Debut Children’s Book by Poet Boyd Bauman

The Heights of Love

June 2024

ISBN: 978-1-986578-54-6

Retail: $16.99

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EMPORIA, KANSAS: Meadowlark Press is pleased to announce the newest children’s title on the Meadowlark bookshelf. The Heights of Love, a poem by Boyd Bauman, illustrated by Onalee Nicklin is about the lengths a father will go to for a daughter. A little girl’s request for a bunkbed, so that her daddy doesn’t have to lean down so far to kiss her goodnight, leads to lofty dreams. When “she longed for a bunk bed tall enough she could nest in that tree,” her father’s love compels him to comply. Soon, the girl is sleeping among the clouds and stars. But is she satisfied? The 32-page illustrated book is a great bedtime story for daddies and dreamers.

Bauman grew up on a small ranch south of Bern, Kansas, his dad the storyteller and his mom the family scribe. He has published two books of poetry: Cleave and Scheherazade Plays the Chestnut Tree Café. After stints in New York, Colorado, Alaska, Japan, and Vietnam, Boyd now is a librarian and writer in Kansas City, inspired by his three lovely muses.

The book is illustrated by Onalee Nicklin, best known for her fantasy or “storybook” pencil drawings. The illustrations were done with graphite pencils and colored pencils. Onalee lives in a small cottage on a farm near Emporia, Kansas, with her husband, her cat, and numerous species of wildlife. She is the illustrator of the Kansas Notable Book (2022), Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet, story by Mandy Kern, and the author/illustrator of To Hide a Hazelnut.

The Heights of Love is available through www.meadowlarkbookstore.com and wherever readers buy books. Meadowlark encourages readers to support their nearest independent bookseller by purchasing this and all books locally.

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2024 Kansas Notable Books

We are delighted to announce that a Meadowlark poetry book has been named a 2024 Kansas Notable Book. 

The State Library of Kansas is proud to announce the 2024 Kansas Notable Books list. This year’s list of Kansas Notable Books continues the tradition of celebrating the rich stories and vibrant spirit of the state.

“The 2024 Kansas Notable Books list recognizes 15 books written by Kansans or about Kansas,” said Ray Walling, State Librarian. “ From historical figures like abolitionist James Montgomery, to the remarkably resilient residents of Udall, to people reflecting on grief and personal struggles through poetry, the authors introduce readers to a variety of Kansans. The selections also take readers on a geology field trip across the state, to Kansas City's Montgall Avenue, into a classroom as seen through the eyes of a child on the autism spectrum, inside a murder mystery, and beyond to other worlds. With something for everyone, I hope all Kansans will visit their local public library to check out these wonderful titles.”

Authors will be recognized and awarded medals by the State Librarian at the Kansas Book Festival Author Reception on September 27 at Washburn University. For more information on the event, visit kansasbookfestival.com.

Even though he was often vastly outnumbered by enemies on the outside and by demons on the inside, Antonio Sanchez-Day took on life. He fought against racism as a boy, fought against family troubles, and fought as a street soldier for his gang which was the “family” he’d always wanted. Then he had to fight simply to survive 13 years of incarceration. Inside the walls, Antonio found his main weapon, his pen. He wrote brilliantly, and with pen in hand, he turned his life around. The 123 pages of new, unpublished poetry in this book was put together by Antonio’s friend and mentor, Brian Daldorph, to “cement [his] legacy” (Antonio’s words).

Antonio died in March 2021, aged 44.

PRAISE

Sometimes I am lucky enough to encounter a poet who uses poetry as it should be—to reach within and challenge the demons, worship Mother Earth, scale back the lies and strip one of all deception and holler out the truth in beautiful verse in the way birds and oceans and trees speak themselves, reveal their true selves every minute of every day, and that’s what is so powerful in these poems, a sense that language is being used in a way that break shackles, honors beauty, endures sorrow, and keeps climbing, keeps digging, keeps in the hand what is meaningful and scared—he does this in this book. Antonio Sanchez-Day is one of those rare poets who makes language and song and poetry his magic, his brew to drink each morning before stepping into the world of feelings, visions, regret, vulnerability—no poet i have read delivers such clarity and honesty as does Mr. Sanchez-Day, he reckons and muses and renders his poetry to the readers with such beautiful candor and connection, making community that invites us in to embrace and honor him. You must read this book, give it as a gift to loved ones, recommend it to teachers, put it on reading lists, order it for your classes. It aligns poetry where it should be, front and center in the heart and mind, to awaken in us the reason why we live. An extraordinary talent!

—Jimmy Santiago Baca: American poet, American Book Award winner, author of many books including Healing Earthquakes, A Place to Stand, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio

The Next Great Read from Meadowlark Press - Shipping June 2024

 

Dodge City, Kansas, has found its bard. His name is Robert Rebein, and his debut novel, The Last Rancher, showcases an assured new voice of the contemporary American West. Prepare to be lassoed in an unforgettable and utterly satisfying family saga. —Will Allison, What You Have Left and A Long Drive Home

Leroy Wagner has given his heart and soul to the Bar W Ranch. He knows no other way. His wife, Caroline, born in the city, struggles with the loneliness of marriage to a man committed first to his land. When tragedy robs them of their first-born, the handsome and talented Wade, it’s all either can do to face the world. Their second-born, Michael, attempts to fill his brother’s shoes, and their only daughter, Annie, searches for a way to reconcile her love for the Bar W with her feeling that she must flee it if she is to survive. Finally, there’s Jimmy, the Wagners’ unplanned replacement child, born too late into a world of broken hearts. When a near-fatal accident befalls Leroy, the Wagner children must return to the Bar W to save the ranch and what remains of their family ties. Secrets are unearthed. Truths are told. Consequences are faced. Giving voice to the contemporary American West, The Last Rancher  follows one family’s quest to survive on the demanding and starkly beautiful high plains of Kansas. Doing so will require them to come together as never before to acknowledge the challenges of the present and the long and lingering shadows of the past.

In The Last Rancher, Robert Rebein’s characters are so real that I would swear I know them. He seamlessly weaves together past and present to cover decades of a Kansas family broken by tragedy. I was hooked from the first page to the last. —Cheryl Unruh, Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town and Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State

Order Today - Ships in June

About the Author: Robert Rebein

Robert Rebein grew up in Dodge City, Kansas, where his family has farmed and ranched since the late 1920s. A graduate of the University of Kansas and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as Exeter University in England, Rebein teaches fiction and creative nonfiction writing at Indiana University Indianapolis. He is the author of Dragging Wyatt Earp: A Personal History of Dodge City, and Headlights on the Prairie: Essays on Home.

Love and horses, whiskey and weed, land and money: The Last Rancher has it all. Robert Rebein has written a big-hearted literary page-turner to rival the family sagas of Richard Russo, Richard Ford, and John Irving. —Kyle Minor, Praying Drunk

Preorder Today from the Meadowlark Bookstore

Arlice Davenport Reading at Eighth Day Books in Wichita

 

After 50 years of writing poetry, Arlice Davenport is not yet finished: “When I contemplate/this insatiable universe/bulging against its borders/I carefully store my tools/and leave the unfinished unfinished.” He takes his cues from “this insatiable universe” in this, his fourth collection of poems, in pursuit of an ever-receding horizon of completion. For decades editor of the Book and Travel sections of the Wichita Eagle, Arlice will read from In Search of the Sublime and his other books Thursday, May 16, 7:00 p.m., at Eighth Day Books.

Thursday, May 16, 7:00 p.m.

Eighth Day Books

2838 E. Douglas

Wichita, Kansas

You're Invited! Diverse Voices Student Anthology Book Launch Event

Meadowlark Press is proud to announce the publication of Diverse Voices/Voces Diversas, an anthology of student writing from Emporia's own Walnut Elementary School fifth graders. 

Earlier this year, Meadowlark worked with Emporia-based nonprofit House of Morrow to develop a five-week creative writing literacy program. The grand finale of this program is the publication of the students' writing and book launch event.

The book launch event, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 6 - 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 7th, at the Clint Bowyer Building. The kids will read their original writings!

Books will be for sale as a fundraiser for Walnut Elementary School and House of Morrow.

Funding this project was made possible by the United Way United for Racial Equity Grant, Emporia Community Foundation, House of Morrow, and Meadowlark Press.

We look forward to having you join us in celebrating this fun and educational experience!

Congratulations, Alicia Rebecca Myers, 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner!

We are overjoyed to announce the winner of the 
2024 Birdy Poetry Prize, Warble by Alicia Rebecca Myers

Congratulations, Alicia!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alicia Rebecca Myers is a poet and essayist who holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU, where she was a Goldwater Writing Fellow. Her writing has appeared in publications that include Best New Poets, Creative Nonfiction, FIELD, River Styx, Gulf Coast, SWWIM, december, Threadcount, and The Rumpus. Her chapbook of poems, My Seaborgium (Brain Mill Press, 2015), was selected by Kiki Petrosino as winner of the inaugural Mineral Point Chapbook Series, and she has been the recipient of a Kimmel Harding Nelson residency for poetry and a Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference nonfiction scholarship. Warble is her first full-length book.

We would also like to extend a hearty congratulations to our Birdy finalists and semi-finalists!

Meadowlark would like to thank Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for serving as this year's judge.

Here, you can watch the recording of the announcement event, including readings from 2021-2014 winners: Alison Hicks (Knowing Is a Branching Trail), Jonathan Greenhause (Cupping Our Palms), Zachary Lundgren (Turkey Vulture), and Alicia Rebecca Myers (Warble)! Also included are comments on what Caryn found so alluring about Warble. Thank you to all who attended the event and made it a special, celebratory evening!

Welcome to Kennedy Eyberg, Spring 2024 Intern from Emporia State University

We are very pleased to have Kennedy Eyberg on the Meadowlark team this semester.

Kennedy is originally from Coon Rapids, Iowa, but moved to Kansas at the age of eight. She now lives in Shawnee, Kansas, and is a senior studying at Emporia State University as an English major with a minor in Creative Writing. Kennedy loves reading, writing, and biking in her free time, as well as playing her clarinet and guitar when she is home. She is big on hanging out with family whenever she gets the chance to see them, as well as her wonderful puppies, Oreo and Autumn. Kennedy hopes to work in publishing as an editor once she graduates.