dispatchesfromkansas

Escape. That’s what our friends and family thought we were doing late in 1999 after our announcement that we were going to quit our high-paying jobs in the metro Denver area and move to a small rural town of 1,100 residents in northeast Kansas. I could only agree. With a reason to escape only one degree shy of a full-bore zombie apocalypse—the dreaded Y2K hiccup that would destroy civilization—why bother offering the real reason why we were leaving: the quality of life. We’d had enough of the crowds and the crime and the pollution and the traffic, and with the kids moved out and our careers having long since lost their allure, it was time. As far as we were concerned, the apocalypse was already here. We wanted out.

We had to reinvent ourselves, but that was part of the adventure. I accepted a job at a local newspaper and quickly found my calling: the written word. With zero training or experience I went on to win multiple awards from the Kansas Press Association for writing and photography as well as the prestigious Kansas Enterprise Award for my coverage of Robert Glenn Bennett (which can be found in the Literary Longforms menu). My coverage of rural Kansas in words and photographs won me the WeKan! Award from the Kansas Sampler Foundation. “Putting Kansas in a good light,” was how it was worded.

But Kansas was already in a good light for the people who choose to live here. It didn’t need me, but it accepted me, and since then I’ve tried my best to document not only those selfsame people but the place itself. It isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty damn close. It’s home.