The Wichita Alumnae Association
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KANSAS AUTHOR DINNER
2012 Kansas Author Dinner
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wichita Marriott, 9100 Corporate Hills Drive | MAP
6:00 pm | Cash bar reception
6:45 pm | Dinner followed by author presentations and book signings
Tickets: $50 per person. The RSVP deadline has passed. If you have questions about your tickets, please call Sue Adams at 316-634-1983 or email kkgwichita@gmail.com.
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About the Kansas Author Dinner | Featured Authors | Beneficiaries | Past Authors
The Kansas Author Dinner is the signature fundraiser of the Wichita Alumnae Association of Kappa Kappa Gamma. This annual event is a fun evening of dinner and program with notable Kansas authors. This event is open to the general public and money raised helps benefit local literacy programs.
Featured Authors
Thomas Fox Averill | website
From the website:
Thomas Fox Averill is Writer-in-residence and Professor of English at Washburn University of Topeka, where he teaches courses in Creative Writing and in Kansas Literature, Folklore and Film. His novels include Secrets of the Tsil Café, The Slow Air of Ewan MacPherson and most recently Rode.
In addition to editing several books, he has written numerous collections of short stories, poems and articles. Averill is the 2006 recipient of the Kansas Arts Commission Fellowship in Fiction, a frequent speaker on Kansas Culture, and a long-time commentator of Here, Kansas, for Kansas Public Radio.
He helped to found and was the first director of the Washburn Center for Kansas Studies, and his most recent Center project is a Map of Kansas Literature. Averill created the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection at Mabee Library which in addition to Averill's own materials pertint to his career as a writer, consists of novels, plays, collections of poetry and fiction, histories, biographies, memoirs, letters, scholarly articles, collected folklore, manuscripts and ephemera gathered over 40+ years of an abiding interest in all things Kansas.
With the help of others, Averill has also created the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection Support Fund through the Washburn Endowment Association to preserve, enhance, increase and publicize the Collection.
Dian Curtis Regan | website
From the website:
Dian Curtis Regan is the author of more than 50 books for young readers, including Barnyard Slam, The World According to Kaley, Monster of the Month Club, the Ghost Twins series, and the bestselling Princess Nevermore and its sequel, Cam's Quest.
Her books range from board book for toddlers to picture books, beginning readers, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, and anthology short stories.
Newest titles include: The Storm Blew Inn, with illustrations by Doug Cushman. School Library Journal called it, “a welcome addition to most collections-–especially where seasonal books are in high demand."
Also, Rocky Cave Kids: The Dragon Stone, about which Kirkus Review says, "In this early chapter book with unexpected depth, Miggy experiences an ethical dilemma when she wonders if it is right to keep the stone’s power to herself."
Clare Vanderpool | website
From the website:
If you ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I have a very strong connection to place. I live in Wichita, Kansas, about four blocks from where I grew up, in an old neighborhood called College Hill. From my house I can walk to my parents' house, my sister's house, the school I went to and where my kids go now, the pool, the sledding hill, and two bookstores!
I grew up reading many wonderful books in a lot of strange places. Books like Harold and the Purple Crayon, Anne of Green Gables, and Island of the Blue Dolphins in places like dressing rooms, the bathroom, and church. (Like you never read a book in church.)
While I do have a college degree in English and Elementary Education, my best education has come from reading, listening to family stories, looking out the car window on road trips, pretending to be pirates with my brother, and just plain imagining.
Besides writing I like to go to the pool with my kids, browse at the bookstore, have a neighbor over for tea, watch re-runs of Monk, have a lot of kids playing at our house, and go out for dinner with my husband. Life is good.
For questions regarding the Kansas Author Dinner contact the Wichita Alumnae Association.
Clark Elementary School
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Previous Kansas authors featured at the Kansas Author Dinner:
2011
Antonia Felix, SONIA SOTOMAYOR: The True American Dream
Nancy Pickard, The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Brad Sneed, Mr. President Goes to School
2010
Caryn Mirriam Goldberg, The Sky Begins at Your Feet & Landed
Jay Price, Wichita's Lebanese Heritage
Tim Raglin, The Curse of Catunkhamun
2009
Mike Everhart, National Georgraphic Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep
Max McCoy, Hellfire Canyon
Deborah Raney, Remember to Forget
2008
Candice Millard, River of Doubt
Laura Moriarty, The Rest of Her Life
Matthew Polly, American Shaolin
2007
Mary Carol Garrity, Nell Hill's Decorating Secrets
Brian Mann, Welcome to the Homeland
2006
Janice Graham, Sarah's Window
Debra Seely, The Last of the Roundup Boys
Whitney Terrell, The King of Kings County