Ava is an American Avocet, a breed of shorebird who leaves her home at the Laguna Madre and travels 1,000 miles to stay for a season at the largest wetland complex in the interior of the United States. Cheyenne Bottoms, in the middle of Kansas, is home to millions of birds who stop during their annual migrations in the spring and fall, as well as a diverse population of wildlife who make a home there year-round. As Ava meets her mate and starts a...
"Brenda White's verse resounds deeply, even in the dark places and in sentiments we Midwest working-class folk don't often like to share. One might say she gives voice to the masses, her verse capturing the light and dark of those who dare to dream, even when we suspect our dreams might end in disappointment. Only a true poet can turn life's harsh realities into line and stanza that move us to reflect, connect, and read again"--
"Growing up in the foster care system, Jase Edgar always dreamed of one day starting his own family. But his fiancée's untimely death shattered his plans. Moving to Kansas and serving as a youth minister should be a fresh start, but he can't seem to set aside his doubts about God's goodness long enough to embrace his new life. Newly-appointed church custodian, Lori Fowler is battling her own challenges. Her strained relationship with her father and...
"Meet John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil Jr., baseball player extraordinaire and eternal optimist. Follow him on his journey from childhood dreams, to playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, to becoming the first Black coach in the major leagues. He is a baseball legend who showed the world how to live, love, and play ball."--
Twin sisters discover they have special powers and must adapt to their new skills.
Ellie McFadden has intuitive gifts. She can sense what other living things are feeling. She can even talk to animals! Too bad she can't connect with her twin sister, Parker. Parker McFadden has kinetic gifts. She can cause shocks to the earth and produce heat energy that explodes from her body like fire, especially when she is angry. The sisters aren't aware of the...
"When a company's workers are literally dying on the job, when their business model relies on preying on local businesses and even their own vendors, when their CEO is literally the richest person in the world while their workers make low wages with impossible quotas... wouldn't you want to resist? Danny Caine, owner of Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas has been an outspoken critic of the seemingly unstoppable Goliath of the bookselling world:...
"In a world where sea dragons terrorize dolphins, you enter the reef at your own risk. Marine biologist Eva Paz is on the verge of revolutionizing linguistics by cracking the dolphin communication code. Then police call her away to investigate a dead fisherman. It's her mother's boyfriend, but Eva is running out of time to complete her dolphin whistle library by the deadline, putting her grant at risk. Without funding, her dolphins will soon be turned...
"In this scary, funny, and slyly political short story collection, Kate McIntyre conjures a fever dream of contemporary Kansas. Boundaries between fantasy and reality blur, and grotesque acts birth strange progeny. A mother must choose between her children and her personal safety when her husband steadily excavates a moat around their country home, his very own little border wall. A Kansas politician grapples with international notoriety after an...
"Policing Sex in the Sunflower State recounts the little-known story of Chapter 205, a state law that gave the Kansas Board of Health broad powers to quarantine individuals with venereal diseases. Though the law was officially gender-neutral and the state initially detained a few men under the ordinance, Chapter 205 was almost exclusively enforced against women by the early 1920s. State officials quarantined women alongside regular female prisoners...
"This book--the first ethnography of water conservation on the Great Plains--provides an account of High Plains aquifer decline through an exploration of the different ways in which heartland residents inhabit and understand the imminent depletion of groundwater. This literary ethnography offers a vividly sketched look into the lives and stories of this community, based on interviews with members of the community such as fellow farmers and state regulators,...
Aric Athair is dead, but the fight for the Bullet Seas is far from over. Caledonia's nemesis, Lir has seized control of the warlord's army. She and her crew flee to Cloudbreak to prepare for an all-out war. As defecting soldiers begin to show up in droves to join their fight, it seems like the tides might be turning-- until a surprise attack decimates the growing rebellion. Now Caledonia is forced to make an unlikely and unsteady alliance with a new...
Dora tells her grandson of how, in 1887 Argonia, Kansas, a group of men who thought women should not vote or hold office put a woman on the ballot as a joke. Includes a note about Susanna and a cake recipe.
"For fans of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, the thrilling true story of a would-be terrorist attack against a Kansas farming town's immigrant community, and the FBI informant who exposed it. In the spring of 2016, as immigration debates rocked the United States, three men in a militia group known as the Crusaders grew aggravated over one Kansas town's growing Somali community. They decided that complaining about their new neighbors and threatening them...
"Since 2001, poet and professor Brian Daldorph has taught a creative writing class at the Douglas County Jail in Lawrence, Kansas. During this time he has worked with thousands of inmates, helping them to find the words to express their struggles while also giving him a unique insight into the behemoth that is the American justice system. Daldorph has taught the class every Thursday now for nearly two decades, and over the years he has watched these...