kNew is a lyrical screenplay at the heart of open mic. Like jazz, T.L. Sanders' poetry is his affinity for sound. “Intense, gripping . . . a one-two punch . . . written in fire and delivered with thunder," writes reviewer Kelly Luck. These debut poems present Dr. James Dean, a quiet family man who goes back to Kansas City to mourn the death of a father he hardly knew. The Blue Room holds just another stage where anyone can spit some lyrics. But this night, a new vision awakes when a community grieves a prodigal father. Something new emerges in the hearts of those willing to speak their truth . . . and just who takes the stage might surprise you.

 

POET T.L. SANDERS – The Language Artist, educator, now Director of Curriculum and Instruction, has a passion for empowering people. His goal is to inspire, evolve and expand people’s minds one word at a time. As a National Writing Project teacher consultant and Paper Birch Landing Art Gallery’s 2019 Poet in Residence Recipient Sanders has created a hybrid screenplay, "kNew." kNew is a hybrid screenplay at the heart of open mic. Like jazz, @poet.tlsanders spoken word poetry is his affinity for sound. “Intense, gripping...a one-two punch ...written in fire and delivered with thunder," writes reviewer Kelly Luck. 

Sanders is an educational speaker and a spoken word artist at many state events and conferences. He has a passion for empowering people; to inspire, evolve and expand language one word at a time. Find him on YouTube under Bethephenom and on Twitter @PoetTLSanders or www.poetTLSanders.com

POEMS IN GLASS- uniquely original book is part memoir and part revelation. Through the panes, poems, and practice of glass artist, Hasna Sal's you'll find the heart of a poet. "From the pulse of a small city park at dusk, one artist is forever changed." Hasna's insistence that the "artist's role is to bring awareness" sounds simple until you walk the bed of shards, Hasna crosses with the people in her community. From a local doctor and his family in crisis to the invisible victims of trafficking. Hasna explores both outer and inner sanctum and our personal deepest needs for spirit and light. Illustrated with her brilliantly cast unpained glass art, Hasna's story, her art, and her lyrical verse hark back to the form of Sufi poets, and the warmth of bygone days where color brings visceral emotion and therapeutic nostalgia to the mind and body. Color is the elixir of life. And she lets it serenade in her narratives of strokes and verses.

 

HASNA SAL relocated to Kansas in 2020 where she worked as an architect and taught design studio at the University of Kansas. She apprenticed under artists in England and Wales and her five-year NAAB-accredited professional degree program in architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. An artist and architect she calls herself a raconteur–bringing to light stories that are overlooked or forgotten or uncomfortable through her glass sculpture and installations. She credits her graduate work in landscape architecture from Harvard with the foundation of her current work in glass sculpture. Combined with her background: a degree in architecture from, and her diploma from the London School of Journalism, she synthesizes personal narratives communities through creative placemaking and social reform. 

This dark short fiction collection takes readers deep into dystopian futures, water worlds, and alien planets. Each story in 'Tales from the Deep' reveals evocative awakenings and acts of courage; each character a hybrid you wouldn't expect. You'll visit a doctor in the high mountains of Persia, dive into the microbiology of alien moons, then foray into the dark recesses of the lives of warriors deep underground. Meet fantastical deep space travelers, cyborg creatures, and adventurers of all kinds.

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ALEX EICKHOFF (eye cough) is a vibrant artist and illustrator located in the Kansas City Area whose painterly artwork pushes the boundaries of imagination.  His charming characters feature realistic lighting, form, and texture mixed with exaggerated personality, ironic compilation, and satirical wordplay.  Through his surreal art, Alex explores concepts of consciousness in the natural world while providing opportunity to giggle.  He believes the anecdote to fear and suffering is humor.   Alex sketches with paint, building rough, silhouetted shapes with dark tones, and adding lighter tones to dimensionality and detail. His painting process mimics his strategy of focusing on ironic positivity through life’s struggles, as he pulls form out of darkness and sculpts with light. For this book, the artist embraces the mysterious, macabre mood of the stories within. Each illustration exemplifying the title, bringing mysterious characters to life - as light emerges from the darkness… from the deep.

Eleven sensual and modern-day short stories about love, loss, sex, devotion, and desire.  Set in the small lake towns and suburbs of the country’s Midwestern heartland, the tales thread from one heart to another with extraordinary effectiveness and power.  Lovers, partners, family members, and friends—they push courageously toward love and often win.  Intimate and impeccably crafted, they invite us into the passionate world of one of the most important new voices on the American literary scene. 

 

JOANNEH NAGLER is the author of Stay with  Me, Wisconsin, published under Flying Ketchup's short fiction imprint, Coyote Point Press.  She has also authored three nonfiction books including Naked Marriage (Skyhorse Publishing); How to Be an Artist Without Losing Your Mind, Your Shirt, or Your Creative Compass (W.W. Norton); and The Debt-Free Spending Plan (Harper-Collins), two of which were Amazon Top-100 titles.  Her books have been featured in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, LiveStrong Magazine, and many more media outlets.  Recently awarded the National League of PEN Women Achiever Award (2020), she wrote and directed the play Ruby and George in Love (Sonoma Arts Live Theatre Company) and composed two singer-songwriter albums, I Burn and Enraptured, available in all outlets.  She has just completed her first novel, Key West.  Find more at www.AnArtistryLife.com.

Meet Melody Shore, a sassy calamity-prone millennial, cemetery assistant trying her best to send the dearly departed off to a “peaceful rest” in the small town of Pleasantview. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tries she can’t seem to keep herself out of the crosshairs of murder. Come along as she buries her past, digs for clues, and unearths small-town secrets.

 

Carole Lynn Jones is the author of The Melody Shore Mysteries and several children’s books. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. "Writing is like solving a crime," she says. "You crack open the case, expose the motives, and then create a story that whistles in the dark." When she isn’t writing cozy mysteries, Carole spends her days and sometimes nights formatting legal documents for a large law firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Married to her high school sweetheart, she enjoys spending time with her family, biking the many bike trails of Western Pennsylvania, and telling her cat Elvis to get off the keyboard. Find her online at www.carolelynnjones.com @CaroleJonesy  Photo credit: Francine Smith, TimeSmart Images

Over and above, an ABC book, "What's That Sound?" teaches the letters in the order of the most common sounds with the same strategic visual concepts used by literacy specialists in the field. Using artfully hand-cut illustrations, author-illustrator LeAnne Bauman Litka playfully engages young readers inviting fingers to track from top to bottom and left to right. Uniquely helpful to differing learning styles, this book includes smart visual cues to help readers discover beginning, middle, and end sounds.  Alone or with guidance, children will enjoy interacting in a fun and engaging new experience as they are rewarded by the increased self-confidence from a foundational understanding of their new letter friends.

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LEANNE BAUMAN LITKA, Kansas illustrator and author with a passion for literacy and art. She creates cut-paper illustrations from handmade monoprints with creative color patterns. Maker of llama t-shirts, fairy doors, and other creative endeavors, her favorite thing is her morning studio time. LeAnne studied art and design at Kansas State University before beginning her own studio practice. She uses her art and writing both for personal enjoyment, and to create whimsical, one of a kind, resources for students, parents, and teachers.

A mother of four grown kids, she lives in the Kansas City area with her family and her Siberian husky. Look out for more books and ideas in her series of fun and inspiring resources.Find out more at LeAnneLitka.com

Meet Chuck, a creative but messy boy, stuck inside on a rainy day. In his room, Chuck imagines that his art becomes a train to The Colorful Places. With his friends Lion, Hippo, and Giraffe, he finds that colors are something more than he thought possible, and that imagination can take him anywhere he wants to go. More than a concept book, this is an inspirational adventure for young children exploring the concept of color, created by classroom art teacher Danielle D. Williams

 

DANIELLE D. WILLIAMS earned a BFA in Animation from Massachusetts College of Art & Design and went on to teach art at private schools, church events, early education centers, and workshops. She has taught as a continuing education and professional studies instructor for the Kansas City Art Institute. In 2016, Danielle completed her Master’s in Teaching and Learning. We are so honored to have Danielle as one of our newest authors, writing books for the very young with an emphasis on visual and kinetic learning.

Sweetened Condensed is two parts sugar, three parts milk: the life of a writer and mother of six encapsulated into raw moments of lyrical free verse with the author's black and white photography. Rebecca Grabill's first collection of poetry brings her readers home to rural Michigan and into the world of a woman on the path less traveled-- wife, daughter, teacher, author, and mother of six. She writes, "I love words, the music they make, their personalities and scents and textures. Words are like Sendak’s Wild Things, each clamoring for their own Rumpus. I love creating stories by taming a few of those wild and wily words, and I love inspiring others to explore their own creativity."

 

REBECCA GRABILL is an award-winning author of the picture books, Halloween Good Night (Atheneum, Simon & Schuster), Violet and the Woof (Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins), A Year With Mama Earth (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers 2019). Her other publications include poetry and essays in a broad range of literary journals. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and is a Sustainable Arts Foundation awardee and is represented by Victoria Wells Arms of Wells Arms Literary and Karen Neumair of Credo Communications. She lives in rural Michigan with her husband, six children, and two cats. Follow her at https://www.rebeccagrabill.com or on Facebook.

“A long and winding road” the Beatles sang, but this "Road Map" is a poetic journey through an American Artist's life well-lived. With a keen eye for wisdom, wit, and historically hilarious self-portraits illustrating his travels, you'll want to grab a walking stick and join Kēvin for a globe-trekking adventure from African Safari to the old family farm. You'll have a good time.

 

KEVIN CALLAHAN has a BFA from Drake University, post-grad work at San Francisco Art Institute, Larry Abramson, The Ox-Bow School, Art Institute Chicago, and Phil Hanson/Michelle Grabner. His award-winning artwork hangs in collections throughout the United States, and in Canada, Europe, and Israel. After a career in graphic design, he has published a novel and two short story collections, plus numerous poems often in conjunction with his art. His distinctive modern portraits and figures are shown worldwide including a line of handcrafted wood items at Prairie Primitive.com. He maintains a studio and gallery, the Elegant Line, in Parkville, MO.

Night Forest: Folk Poems and Stories is the 2021 anthology from Flying Ketchup Press's imprint Salt & Fig Books. Illustrated by Parisian artist, Elka Trittel and featuring poets Katharyn Howd Machan and Gary Baumier, this collection of fractured tales lyrical verse fights for forgotten truths and reaches into colorful tales with new bite that will make you want to take up the dark path and find the heart of heroes.

 

ELKE TRITTEL ART

Her mixed media originals from her studio in Paris, France provide her fans with a colorful journey into the wonderful inner world of the interior imagination. Her dreamscapes and characters evolved from her fifteen years of traveling around the world. Primarily selling her originals from Instagram and to collectors, she works in acrylic painting to collages to mixed media works with a zest of humor to enjoy...

Tomie Q. Barbeque written by Polly Alice McCann is part love story part myth of the origins of Barbeque in the old Mid West. Tomie delivers ketchup from every trading post from Blue Bill to Crazy Cow until he meets Anna Suzanna. Cowboys, preachers, trolls, medicine women, and all the people of the old Mid West come together and find that community is always the answer to finding a new recipe, one that inspired the taste we have today.

 

MARY ANNE  HENDRIX is a watercolorist from Dodge City, Kansas.  She studied fashion design at Kansas State University.  Throughout her art career, she has worked in many different mediums. She teaches elementary art and loves to travel to the SouthWest for its warm vistas. She lives on her family farm with a variety of horses, cows, and calico cats. And when they hold still she paints them in her favorite color--cadmium yellow. Find out more about her creative work at   http://www.hendrixstudiosnow.com

HALEY PATTERSON'S main ambition is to create art that is interesting, funny, and memorable. She received my BA in Animation and Illustration from SUNY Fredonia 2018 and worked as a staff illustrator for the university newspaper. Her work has been featured in galleries in Suffolk County and Long Island, NY as well as the MoCCA Arts Festival in New York City, hosted by the Society of Illustrators. She describes her style as being graphic and colorful with occasional forays into simple black and white. Where does she get her inspiration? "I'm heavily informed by modern and vintage pop-culture and media I draw inspiration from everything, from iconic aspects of popular culture to personal experiences." Her favorite quote from the animated film Ratatouille: 'Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.' Follow her @hapdoods on instagram or https://www.doodleaddicts.com/hapatterson/faves

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The Goldilocks Zone is new voices in short story. Step into the boots, high heels, spurs, or flippers of unconventional travelers, those who disappear in the blink of an eye, who fight environmental disasters, hide secrets, believe in true love; those who are looking for a new home, and those who will never go home again. This collection features new voices in both fiction and non-fiction. Whether sci-fi, fantasy, or absolutely true, each one brings new worlds of wonder and delight. These new voices in short story find the zone for a surprising take on life. And every time, it’s just right. Illustrated by Hayley Patterson and Edited by Polly Alice McCann featuring authors: Alexandra Ames, R.L. Aseret, Amy Bernstein, Brian C. E. Buhl, M.W. Dreygon, Clementine Fraser, Rebecca May Hope, Sol Jacobs, Jerry McCann, Amanda Michelle Moon, Greg Moravec, and Ashley Reisinger.