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/

Meadowlark Press Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

 

You're invited to join Kansas-based Meadowlark Press for our 10th anniversary celebration event! Meadowlark Press was established in Emporia in 2014 and publishes novels, memoirs, children's books, poetry, and more. Meadowlark has published over 70 titles, many of which have won awards! Meadowlark focuses on Kansas and midwestern authors, though its poetry spans coast to coast. The event will give guests a chance to learn more about Meadowlark, meet the publisher and authors, play games and win raffle prizes, enjoy refreshments, and take advantage of our book sale. The special event will take place from 2-4 p.m., December 15th, at the Emporia Public Library. Please be a part of making this 10th anniversary celebration something extra special!

James Kenyon Receives Certificate of Excellence from the Cat Writers Association

 James Kenyon received a Certificate of Excellens from the Cat Writers' Association for his nonfiction book, A Cat Named Fatima: Tales of 23 Cats & The People Who Loved Them. The winners of each category in the annual CWA Communications Contest will be announced on October 21. 

Congatulations, James!

James Kenyon

 

Our books don't jingle, but you can hear some of them!

 

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2022 Year in Review and Audio Book Specials from Meadowlark Press. May the season be merry and full of good reading material!

View this email in your browser Meadowlark Audio Books! Check out our growing collection of audio books. Yes! We do have audio books. And we have plans for more audio books! Now through the end of the year, buy our audio books from our very own Author Direct audio book store, and SAVE! All our audio books are specially priced, just for you, today through the end of 2022! Meadowlark Audio Books Thank you for Reading a Meadowlark Book—We couldn’t do this without you! In 2019, I started asking what I could do to make Meadowlark Press more than a passion project. Could I grow our little press into a truly profitable enterprise? What changes could I make to better support our authors and our readers? How could we reach more readers with the wonderful books we were producing? I’m not ready to claim we are there yet, but we have made definite progress in three short years, and the answers have been many and varied. Fostering relationships directly with our readers has been one of the biggest changes that is making a difference. Yes, our books remain available through the standard book-buying channels. But direct sales from our own website now rival the orders we get via Ingram and Amazon, and not sharing “the profit” with so many levels of distributors has been good for our bottom line. We are thankful for the readers who are willing to bypass the convenience of free shipping and perhaps single-stop book shopping in exchange for taking the time to visit us personally as we take our books on the road or visit our online bookstore where our authors make the most $$ for their hard work. I also want to take a moment to thank the independent bookstores and gift shops, especially in Kansas, but also beyond, who are willing to take the extra time we know it requires to order books directly from us. We book lovers are all in this together, and as the rising costs of returns via traditional print-on-demand channels make playing the “traditional game” of bookselling almost impossible for a press the size of Meadowlark, we are happy to report that our books are available in more indie bookstores than ever before, and we will continue to focus on increasing reader-demand for our favorite titles (who am I kidding, all of our titles are favorites!) so that our supporting bookstores are even more motivated to carry Meadowlark books. 2022 has been another year full of growth and learning. We are so proud of the titles we have shared with the world, and we are excited for the future of Meadowlark Press. Thank you for joining us on this journey, and before I sign off, I have a favor to ask of you. Please take a moment to share your love of a Meadowlark book. Leave a review for a Meadowlark book, share our website with your reading friends and family, encourage your social media followers to follow us on Facebook. Any assistance you can give us is appreciated. Our authors need your support; our little press thrives thanks to friends like you. Much love and good reading, Tracy Million Simmons Meadowlark Press Top Sellers in 2022 PROSE And I Cried, Too (2017), Mike Hartnett Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town (2021), Cheryl Unruh* Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet (2021), Mandy Kern A Cat Named Fatima: Tales of 23 Cats and the People Who Love Them (2022), James Kenyon Ann of Sunflower Lane (2022), Julie A. Sellers The Big Quiet (2021), Lisa D. Stewart POETRY Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town (2021), Cheryl Unruh* Blue Collar Saint (2021), Brenda Leigh White Cutting Teeth (2022), Ivan Hobson Cupping Our Palms (2022), Jonathan Greenhause Whistling to Trick the Wind (2021), Bart Edelman Kansas Poems (2021), Brian Daldorph Shop Meadowlark Top Sellers, All Time PROSE And I Cried, Too (2017), Mike Hartnett Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet (2021), Mandy Kern A Cow for College and Other Stories of 1950s Farm Life (2017), James Kenyon To Leave a Shadow, Book 1 of the Pete Stone Series (2015), Michael D. Graves Golden Rule Days: History and Recollections of 109 Closed Kansas High Schools (2019), James Kenyon All Hallows’ Shadows, Book 3 of the Pete Stone Series (2020), by Michael D. Graves POETRY MoonStain (2015), Ronda Miller Songs for My Father (2016), Kevin Rabas Whistling to Trick the Wind (2021), Bart Edelman Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town (2021), Cheryl Unruh* Blue Collar Saint (2021), by Brenda Leigh White How Time Moves: New and Selected Poems (2020), by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Shop Meadowlark *Why is Gravedigger’s Daughter listed under prose and poetry? When you open the pages of Gravedigger’s Daughter, you might see poetry on the page. These stories—vignettes as we call them—are certainly poem shaped. They read like little stories, however, and the stories fall into order, pulling the reader from beginning to end. We place Gravedigger’s Daughter in both the prose and poetry categories because we feel it qualifies, and others agree. In fact, in 2022, this book won both the Martin Kansas History Book Award and the Nelson Poetry Book Award by the Kansas Authors Club. Learn More Cheryl Unruh’s Gravedigger’s Daughter stands as a testament to how great writing uses particulars to capture the universal. While few readers may have helped to prepare graves as a child or know what the summer sky looks like from their depths, Unruh’s beautifully crafted reflections unearth the relatable joys and confusions of youth, love, and loss. While each poem preserves a carefully honed memory, the collection as a whole carries the reader through a lifetime with touching humor and heartbreaking grace. It is an intimate look into a specific family, but it stirs familiar emotions that have the magic to conjure readers’ own pasts. Dr. Julia Galm 2022 Nelson Poetry Book Judge We are looking for true Kansas stories, essays, articles about animals, written by Kansans or former Kansans. New: Ad Astra Awards for writing excellence, two $50 cash prizes. Make your stories shine! Guidelines for Submissions A subscription to 105 Meadowlark Reader makes a great gift! Subscribe Today Copyright (C) 2022 Meadowlark. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe

Marble Collectors Spotlighted in New Book of Marble Essays

Marble Shorts, by Cathy Callen

Emporia, KS – Meadowlark Press and Cathy Callen announce the publication of Marble Shorts, Callen’s essay collection of glimpses into the lives of those who adore marbles. Beginning with the author’s own journey toward an 18,734-marble collection and an examination of the mysterious case of her missing marbles, this book is filled with positivity and fun marble images.

 Callen writes, “What spectators view as art in homes, businesses, and museums is the culmination of a creative process that starts with an idea. The work that goes into transforming a creative idea into something that can be displayed is not always obvious. If you are a patron of the arts, I would think your interest would lie primarily in the finished product—what you can see, what you can admire, what you might purchase, what you would then display. If you are an artist, the journey toward that destination belongs to you.”

 Marble Shorts contains eight essays, filled with sparkles of color that rival the marble images that adorn these pages. This book is a gift to the collector, the curious soul, the seeker of color in this bleary-eyed world, and the rest. Meet the Marble Lady of Kansas City. Meet the Girl Scout who uses marbles to earn her “think like an engineer” badge. Meet Bruce of the Moon Marble Company. You just never know what might happen if you plant a marble. It may grow!

 Romalyn Tilghman, author of To the Stars Through Difficulty, a 2018 Kansas Notable Book says, “Marble Shorts is a collection of gems. Profiles, pictures, and personal observations about passion, all inspired by those perfectly round glass objects that generate smiles throughout the world. Cathy Callen introduces us to connoisseurs, history, manufacturing, and, most importantly, the sheer enchantment of those magical pieces. In this case, one can judge a book by its cover; the photo of a blue marble between the toes of a baby's foot promises the delightful read to be delivered. “

 Marble Shorts is available at meadowlarkbookstore.com.

Wednesday Excerpt: A Fourth Bookiversary - WaterSigns

Bake yourself a mug cake, kick your feet up, and snuggle up with WaterSigns by Ronda Miller--mmm. That's what we're talkin' about. 

Meadowlark friends, tonight we celebrate the FOURTH bookiversary of this beautiful, articulate collection. Don't they grow up so fast? Congratulations, Ronda!

If you don't have this book handy, that's okay--you're still invited to the party! Click HERE to view 34 pages of WaterSign in an eBook style. Grab yourself a party favor and head over to the Meadowlark Bookstore to order a copy for yourself or a friend (your friends love your gifts).

Cheers, everyone!

Meadowlark Reader - How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg's newest book, How Time Moves, will be released into the world two weeks from today! The author has already received her copies and has been busy signing and preparing them for your hungry reader eyes. 

This week, Meadowlark shares with you the first poem of every section of the book. Much like the arrangement of songs on a CD, each poem's placement has a purpose. Do you see any patterns or other nuances of note? 

Please enjoy what we have plucked for your late-night reading pleasure. 

How Time Moves

Inscription

How does the world tell our story? 

A line of one cloud overlaps another.  

An airplane gone but for its tail.  

A first star barely inscribed on evening 

before the page turns dark. 

What does the first reddening leaf sing down its veins 

to loosen the grip of twig from branch? 

How does the cricket know to comb its wings 

into the rhythm of August ending? 

In the middle of a life, what tells us to turn quickly 

from the oncoming car or edge of a nightmare 

before dropping down to safety again?  

What speaks through us at the cusp of winter,  

the heavy hands of the next day’s humidity,  

or the last magnolia bud not ruined by last night’s frost  

knocked off the tree by a speeding squirrel? 

Look away from the words composing the mind 

into the blank sky, not quite gray, not quite blue,  

that dissolves into the wind of the world.

Excerpt from the Newest Book on the Meadowlark Shelf!

 

Now available for purchase at the Meadowlark Bookstore
and wherever you buy books!

The war began for the Hagelman family in Kansas in 1939 when Daniel made the decision to leave his family. Newborn daughter Maggie was just minutes old when he left her, his wife Ida, and their home above their grocery store in Topeka, Kansas, to travel to England to volunteer with British forces to help defeat Hitler.

Daniel’s grandparents had left Germany to eventually settle in Topeka two generations before, when anti-semitism drove them from Heidelberg, where they operated a kosher meat market in the Jewish quarter. In 1935, more Hagelman relatives came from Berlin as the Nazi threat to Jews became increasingly ominous. Long evenings of serious discussion among new arrivals, Cousins Berta and Jacob Hotzel, and Ida and Daniel, brought sharp focus to the evil that was brewing in Germany. “Adolf Hitler und hees Nazis are devils,” Cousin Berta declared. “Hees thugs come in night to bookshop next door to our market, throw stones through vindows, burn books in street. They break vindows in our market und steal meat, butcher tools, wreck everyting. Jews not safe on streets. Hitler lie about us. Ve not lif in dirt or haf sickness. Ve not steal babies to make Jewish.”

“Yes,” Jacob added, “und verse, so many Germans belief dees lies: “Jews steal our wealth, Jews sell us out in the Great War. Our German friends and neighbors turn against us.”

“Dere are stories of labor camp und Jews taken avay in middle of night, never to be see again,” Berta added. “Und verst of all, many Americans not vant us here. Tank God ve haf you to come to!”

Every Saturday at temple, at coffee or lunch in the local deli, around dinner tables, the Jewish community in Topeka spoke with growing concern about the horrors of Hitler’s antisemitism. Other strong voices spoke out about the necessity of opposing Hitler’s policies. One evening on the radio, the Hagelmans heard the editor of The Emporia Gazette, a small-town newspaper in Emporia, just fifty miles south of Topeka. That editor, William Allen White, Progressive friend of former President Teddy Roosevelt, influenced Daniel with his words. As Chairman of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, White described the Nazi threat by saying,

 

“It stands just beyond our borders waiting. What your sacrifices will be, what hardships you may meet, what anguish you may know, I cannot prophesize. I only know unless that beast is chained upon the fields of France, your lives will be maimed and mangled by its claws.”

 

White’s warning and the experiences of Daniel’s own family convinced him to act, to do what he could to help stop Hitler’s assault upon human decency. “I know Americans are struggling to do the right thing,” Daniel stated one evening at dinner. “The Isolationists want us to stay out of the fighting. That’s understandable. So many died in the Great War. Memories of thousands dying of disease and mustard gas in the trenches remain vivid. They think the broad oceans will keep us safe, but modern aeroplanes and U-boats can reach us. Meanwhile thousands are suffering. My heart breaks to leave you, Ida, and our little child, but I must go to keep my country, my people, and you—my family—from harm.”

Daniel would make his decision in March of 1939. The Japanese, allies of Hitler’s German Reich, made the decision for America on December 7, 1941, when they launched their deadly attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. By then, Daniel Hagelman was already in Lyon, France with a British commando unit helping the French Resistance.

 

Watch Setting the Waves on Fire Virtual Book Launch HERE!

Last night, new Meadowlark author Arlice Davenport celebrated the launch of his debut poetry collection, Setting the Waves on Fire! 

If you were unable to attend the virtual book launch, or if you want to experience it all over again, check out this link to watch the recording of the event!

"Read more" to check out photos from the event...

October Book Release! Setting the Waves on Fire by Arlice Davenport

Arlice Davenport's debut poetry collection
Setting the Waves on Fire

will fly into the world

7 p.m. October 14!

Register HERE to join Davenport  
for a virtual book release!

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Press Release

Virtual Launch Scheduled for Wichita Author’s Debut Book of Poetry

Emporia, KS - Setting the Waves on Fire, by Arlice W. Davenport, is the newest book of poetry released by Meadowlark Press. The book retails for $15 and is now available to order. The launch event will take place via Zoom on October 14 at 7:00pm. Attendees are invited to sign up at www.meadowlark-books.com.

Of Davenport’s poetry collection, Roy Beckemeyer, Kansas Authors Club multi-year Poet of the Year, writes, “This is poetry of intellectual breadth built on a foundation of honest emotional depth. I encourage you to take up this book and read, to follow Davenport’s best advice: “Your heart is bruised, bleeding / drops of unrequited love. / The viscera of your body / tighten like a noose. You could slide // your head into it, if you choose, / . . . Love flees / like a deer bounding in a forest. / You are too broken to give chase . . . /. . . Let poems be your new heart. // It will not bleed.”

Davenport, a lifelong Wichitan, is the retired Travel editor and Books Page editor for The Wichita Eagle. 

Setting the Waves on Fire (ISBN 978-1734247770) is available to order from the Meadowlark Books web-store at www.meadowlark-books.com, and for order through all online and traditional book outlets. 

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Nearing the End

First, give all your money to the poor.
Then gather your other possessions
and burn them, breathing a prayer
of contentment as smoke spirals
to the heavens.