Flyover No More: The Heart of the West is in Emporia, Kansas

Where is the center of the West? Try Emporia, Kansas. Last weekend, I was the keynote speaker and faculty member at the Center for Great Plains Studies 30^th Annual Tallgrass Writing Workshop at Emporia State University. Spur-Award winning author and Associate Professor of Journalism Max McCoy (MaxMcCoy.com) directed the two-day workshop that brought in writers and faculty members from across the region to immerse themselves in a series of courses in novel and short stories, social media, Para-Westerns, play writing and the West. If you want to know more about why Emporia, Kansas, is the place to discover the heart of the West, I recommend you follow the musings and writings of the workshop’s faculty members: Max McCoy (author of Ophelia Wylde paranormal mystery series); renowned Kansas cowboy folklorist Professor Emeritus of English Jim Hoy, (Plainsfolks.com); author, marketing and social media specialist Patsy Terrell (PatsysPonderings.com and CooksLibrarywithPatsy.com); Department Chair Kevin J. Rabas, the co-director of the creative writing program, poet and playwright; Professor of English Rachelle Smith, who gave a presentation on the Para-Western; and, Kansas essayist Cheryl Unruh, (FlyoverPeople.net) who spent over a decade at the Emporia Gazette as a columnist, and is the author of Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State, and Waiting on the Sky: More Flyover People Essays.