On Friday, August 29, the Kansas Book Festival hosted four librarians from under-resourced Kansas libraries at the State Library of Kansas, awarding grants to support proposed enhancements. Five grant-winning projects were selected in all, from a pool of 40 proposals, and the donated funds will bring improvements to school or public libraries in Bird City […]
The Kansas Book Festival was awarded on May 16 a 2025 TopArts grant of $2500 from ArtsConnect in Topeka. A big thanks to ArtsConnect for backing not only the Kansas Book Festival but authors Lisa LaRue-Baker and Annette Billings. To see more about other 2025 grantees, go to the following link: https://artstopeka.org/toparts?mc_cid=c19bc7d9fe&mc_eid=98fbefb491
It was great to have 90 Friends of the Kansas Book Festival come to our first-ever Sneak-Peek event on April 10, 2025, where we raised $6000 for the Festival. Attendees snacked and conversed while listening to jazz from an ensemble put together by our former poet laureate, Kevin Rabas. They entered our book-raffles and bid […]
If you were not able to come to the 2024 Kansas Book Festival and if you would like to hear the talk by our keynoter, NYTimes Bestselling Crime Writer Sara Paretsky, then click here. She regales the audience with personal stories about her early life in Lawrence and the recent loss of her husband, describing […]
For the past13 years, the Kansas Book Festival has granted funding to Kansas libraries that are under-resourced, distributing $114,000 in assistance, often for school libraries and youth sections at community libraries. 19 applications were received this year, and the Festival will distribute $8500, funding three book requests and one technology request. The 2024 grant recipients […]
Over the last 12 years, the Kansas Book Festival has accepted grant applications from needy Kansas public and school libraries, either for books or reading-related technology, and we are open again for applications, with a deadline of April 24, 2024. The Festival typically awards at least two grants of no more than $2000 for book […]
Topeka Capital Journal education reporter Rafael Garcia covered the Kansas Book Festival grant winners of 2023. Click the link below to read the full story and get a glimpse of what the festival does to support Kansas communities. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/state/2023/04/23/kansas-book-festival-grants-support-rural-small-town-libraries/70075201007/