Poet Laureate of Kansas Traci Brimhall's Book Launch Event for Eat Your Words Anthology

YOU'RE INVITED!
A NIGHT OF FOOD, POETRY, & A BOOK OF BOTH!

About the Book:

ENJOY THESE 20 RECIPES FROM 20 GREAT CHEFS
These recipes have come from all four corners of Kansas. All of these great chefs have offered up delicious recipes that can be small snacks, hearty meals, or treats for your sweet tooth.

SAVOR THESE 20 POEMS FROM 20 WONDERFUL WRITERS
Paired with each of the recipes is a poem that it inspired. Kansas poets reflected on the joy, grief, delight, and nostalgia of some classic (and new) dishes.

COOK UP YOUR OWN LINES WITH 9 PROMPTS
This book also contains prompts based on the poems. The prompts offer ingredients for poems and a set of instructions you can use—or cook up your own poetic recipe!

About the Event:

Please join us for food, poetry readings, prize giveaways, and more, from 6-8 p.m. on August 25th at Union Street Social! 

Poet Laureate of Kansas Traci Brimhall will host the event and talk about the project, its contributors, her role as poet laureate, and what we can do to continue celebrating Kansas poetry and food! 

Eat Your Words will be available for purchase at the event, or you can preorder your copy now to pick up at the event (or have it shipped to you, if you're unable to make it to the event)!

Tickets are $5 and cover the cost of three raffle tickets and plenty of snacks! Additional raffle tickets can also be purchased for $2 each (or for a nonperishable food donation), and raffle prizes include goodies from a variety of chefs, restaurants, and other Kansas businesses. 

Union Street Social owner and chef, Amanda Hague, is featured in the book, and she will be preparing book-inspired food for your enjoyment! The cash bar will be open, too! Union Street Social is a Midwestern-style supper club and classic cocktail bar. Attire ranges from casual to cocktail.

We encourage you to invite your friends and share the news!

Saturday Book Launch for New Collection of Poetry by Kerry Moyer

EMPORIA, KS: The public is invited to the book launch for the newest collection of poetry by Emporia poet, Kerry Moyer. Come for the poetry, the music, mingling with friends, and snacks on Saturday, July 26, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Middle Ground Books, 606 Commercial in Emporia.

 Poet Dennis Etzel Jr. says, “… Moyer continues looking for the restorative connections between land and life, the Flint Hills as one leading metaphor for mortality, loss, and grief. Through thrown baseballs and travels down gravel roads, through days of coffee and nights of beer, music and memories, Moyer also examines his dual role of son and father. He writes along that liminal space of dipping deep into what Charles Simic said was the endless reservoir of childhood and his dreams for his children, with the ‘hope the salt we share remains.’”

 Salt is Moyer’s fourth full-length poetry collection. Kerry works as a mental health professional to guide struggling youth. Kerry is a gravel cycling enthusiast who has completed 1,000 miles of 100-mile cycling race events. He holds a fifth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a first-degree black belt in Hapkido and has studied various other martial arts. He enjoys leatherwork, woodwork, tinkering, and playing guitar. He lives with his family in Emporia, Kansas.

 Meadowlark Press, established in Emporia, Kansas, in 2014, publishes prose and poetry with a focus on Midwest settings and authors. The press encourages book orders through independent bookstores. Salt is available locally at Middle Ground Books.

 Purchase Salt at the Meadowlark bookstore.

Welcome Summer Interns, Mari Palma and Natalie Wolf!

Meadowlark is excited to share this summer with two wonderful interns, Mari Palma and Natalie Wolf! Please join us in welcoming them!

Hello, my name is Mari, and I am currently a sophomore at Emporia State University.

As a student double-majoring in Marketing and Professional and Technical Writing, I have a passion for literature and the behind-the-scenes processes that go into promoting a business. For this reason, I am drawn to the marketing internship here at Meadowlark Press!

In my free time, I enjoy reading, crafting, nature walks, and hanging out with my cat, Cookie.

Hi! My name is Natalie, and I'm an MFA student in creative writing at the University of Kansas. My emphasis is on fiction writing, but I also write poetry and nonfiction. In my free time, I enjoy reading, writing, crafting, and spending time with my friends, family, and cats.

I'm interested in pursuing a career in editorial work after I graduate, and I'm excited to build my editing skills at Meadowlark this summer. I'm also thrilled to work with all of the lovely Meadowlark staff and authors!

The Heights of Love, by Meadowlark Author Boyd Bauman, Named Co-Winner of the 2025 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People

A children’s book released by Meadowlark Press in 2024, The Heights of Love, by Boyd Bauman, was named co-winner of the 2025 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People in the category Pre-K to Grade 3. The awards program is organized by the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College of Paterson, New Jersey. The judges select “the most outstanding book for young people” in each category, published in the previous year.

The Heights of Love is a poem by Boyd Bauman 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 book is 32 illustrated pages, a 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. “I'm humbled and honored and want to thank the team at Meadowlark Press and urge you to support them as they work to publish Midwest regional authors,” Bauman said about being a recipient of the award.

The book is illustrated by Onalee Nicklin, with graphite
pencils and colored pencils. Onalee Nicklin 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.

“The Poetry Center, founded in 1980 by award-winning poet, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, its executive director, has hosted thousands of poets over the years at its readings, workshops and conferences. These include Poet Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, inaugural poets and others of national and international reputation. Readings at the Center have included Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Stanley Kunitz, Ruth Stone, Marge Piercy, Billy Collins, Richard Blanco, Patricia Smith and many others. 

“The Poetry Center has been awarded several Citations of Excellence and is funded in part by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.”

Congratulations, Catherine Anderson, 2025 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner!

We are thrilled to announce the winner of the 
2025 Birdy Poetry Prize
Afloat by Catherine Anderson

Congratulations, Catherine!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Catherine Anderson has published four collections of poetry, including, Everyone I Love Immortal (Woodley Press); Woman with a Gambling Mania (Mayapple Press); The Work of Hands (Perugia Press) and In the Mother Tongue (Alice James Books). In 2022, a memoir about her dear, late brother who had nonverbal autism, My Brother Speaks in Dreams: Of Family, Beauty & Belonging, was published by Wising Up Press. She has been recognized for her poetry by the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation, the Southern Humanities Review, the I-70 Review and the Crab Orchard Review. Over the years, her poems have also appeared in the Southern Review, the Harvard Review, and the Dunes Review, among many others. She lives in Kansas City, where she has worked for over twenty years assisting new immigrants and refugees to become skilled interpreters.

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

Meadowlark would like to thank Jose Faus for serving as this year's judge.

Here, you can watch the recording of the announcement event, including readings from 2024 and 2025 winners, Alicia Rebecca Myers (Warble) and Catherine Anderson (Afloat), as well as readings from 2024 and 2025 finalists, Ruth Bardon (Witness) and Huascar Medina (Protest as Love Poem). Thank you to all who attended the event and made it a special, celebratory evening!

 

Poet Laureate of Kansas, Traci Brimhall, Serves Up a Book of Kansas Chefs and Kansas Poetry

Eat Your Words: A Kansas Poetry Cookbook

Meadowlark Press, Emporia, KS, August 2025

ISBN: 978-1-956578-73-7

EMPORIA, KANSAS: Meadowlark Press is delighted to announce an upcoming book with Poet Laureate of Kansas, Traci Brimhall, titled Eat Your Words: A Kansas Poetry Cookbook. As one of her focuses during her time as laureate, Brimhall’s aim is to connect the state’s agricultural roots to the arts. She gathered 20 chefs representing restaurants from all four corners of Kansas (and between) and paired them with 20 Kansas poets “in order to bring together rich poems that engage the senses; recipes that represent Kansas’s rich culinary offerings; and ‘ingredients’ for readers to write their own poems.”

The cookbooks will be available to purchase online and at select bookstores. The first run of 800 copies will be an entirely Kansas product—compiled, edited, designed, and printed in Kansas with 10% of the profit from sales going to the Kansas Food Bank. Brimhall looks forward to celebrating the book with chefs and poets at the Kansas State Fair, September 5-14.

Eat Your Words is available for preorder through www.meadowlarkbookstore.com with an expected ship date of August 2025.

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Traci Brimhall serves as the current Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2023-2026. She began Poetry Harvest: Poems for the State Fair, in 2024. Her most recent collection of poetry is Love Prodigal (Copper Canyon Press, 2025). She is the author of four other collections of poetry. https://tracibrimhallpoet.com/

Meadowlark Press was established in Emporia, Kansas, in 2014 and publishes novels, memoirs, and children’s books with a Midwest regional focus. Meadowlark also supports a poetry press celebrating poets from coast to coast. https://www.meadowlarkbookstore.com/

You're Invited! 2025 Birdy Poetry Prize Announcement Event