Planning has begun for the 2021 Kansas Book Festival, and a new Executive Director has been hired.  Tim Bascom comes to the Festival from Waldorf University in northern Iowa, where he was Director of their Creative Writing Program.  Bascom is a native Kansan, who spent growing-up years in Troy, Kansas and completed his Master of Arts degree in English Literature at the University of Kansas.  Later he taught writing and literature at Kansas State University then completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa, which led to directing the creative writing program at Waldorf University. 

Bascom has led workshops for writers every summer for 15 years at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and he is the author of five books.  His most recent—Climbing Lessons: Stories of Fathers, Sons, and the Bond Between (Light Messages Press, 2020)—is set in Kansas, depicting the stages of a father-son relationship through brief autobiographical tales.  Bascom says, “I’m glad to be back in Kansas, helping to connect readers with authors.  It’s especially meaningful to be given this opportunity on the 10^th anniversary of the Festival, which we hope will usher in another decade of fun, meaningful Festivals!” 

A big thanks, finally, to our former director—Sarah Shipman—who needed to transition out of the position due to a new job.  She capably steered the 2019 Festival and the 2020 Festival, which unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 virus and restrictions on public events.  She will be missed, although she has promised to come back as a volunteer with the 2021 Festival!