazine is currently in an open submissions period. Please submit your poetry, prose and/or visual art for our Tenth Anniversary edition by March 15, 2012. Full submissions guidelines can be found online.
The direct link to our submissions site is http://whisperingprairiepress.submishmash.com/submit
New Letters Writing Contest. Read rules online. Enter by May 18, 2012.
$1,500 New Letters Prize for Poetry |
for the best 2012 group of three to six poems |
$1,500 Dorothy Churchill Cappon Prize for the Essay |
for the 2012 best essay |
$1,500 Alexander Patterson Cappon Prize for Fiction |
for the best 2012 short story |
If you're interested in being considered for participation in a Kansas renga(collaborative poetry), to be featured on the150kansaspoems.wordpress.com website and potentially in other venues, please send one to two samples of your poetry to Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at Kspoetlaureate@gmail.com.
If you dream of being a published author, this is an opportunity you should not miss. To enter, follow the instructions at http://bookwish.org/contest.
All that separates you from this prize is a 500-word essay about a short story in Book Wish Foundation's new anthology, What You Wish For. Essays are due Feb. 1, 2012 and winners will be announced around Mar. 1, 2012. If you win, you will have six months to submit the first 50 pages of your manuscript for critique (which means you can enter the contest even if you haven't finished, or started, your manuscript). You can even enter multiple times, with essays about more than one of the contest stories, for a chance to win up to six critiques.
What You Wish For (ISBN 9780399254543, Putnam Juvenile, Sep. 15, 2011) is a collection of short stories and poems about wishes from 18 all-star writers. Book Wish Foundation is donating 100% of its proceeds from the book to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to fund the development of libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad. 12/3/2011
Writing Raw is a FREE literary ezine dedicated to new and emerging writers of the following categories: FICTION , POETRY and ASSORTED writings. Their goal at Writing Raw is simple - to serve the literary community with the opportunity to have their work online and out in the world. In this world of disappearing literary magazines, Writing Raw is providing the blank pages for writers to fill. 12/1/2009
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