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The
Kansas Writers Association's
Scene a Success! Thanks to everyone who attended this year's Scene Conference! We had a great turnout and a day packed full of great writing tips and networking. Conference Schedule and Session Topics ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
We're excited and proud to welcome Lt. Landwehr back to the Scene Conference! Ken Landwehr joined the Wichita Police Department in October 1978. He has served in Patrol, Vice, Narcotics, worked cold case for three years, then homicide.
He was promoted in 1989 to the rank of
lieutenant. He was a supervisor in the forensic lab for 2 years. He became the Commander of Homicide in May 1992. Lt. Landwehr has been the supervisor of over 600
homicide investigations. He has a bachelor's degree from Wichita State University. He currently teaches at WSU undergraduate and graduate level courses in homicide
investigation. He has taught Death Investigation to law enforcement throughout Kansas for the past 18 years. He is the director of Mid States Homicide Investigators
Association.
Kirt Hickman, author of the award-winning science-fiction thriller Worlds Asunder, and the comprehensive and practical self-editing guide
Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness was born in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1966. Kirt was a technical writer for 14 years before branching into fiction.
His methodical approach to self-editing has helped many make sense of the mass of advice available to the novice writer. He teaches self-editing classes through
SouthWest Writers and University of New Mexico. He has been a mentor in the SouthWest Writers mentoring program, has spoken at numerous conferences, contributes a
monthly column titled “Revising Fiction” to the SouthWest Sage, and has two additional books scheduled for publication in 2010.
Charles Salzberg is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, New York magazine, GQ, Elle, Good Housekeeping, the New York Times Arts and Leisure,
Writer's Digest, Travel and Leisure, Redbook and a number of other periodicals. He has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review, the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times. He has written, co-written or ghostwritten more than 25 non-fiction books, including From Set Shot to Slam Dunk,
An Oral History of the NBA; On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place; Soupy Sez: My Zany Life and Times (Soupy Sales); and The Mad Fisherman (Charlie Moore).
His novel, Swann's Last Song, was nominated for a 2009 Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. He was a Visiting Professor of Magazine at the S. I. Newhouse School
of Public Communication at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute, Hunter College Writing Program, the Open Center, the
Guilford Art Center, the Writer's Voice, and at the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a founding member. He is also a non-fiction editor at the webzine Ducts.org. SESSION PRESENTERS
Sherry Chisenhall was managing editor of The Eagle for four years before being appointed editor in
October 2004. She worked for Knight Ridder Newspapers for 21 years until it was acquired by the McClatchy Co. in June 2006. Sherry previously worked at
The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina for 14 years in various positions as an editor, reporter, copy editor and page designer, and at the Biloxi, Miss.,
Sun Herald. She is a native of south-central Illinois and has a B.S. in journalism and political science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Darren DeFrain was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1967. He grew up an Army brat, living around the country and the world before ending up in Layton, Utah, which served as revelation for his novel The Salt Palace. He received degrees in psychology and English from the University of Utah as well as a minor in Italian. Several stories from his collection, Inside & Out, include a recurring character, Natalie, who speaks Italian as a link to her family and as a buffer from her husband. DeFrain received an MA from Kansas State University followed by an MFA from Texas State University and a PhD in creative writing from Western Michigan University, where he worked as the coordinator of the Third Coast Writers Conference. After a one-year job at Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania, which he described in his Pushcart-nominated essay, "Evangelical Rubric," he taught for five years at UW-Fox Valley in Appleton where he was a Kaplan Fellow and Teacher of the Year recipient. He has since taught in the MFA program at Wichita State University, the 11th oldest MFA program in the country, and has directed both the Writing Program and, for a time, the MFA. Wichita State has awarded him its Creative Excellence award, and he has been named a Kansas Arts Fellow. His novel, The Salt Palace, made several national "best of" lists including Foreword Magazine and The Kansas City Star and was awarded an "Arty" from Salt Lake City Weekly. Novelist and filmmaker Sherman Alexie pursued a film version of the novel that never came to fruition. He lives in Wichita with his wife, writer Melinda DeFrain, and their two daughters.
Lieutenant Joe Evans is a 13-year veteran of the Wichita Fire Department. Lt. Evans began his career with the City of Wichita in 1997. In 2005, he was certified as a Fire Investigator through the Kansas State Fire Marshal's Office. In 2008, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and assigned to the Fire Investigations Unit as a Fire Investigator. Lt. Evans has investigated over 200 fire scenes and has completed over 500 hours of fire investigation and law enforcement training. K-9 Bella is a 2-year-old Labrador Retriever trained and certified through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as an Accelerant Detection Canine. Bella is one of two ATF K-9 in the State of Kansas and 70 teams nationwide. Bella was raised by/in the Puppies Behind Bars programs in Danbury, Conn.
Gordon A Kessler is the author of Novel Writing Made Simple as well as two thriller novels, Jezebel and Dead Reckoning.
A former USMC Recon Scout, Paratrooper and Super Squad Team Leader, he enjoys SCUBA, snow skiing, and sailing, and has drawn considerably from his life
experiences for his fiction. Over the past 18 years, he has taught and mentored hundreds of new and struggling writers through his classes at the
Wichita Free University and Butler County Community College as well as through various writers’ groups and organizations. As a co-founder of
Kansas Writers Association, he was also the group's first president and is currently their honorary ambassador. Kessler is a Master Instructor for the
National Academy of Railroad Sciences on the Johnson County Community College campus in Overland Park, Kansas, and a Manager of Freight Car Training for BNSF Railway.
He has designed his website, www.WritersMatrix.com, as a resource for all writers and an Internet landing page to help launch their imaginations.
Mike Klaassen was raised on a farm near Whitewater, Kan. After earning a degree in accounting, he became a Certified Public Accountant and worked for
six years in public accounting. An interest in investments led him to a career as a stockbroker and Certified Financial Planner. After 13 years in
investments, including five years as branch manager of the Wichita office of a major brokerage firm, he became chairman of the board of the local bank his
father co-founded. Mike's commitment to writing young-adult novels began after a frustrating search for books that might interest his teenage sons. He is the author of two
young-adult novels, Cracks and The Brute. “My goal,” says Klaassen, “is to write novels that even the most reluctant readers will enjoy.”
Mike is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Kansas Author’s Club, and the Kansas Writers Association.
His current projects include a novel set during the War of 1812 and a guide to the fundamentals of fiction. He recently began publishing a monthly online
newsletter titled "FOR FICTION WRITERS" about the craft of writing fiction.
Alan Shope began writing short stories the moment he learned to write. From his first short series "The Lone Stranger" to his older mystery writings
"Who Could It Have Been?" Alan has been putting pencil to paper his whole life. More recently Alan has started his fourth novel, A Flower On The Highway,
after completing The Confluence, My Attrition and A Different Heaven. Alan also worked in television news and sports for 20 years
in Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City.
Roy Wenzl is a reporter for The Wichita Eagle. Two of his serial narratives,
“Saving Dad” and “Hope City,” were published in Reader’s Digest. He has won national awards, including a
first place from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2001 for the serial narrative, “The Hero’s Son.”
He was the primary author of The Wichita Eagle’s book about the BTK serial killer, published by Harper Collins
in 2007: Bind, Torture, Kill, The Inside story of the Serial Killer Next Door. In 1981 he was part of the
newsroom team at The Kansas City Star and Times that won a 1982 Pulitzer prize for coverage of the Hyatt hotel
skywalks collapse. He has taught writing in newsrooms, in university classrooms, at the national IRE convention,
at National Writers Workshops and at the American Press Institute. He’s a native Kansan, a farmer's son, a
graduate of Kansas State University, and a grandfather.
Tony Woodlief's writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The London Times, National Review, and WORLD Magazine. His short stories, two of which have been nominated for the Pushcart prize, have appeared in Ruminate and Image. His spiritual memoir, Somewhere More Holy, will be published by Zondervan in May, 2010. He will also earn his MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University in the spring. His thoughts on faith, children, and the correct way to distribute pickles on a cheeseburger can be found at www.tonywoodlief.com. Tony lives in Sedgwick, Kansas, with his wife and four sons. |
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© 2004-2010, Kansas Writers Association. All rights reserved. CONTACT US |
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KEYNOTE SPEAKER
EXPERT AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION
EXPERT AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION
Sherry Chisenhall
Darren DeFrain
Lt. Joe Evans, Wichita Fire Department, & Bella, Accelerant Detection Canine
Gordon Kessler
Mike Klaassen
Alan Shope
Roy Wenzl
Tony Woodlief