Events listed in reverse chronologic order — please page down to avoid missing anything.
Above and Below: Friday, April 7, 2023, Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, in the 2:15-3:35 p.m. session in Estep Auditorium, East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma, Roy Beckemeyer will be reading from his NEW book of poetry, The Currency of His Light ($22, Turning Plow Press, 2023). Copies of the book will be available and Beckemeyer will be happy to inscribe as many copies as you wish.
Below: Tuesday, May 25, 2021, Kansas Authors Club AUTHOR TALK by Roy Beckemeyer. Register HERE. Roy will discuss his 2019 Nelson Poetry Book Award winning Stage Whispers (2018, Meadowlark Books). He will cover the theme, layout and organizing principle used to arrange the poms into chapters and the chapters into a book. He will read poems from the book as he goes.
Below: Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kansas. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg in Conversation with Roy Beckemeyer. Caryn and Roy Will present and discuss poems from their latest books.
Below: Saturday, February 22, 2020, 6:00-8:00 p.m., Eighth Day Books, 2838 E. Douglas Ave., Wichita, KS. “Let Us Attend,” featuring Debra Seely, Roy Beckemeyer, and Jack Korbel. All three writers will present their work and discuss their individual writing process and inspiration. Hosted by Eighth Day Books; presented by Jack Korbel.
About the writers:
Debra Seely is a life-long, fourth-generation Kansan. As the daughter of a United Methodist minister, she lived in several Kansas towns and cities while growing up. She is the author of two historical fiction novels for adolescents, Grasslands and its companion book, Last of the Roundup Boys. Both novels are based on her family’s stories from the early days of Kansas. Grasslands won the Society of Midland Authors Award for juvenile fiction in 2003 and was nominated for the William Allen White Award in 2004-05. Last of the Roundup Boys was nominated for the 2006-07 Nebraska Golden Sower Award. Seely taught junior high and high school English, worked at a bookstore while earning her MFA, taught English and Children’s Literature to college students, and now writes and works with children in schools. Seely is married and has three grown children.
Roy Beckemeyer of Wichita and his wife Pat have been married 58 years. He has a KU Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering and is a retired Boeing executive. Beckemeyer has read and written poetry since high school; his work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. He has written four poetry books: Mouth Brimming Over (2019, Blue Cedar Press), Stage Whispers (2018, Meadowlark Books, winner of the 2019 Nelson Poetry Book Award), Amanuensis Angel (2018, Spartan Press), and Music I Once Could Dance To (2014, Coal City Press, a 2015 Kansas Notable Book). He co-edited Kansas Time+Place: An Anthology of Heartland Poetry (2017, Little Balkans Press) with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, and serves on the editorial boards of the online literary journals Konza Journal, River City Poetry, and Heartland! Poetry of Love, Resistance, & Solidarity. He won the 2016 Kansas Voices award and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards; his prose poem, “Words for Snow,” was selected for Best Small Fictions 2019. He has edited two scientific journals and conducted and published research on the Paleozoic insect fossils of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Alabama.
Singer-songwriter Jack Korbel was born in the heart of Ohio and reared on a strict diet of pop music and B-movies from which he happily rebelled. Jack is a musician-turned-writer-turned-musician who endeavors to capture a little Literature in all his tunes. He names a broad base of influences: folklore and folk music from Ireland to Appalachia, the lives of saints and fools, and a fascination with the misfortunes of human history. Setting out regularly from his current home in Wichita, Kansas, Jack plays in pubs, cafes, private homes, and college and university campuses both West and East of the Mississippi.
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Below: Sunday, January 12th, 2020, 2:00 pm-3:00 p.m., at Watermark Books & Cafe: April Pameticky, Roy Beckemeyer, and Robert Dean, Jr. will read from their latest works.
Order or pick up Roy’s books in the store now:
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Below: Saturday, November 25, 2019, at the Wichita Public Library for Epistrophy 2019. Thanks to Bob Dean for putting the event together and to Bill Harshbarger, the Wichita Arts Council, The Wichita Jazz Festival, Watermark Books & Cafe, Eighth Day Books, the Wichita Arts Council, Kansas Authors Club District 5, and all the poets and musicians and audience for attending.
Below: Saturday October 12, 2019 at Northern Oklahoma College’s Chikaskia Literary Festival. Thanks to Don Stinson and Paul Bowers and Northern Oklahoma College for putting this event together.
Below: Thursday, August 22, 2019 at SPARK Artist Resource Exchange in Salina, KS: Poets appearing in the inaugural issue of The Konza Poetry Project Presents: Somewhere Between Kansas City and Denver (2019, Spartan Press, Jason Ryberg, Editor) read from the book. Event presented by Jason Ryberg and Lori Brack.
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Below, Saturday, May 25th, 2019 at Hutchinson Community College: I will be reading my poetry at the Kansas Authors Club District 6 May Meeting in Hutchinson, Kansas and then conducting a writing exercise. Poets and prose writers welcome. Please join us!
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Monday, May 20, 2019, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Downtown Poetry, Joplin Avenue Coffee Company, 506 S Joplin Ave. Joplin, Missouri 64801. Phone: 417-483-55. Al Ortolani and I will be featured readers at Downtown Poetry in Joplin.
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Monday, April 8, 2019, 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Emporia State University. Visiting Writer. Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas. I will visit a Creative Writing class and a Seminar in Literary Magazine and do a book reading/signing.
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Thursday, April 4, 2019 (beginning at 9:30 am) through Saturday, April 6, 2019 (!:00 pm), Scissortail Creative Writing Festival (I will be traveling on April 3rd), East Central University, Ada, OK. I will be one of more than 50 authors and poets reading at this event and will be reading from my newest poetry book, Stage Whispers. Current United States Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, is one of the keynote speakers.
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Saturday, February 2, 2019 – 11am-5:30pm, Kansas Day Author Celebration Ellen Plumb’s City Bookstore (1122 Commercial, Emporia, KS: This year, our focus is on local small publishers. You’ll find tables for each publisher featuring their entire catalog of books. All day, you’ll have the opportunity to chat with these small press authors and get your own autographed copies of their books. Market Macarons will be on site with delicious handmade macarons for sale at 1pm.
The stage/reading schedule is:
11:00-12:30 — Kellogg Press, Curtis Becker, publisher
1:00-2:00 — Slothhead Press, Katelyn Dorrell, publisher
2:15-3:00 — Kevin Rabas, Kansas Poet Laureate
3:30-5:30 — Meadowlark, Tracy Simmons, publisher
Meadowlark Authors who plan to be in attendance:
Joann Garrity Williams
Roy J. Beckemeyer
Michael D. Graves
Ronda Miller
Kevin Rabas
Tracy Million Simmons
(maybe more… check back!)
Sunday, December 2, 2018, 2:00-4:00 pm: Watermark Books & Cafe, 4701 East Douglas Wichita, Kansas 67218 (316) 682-1181. Local Literary Festival. Join me and seven other authors including fellow poets Michael Page and Diane Wahto. We will sign and inscribe books and discuss our writing. Nothing like a personalized book by a local author to please Holiday gift recipients. Please join us.
Saturday, July 28, 2018, 1:00-3:00 p.m.: Watkins Museum of History, 1047 Massachusetts St., Lawrence, KS. Numerous authors reading from KANSAS TIME+PLACE (Little Balkans Press, 2017). List of poets who will read currently includes:
Kansas Poets Laureate Denise Low-Weso, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Wyatt Townley, as well as James Benger, Huascar Medina, Sarah Worrel, Lori Baker Martin, Julie Sellers, Annette Billings, Tara Rhiannon Bartley, Pat Daneman, Ronda Miller, Dan Pohl, Roy Beckemeyer, Eve Ott, Anne Haehl, Kelly Johnston, Leah Sewell, and Carolyn Hall. Please join us and pick up a copy of this marvelous book, and have it signed by the poets.
Thursday, April 12, 2018, 8:00 p.m.: Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS (details concerning specifics of venue forthcoming). Numerous authors reading from KANSAS TIME+PLACE (Little Balkans Press, 2017). List of poets who will read currently includes Roy Beckmeyer, Cody Shrum, Lori Baker Martin, Sarah Chenoweth, Ronda Miller, Melissa Fite Johnson, Heather Mydosh, Tayler Klein-Shepard, Diane Wahto, Iris Craver, Jennifer White, Laura Lee Washburn, Roland Sodowsky, Julie Ramon, J. T. Knoll, and Kelly Johnston. Please join us and pick up a copy of this marvelous book, and have it signed by the poets.
April 5-7, 2018: I will be reading from my new chapbook, Amanuensis Angel (Spartan Press, 2018) at the 13th Annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. A three-day event with more than 50 readers, this year’s headliners are George Bilgere and Jeannette Calhoun Mish. I will read on Thursday, April 5, 2018, as the last of five readers in Session V, 3:30-4:45 p.m., Eastep Auditorium.
Saturday, March 24, 2018, 1:00-3:00 p.m.: Ellen Plumb’s City Bookstore, 1101 Commercial St., Emporia, Ks. Numerous authors reading from KANSAS TIME+PLACE (Little Balkans Press, 2017). List of poets who will read currently includes Kansas Poets Laureate Kevin Rabas, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, and Denise Low-Weso, as well as Roy Beckemeyer, Eve Ott, Iris Craver, Sarah Worrel, Ronda Miller, Tyler Robert Sheldon, Diane Wahto, Michelle Pond, Ronda Miller, Chris McKinney, and Kelly W. Johnston. Please join us and pick up a copy of this marvelous book, and have it signed by the poets.
Roy J. Beckemeyer 