Welcome to Books and Burrow, our Newest Bookstore Partner

 

Books & Burrow in Pittsburg, Kansas
carries copies of 105 Meadowlark Reader

We are excited to add Books & Burrow to the list of awesome independent bookstores in Kansas that partner with 105 Meadowlark Reader. We encourage you to shop local and support our indies! Buy your next book, including copies of 105 Meadowlark Reader, from a local bookstore.

Bookstores, learn more about becoming a Bookstore Partner here. 

Meet the Authors of our Bicycle Stories, Issue #3

Dear Reader,

In Issue #3 of 105 Meadowlark Reader, we are sharing true, bicycle-themed stories. We have 31 of them, in fact, representing 37 Kansas counties by story setting and/or author location. As well, this issue features a 105 Meadowlark Reader interview with Kristi Mohn, Lifetime Marketing Director, Unbound Gravel Instigator and Organizer, and Woman on a Bike! 

Thank you to the following individuals for sharing true bicycle stories with us for this issue. We look forward to sharing these stories with YOU!

Lisa Allen

Jim Andera

Boyd Bauman

Julie Ann Baker Brin

Annabelle Corrick

Phyllis A. Ericson

Angel Edenburn

Monica (Osgood) Graves

Beth Gulley

Carolyn Hall

Alexander Hurla

Jerilynn Jones Henrikson

Debra Irsik

Sally Jadlow

 Julie Johnson

Amy Deckert Kliewer

Sandee Lee

Mike Marks

Kerry Moyer

Brandy Nance

Peg Nichols

Jim Potter

Edgy Sack

Cynthia C. Schaker

Harland Schuster

Anne Spry

Leon Unruh

Barbara Waterman-Peters

Brenda White

Mary Kate Wilcox

Sheree Wingo

 

March 1 Advertising and Bookstore Partner Deadline

 The deadline for getting your advertisement in for the next issue of 105 Meadowlark Reader, the bicycle-themed issue, is March 1. The issue will be shipped in early May.

Advertisers will get one complimentary copy of the issue.

Who should advertise in 105?

Editors, Book Designers, Writing Coaches, Book Printers

Authors (especially those working in Nonfiction)

Artists who are interested in working with authors and book creators

Literary Organizations & Services

Kansas Bookstores, See our Bookstore Partner program.

Advertise in 105

$25.00 - $160.00

Buy now

Celebrate Kansas Day with a Subscription to 105 Meadowlark Reader

$5 off a subscription 

(offer ends Monday, January 31, 2022)

Subscribe to 105: Meadowlark Reader

$29.00 - $58.00 Regular Subscription Price

$5.00 off through Monday, January 31

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Pushcart Prize Nominations

Dear 105 Readers and Writers, 

We are proud to announce the following nominations for the Pushcart Prize. We have had so many excellent submissions to the first two issues of 105 Meadowlark Reader, and we are so proud of each and every one of you. Congratulations to the following authors.

Off to See Horses or Disasters at the Rodeo, by Roger Heineken (Issue 2)

The Current, by Jeanette Powers (Issue 1)

Dr. Pumpkin Cutter, by Harland Schuster (Issue 1)

Eastbound, by Karen Stoff (Issue 2)

Balanced in Waiting, by Janet Sunderland (Issue 1)

Winter Guests, by Barbara Waterman-Peters (Issue 1)

 

 More about the Pushcart Prize and Publication can be found here.

Much love and good reading!

Tracy & Cheryl

Next Submission Period Opens November 1, 2021

We are looking forward to reading those bicycle stories! 

Review our guidelines. We start taking entries for Issue #3 on November 1.

 

Where is Issue #2 of 105 Meadowlark Reader going to take you?

 

Dear Reader,

Issue #2 of 105 Meadowlark Reader is centered around Kansas travel stories that cover 45 counties. Whew! That's an awful lot of time on the road. But we love road trips, and we think you are going to love these stories as much as we do. 

Without further ado, let me introduce you to our authors. This issue features 38! How many faces do you recognize here?

Because they are writers, you may recognize their words before you know their faces. We'll help you out.

Thank you to the following individuals for sharing their true Kansas travel stories with us. We look forward to sharing their stories with YOU!

Ann Anderson

Lindsey Bartlett

Curtis Becker

Sheryl Brenn

Rex Buchanan

Annabelle Corrick

AJ Dome

Gretchen Cassel Eick

Mark Esping

Marie Baum Fletcher

Tammy Gilley

Anne Graue

Michael D. Graves

Monica (Osgood) Graves

Carolyn Hall

Roger Heineken

Jerilynn Jones Henrikson

Delphine Holston

Sally Jadlow

Nancy Julien Kopp

Sandee Lee

 LaVern Spencer McCarthy

Angela Muller

James Odrowski

Jim Potter

Robert Rebein

Donald Reichardt

Julie A. Sellers

Mark Scheel

Harland Schuster

Tracy Million Simmons

Betty Stevens

Karen Stoff

Olive L. Sullivan

Victoria Vaughn

Barbara Waterman-Peters

Brenda White

Anne Williams

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Everybody has a bicycle story, right?

 

August is blasting Kansas with everything it's got. 100-degree days and all the humidity you've come to associate with back-to-school month. 

While Tracy Million Simmons and I are putting together issue two (!) of 105 Meadowlark Reader, the road trip issue, we encourage you to be thinking about writing your true Kansas stories for our third issue: bicycle stories. 

Hey, even if you've never owned a bike, surely you have a bike story in your past somewhere. Maybe you wanted a bike but never got one. Maybe a cousin had a hot stingray and crashed it, breaking a leg, and you spent the summer keeping her entertained. 

And if you have owned a bike, ridden a bike, you certainly have bike stories to tell. 

The thing is, you don't have to have had some huge, dramatic event surrounding a bike. Memoir and personal essays can capture one tiny moment and what that moment meant to you, how it affected you, offered insights into life. 

Perhaps you were 8 years-old and you'd just saved up enough money to buy a speedometer for your bike, and with that speedometer you began to grasp the concept of distance and miles and you watched your odometer sync with the mile roads you passed. 

Maybe you clothes-pinned playing cards to your bicycle frame so the cards slapped your spokes as you rode down the sidewalk in your neighborhood. That was cool. Until your dad yelled at you about using his favorite deck of cards. 

Maybe you've recently purchased a mountain bike and you've just taken it on an adventure vacation. 

Maybe you had a lemonade stand as a kid and the main reason you set up that lemonade stand was to draw in the cute redheaded girl on her bright orange bike. 

Maybe you've done the BAK - Biking Across Kansas. What were the good, the bad and the ugly things about the trek? What did you learn about Kansas? What did you learn about yourself? 

Maybe you've participated in a Kansas gravel race. How did that go? Who did you meet? What did you see and experience along the way?

Maybe when you were 7, you had a banana seat (silver and sparkly) and your best friend, who didn't have a bike, rode on the back of the seat when you went to the park to play. 

Maybe that scar on your knee is a bicycle-wreck scar. 

Maybe you see, for the first time in 20 years, the exact same shade of teal that was the color of your favorite bike, and seeing that color again brings back a rush of memories. 

True stories are not just about things or events or people - they can also be about how those things, events and people have changed us, how we've grown in our lives because of our experiences. 

Our reading period for true Kansas bike stories is coming up. November 1 - December 31, 2021. Write your stories now and submit them during that time-frame. 

Take a chance! Write a story that means something to you, that will mean something to a reader. Put your heart into your story. When it comes down to choosing stories for the issues, Tracy and I love the ones with heart. 

We look forward to reading your stories! Go. Write. 

Cheryl Unruh

Editor, 105 Meadowlark Reader

Issue #1 of 105 Meadowlark Reader -- Beginnings!

 It's here! It's here! Beautifully printed by POD Print in Wichita, Kansas, the first copies of 105 Meadowlark Reader have been delivered to subscribers and/or are on the way to mailboxes across Kansas and beyond. You can pick up your copy from the Meadowlark online bookstore or by shopping with one of the following independent Kansas bookstores.

Update: 7/01/2021

105 Meadowlark Reader is available at the following Kansas Book Shops:

• Bookends, Hutchinson
• Books & Burrow, Pittsburg
• Claflin Books, Manhattan
• Crow & Co. Books, Hutchinson
• Eighth Day Books, Wichita
• Flint Hills Books, Council Grove
• The Raven Book Store, Lawrence
• Trox Gallery & Gifts, Emporia
• Watermark Books, Wichita

If your favorite independent bookshop does not yet have a copy, give us a shout and we will make sure to connect with them.

Listen to the interview on KPR Presents.

The cover photo of Issue #1 is by Dave Leiker.
An extra special thank you to our cover subject, Piper Hayes.

Subscribe to 105: Meadowlark Reader

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Subscriptions to 105 Meadowlark Reader 

• Save by subscribing (2 issues) for $29+$4 shipping & applicable taxes 
• Issues ship in the spring and fall (May & November)

Purchase Individual Issues

105 Meadowlark Reader: Issue #1 "Beginnings"

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Join Cheryl & Tracy (via Zoom) on Friday, April 30

 

ESU Special Collections and Archives presents:

105 Meadowlark Reader

with Cheryl Unruh and Tracy Million Simmons

Emporia authors Cheryl Unruh and Tracy Million Simmons have created a new literary publication for Kansas. Join us as Cheryl and Tracy discuss the inspiration behind 105 Meadowlark Reader: A Kansas Journal of Creative Nonfiction, the process of collecting submissions, writer response to the new project, and read excerpts from the essays that will be featured in Issue #1, with the theme of "Beginnings."

April 30, 7:00pm

emporia.edu/live

Where is Issue #1 of 105 Meadowlark Reader going to take you?

 

Dear Reader,

We have 35 authors in the "Beginnings" issue, aka Issue #1, of 105 Meadowlark Reader. Those authors and their stories represent 25 Kansas counties. That's almost 24% of the state! We're off to a good start.

We know that you are as eager to get your eyes on this issue as we are to get it in the mail to you. Many thanks to our authors, our charter subscribers, and those who have supported our directory and advertising efforts. You have helped to make this project a reality.

If you haven't found us until now, no worries! There is always time to subscribe and to be working on your contribution to 105: Meadowlark Reader. In May, we look forward to reading essays for Issue #2: Kansas Travel Stories. 

Thank you coming along for the ride!

Tracy

 

What's in it for You, Dear Reader?

 

Our upcoming 105 journal is a fantastic way to highlight Kansas writers and to publish their work.

However, this journal of true Kansas stories is primarily for readers. Readers like you. And like me.

Today I’m thinking about what a reader might glean from the stories and

essays in our first issue and in subsequent issues.

You might take away…

*A sense of place. Because these true stories are set in Kansas, you’ll

recognize familiar settings. As you dig into a memoir piece, your own

memories will awaken, perhaps you’ll remember the taste of dust in the

wind, the fishy smell of a farm pond, the crunch of car tires driving

slowly over a sand-covered dirt street.

*You’ll come across storytelling that puts you in the scene with the

writer - hearing a baseball (or tennis ball) smack a glove, or the almost

silent whoosh of a kayak paddle in a Kansas river. When a writer tells

about building a disaster boat with his father and brother, you might

laugh along, but also may remember your own successful or

unsuccessful childhood projects. 

*Some of the essays show connection with our personal and public

histories. Through these pieces we begin to see the threads that underlie

various aspects of our lives, the unseen ties that connect us all. 

Our first issue will have 35 stories by 35 writers. Thirty-five pieces that

will make you feel at home. 

Jump into this river of stories with us! Our introductory subscription rate is available only through March 12th. A year's subscription is your best deal. Click here to subscribe to 105: Meadowlark Reader today!

Cheryl

Be a Charter Subscriber! Subscribe by March 12 for Reduced Subscription Rate

Update: Charter Subscriber Rate extended to March 12!

Brrrr! It's cold outside, and we are hard at work generating our own special brand of sunshine to share with our fellow Kansans in the pages of 105: Meadowlark Reader. We have more than 30 authors representing a wide range of Kansas faces and places set for our inaugural issue of 105: Meadowlark Reader. We can't wait to share. Take a moment to subscribe at our special, introductory rate. 

Many Thanks,           

Tracy & Cheryl         

Subscribe to 105 today!

Pre-publication Special Subscription Offer 

• 1st issue for $13 + $4 shipping & applicable taxes (shipped April/May 2021)

• 1st year (2 issues) for $25+$4 shipping & applicable taxes (Issue #1 shipped April/May 2021; Issue #2 shipped October/November 2021)