Last summer I was interviewed by Ron Wilson of the Huck Boyd Institute for Rural Development at K-State. He wrote about me and my book as one of his weekly Kansas Profiles. Here’s the text.
And here’s the radio version. (You’ll need to scroll down to 7/15/11.)
I wasn’t that good at track meets in junior high, but I finally won my first medal, ever. And I’m pleased that it was for writing. For Kansas writing.
Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State was one of 15 books selected as a 2011 Kansas Notable Book. Yesterday, Sept. 24, I received the medallion from Kansas First Lady Mary Brownback in a ceremony at the Kansas Book Festival in Topeka.
Notable authors along with Roy Bird, director of the Kansas Center for the Book, State Librarian Joann Budler, and Kansas First Lady Mary Brownback.
As part of the Kansas Book Festival, I spoke on a poetry panel about the role landscape plays in my writing. Also on the panel: Denise Low, Lana Wirt Myers and Eric McHenry.
On Wednesday, the State Library of Kansas and the Kansas Center for the Book released the 2011 Kansas Notable Book List.
I feel very honored to be on the list and to be in the company of these other great Kansas authors.
This morning in the House of Representatives Chamber in the Kansas Capitol, Gary Blitsch of SouthWind Art Gallery introduced Don Lambert and me.
Don Lambert portrayed John Steuart Curry and so he was dressed in his painter’s overalls. I was dressed in my author clothes. Actually, I would not, could not write in these fancy clothes. (Fancy for me is anything that is not a t-shirt and jeans.)
Dave took these incredible photos.
Don Lambert was fabulous as John Steuart Curry. Curry has a fascinating story and I learned a lot from Don’s performance. Curry’s father went to KU with William Allen White and White was one who helped Curry get the mural job in the Statehouse in the late ’30s. There was a lot of criticism from the legislature and others over his paintings – and so he never did finish the set of murals – or even sign them.
“Tragic Prelude” by John Steuart Curry on the second floor of the Kansas Capitol.
Don Lambert, as Curry, told about receiving negative comments about the horse he had painted. A legislator brought in the book, “My Friend Flicka,” and said the horse should look like the painting of the horse shown in the book. Curry pointed out to the legislator that the picture in the book was done by Curry himself.
After Don’s performance, I read six or seven of my favorite Kansas essays from my book, Flyover People.
Being able to read in the Capitol building was a wonderful opportunity. I send much gratitude to Doyle Comfort on the Savor Kansas committee for making the arrangements.
Topeka is celebrating the Kansas Sesquicentennial during June – all month long – with their Savor Kansas events. Check out the events here.
An art competition was held for Savor Kansas and 150 pieces were selected for display. Those are now showing at SouthWind Gallery, 3074 SW 29th in Topeka. There are some great pieces – and a number have already been sold – so stop by to check them out.
Now that most of winter has passed, I’m looking forward to hitting the road with more book events. I had a number of signings last fall and it was such a delight to meet people across the state. And – in some cases, at the Larned event in particular, I got to see people I hadn’t seen in years, in decades.
Above is Mrs. Aletha Loving, my kindergarten teacher. I was so honored and thrilled when she showed up. I couldn’t believe it!
So, anyway, I’m happy that spring is almost here and I’m looking forward to hitting the road again and meeting more Kansans!
Click here to order Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State by Cheryl Unruh
This picture shows the best part of this evening’s book event at the Martin & Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute. This young girl is 6 and is learning to read. She pointed out the one, two and three letter words in the book – which she knows – and sounded out some of the larger words as she read. Her dad had me sign the book to her. It was my pleasure.
Heart of Kansas Mercantile, 1212 Main, Great Bend
I’m still adding retail locations. Flyover People is also now available in Ellsworth, Wilson, Lucas, Hays, Greensburg, Larned and Great Bend.
On the menu at the top of this page – in the black stripe – look for “Where to Find the Book” for an updated list of locations.
Kansas artists Stan Herd and Louis Copt joined me for the book-signing at Topeka’s SouthWind Gallery. That’s my friend Amy (!) on the right. She’s a childhood friend who is mentioned in the book several times.
Stan and Louis were mentioned in the book as well. I wrote about them in 2003 when they came to Emporia to paint the mural at 7th & Merchant. That piece is called “Hangin’ With Louis and Stan.”
They are both incredible artists. Stan is well-known for his crop art around the country. And Louis, who grew up in Emporia, is famous for his prairie fire paintings. I’m partial to Louie’s Kansas landscapes because no one paints a Kansas sky like Louis Copt.
Friends Carol and Max Yoho came in and Max brought in one of his new books and signed it as I signed theirs. Max has just released With the Wisdom of Owls and I look forward to reading that. I met Max and Carol probably about 10 years ago at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop which is held every summer at Emporia State University.
A few Topeka cousins dropped by. That’s Jane. And look at the gorgeous Kansas landscapes that I had for a backdrop at SouthWind Gallery.
Had a surprise visit from a TV photojournalist.
SouthWind Gallery sure knows how to get the word out to media. Great job, you guys! They had me on TV, in the paper, on the Internet.
Also, yesterday Kansas Public Radio aired an interview with me and that had reached a lot of the folks who came in. You can listen to that interview here.
***
**
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Date: September 10, 2010
Contact: Sharon Hotchkiss, SouthWindGallery
785.273.5994
Kansas Author Cheryl Unruh Makes Appearance in Topeka for Book Signing Event
Topeka, KS. SouthWind Gallery, 3074 SW 29th, Topeka, will host a “Book Signing” with award-winning Kansas writer Cheryl Unruh, on Wednesday, September 15, 2010, from 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Unruh, a writer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Emporia Gazette, will be at SouthWind Gallery to sign copies of her new book, Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State.
The author, who resides in Emporia, was raised in the small town of Pawnee Rock in central Kansas and graduated from the University of Kansas. She began writing a weekly column titled, Flyover People, for the Emporia Gazette in 2003, and has included 80 of the Flyover People essays in her 197-page book. (Published by Quincy Press, Emporia, Kansas, 2010). Her writing has received awards from the Kansas Press Association, the Kansas Association of Broadcasters and the Kansas Sampler Foundation. Her commentaries have aired on Kansas Public Radio in Lawrence and KTWU public television in Topeka.
Unruh explained that the title of her book came from an expression used by people who fly over Kansas on their way to someplace else and assume there’s no reason to stop and visit the state. She says, “We are the flown-over people, here on the ground in Kansas, watching the jets scratch the sky. Most of my writings are about living on the prairie, where the land stretches miles ahead of us, but also reaches behind us, to the beginning of time.”
Unruh’s love of Kansas radiates through her lyrical writing about the land, the weather, the history and the lives of the people who call Kansas home. She is a superb storyteller with the ability to entertain and enlighten her readers with chronicles of a place and its inhabitants.
Joining Unruh for the book signing are Stan Herd and Louis Copt, well-known Kansas artists who became the subject of an essay included in her book after she met them for the first time in Emporia while they were painting a large mural.
Excerpt from Flyover People…, (Hangin’ with Louis and Stan). “These are not just any two guys throwing paint on the building at Sixth and Merchant, but two of the finest artists Kansas has produced…They had been working on the mural off and on for several weeks when I met them. I spent an hour or so hanging out with these painters as they shaped and shaded the underbelly of storm clouds on their Flint Hills scene.”
Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State can be purchased at SouthWind Gallery, 29th & Oakley. The book also can be ordered online at: www.SouthWindArtGallery.com.
For more information, contact: SouthWind Gallery, 3074 SW 29th, Topeka, KS. Email: Infor@southwindartgallery.com. Phone: 785/273-5994. Gallery hours: Mon. – Fri. 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Sat. 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Book Reviews:
If I were to choose one book to put in a time capsule to describe our state, it would be this one. As the decades pass, (Unruh’s)…stories will become a descriptive and colorful memorial to Kansas nuances that are often overlooked.
–Marci Penner, director, Kansas Sampler Foundation
Read this book slowly as you would sip your favorite beverage and savor the taste.
–Dave Kendall, host and executive producer of Sunflower Journeys, KTWU-TV
###
Flyover People News