Kids Welcome at 2022 Book Festival
This year the 11th annual Kansas Book Festival is hosting a range of child friendly presentations, events, and performances for children and teens. The festival, hosted by Mabee library at Washburn University, will occur on Saturday, September 24th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and it is free and open to the public.
There are a number of presentations for younger children including Heart and Humor in Picture Books, where picture book creators, Tammi Sauer (No Bunnies Here) and Brad Sneed (Because I’m New), read from a wealth of their fun, beautifully illustrated books. Another presentation, Kansas Kids Who Publish Books, features Wichita’s Wyatt Shield (Wyatt’s Big Adventure with Shriners), Washington’s Kady Toole (Izzy the Cowgirl Corgi), and Topeka’s Anna Riphahn plus composer Paul Epp (The Timekeeper). They will talk with Carol Settgast, coordinator of two books published by elementary students in Junction City.
Not only will there be exciting presentations, but also interactive events for kids. The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center and Paper June Bookstore will provide hands-on activities in an outdoor tent. A performance by storyteller Kyler Carpenter and puppeteer Priscilla Howe will take place at noon as well.
At 1:00 PM high school poets from Topeka High, Topeka West, and Highland Park will compete for top poet in the Topeka High School Poetry Slam. And another exciting event for young adults is the presentation at 2:00 PM titled Why Sci-fi + Fantasy = Young Adult Fascination. In this presentation YA authors Natalie Cammaratta and Kimberly Grymes discuss what makes Sci-Fi/Fantasy fiction so appealing to all readers.
The Kansas Book Festival is targeted towards all ages and presents 60 authors with a wide range of topics including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and kids books. There will be an additional 30 exhibitors in tents with food trucks. For the full schedule go to the website www.kansasbookfestival.com
A Sneak-Peak at the Kansas Book Festival: Table of Contents
The sneak peek event for the Kansas Book Festival titled Tables of Contents is taking place on Sunday, September 18th from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM. The event is an evening of intimate conversations with celebrated Kansas authors, featuring literary cocktails inspired by some of their favorite authors. The event will be held at the Vibe event space and studio in Lawrence.
Said authors include Eric McHenry, Randal Jelks (Letters to Martin), Daniel Miyares (Hope at Sea), Jennifer Anne Raff (Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas), and Megan Kaminski (Prairie Divination).
We hope to see you there!
EnvistaCares Challenge Highlights Kansas Book Festival
Envista Credit Union is pleased to announce that it will highlight Kansas Book Festival through the EnvistaCares Challenge during the month of September.
The EnvistaCares Challenge includes a challenge grant, media and marketing package, and an organizational storytelling video. Through the challenge grant, Envista will match every dollar given to Kansas Book Festival during the month of September up to $2,500. Giving can be done online at https://form.jotform.com/220743960000141. The media package provided to Kansas Book Festival by Envista is valued at more than $12,000 and includes a month of promotion through billboards, emails, social media and radio. Finally, Envista supports the production of a video for Kansas Book Festival to use to share their message and encourage members of the community to not only give, but to join in and consider becoming a partner.
The Kansas Book Festival is the premier literary festival for Kansas. Every year, the Festival brings over 50 authors to Topeka to make presentations based on newly released books, including authors of Kansas Notable Books (selected by the State Library of Kansas) and authors who are former Kansans but have established themselves outside the state, gaining national recognition. In addition, the Kansas Book Festival foundation provides $10,000 in grants to needy Kansas libraries each year.
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The EnvistaCares Challenge was created in June of 2019 and has helped raise more than $600,000 for local organizations. Envista Credit Union is a full-service financial institution established in 1957 to help members achieve their financial goals by providing quality products and services. Envista currently has more than $535 million in assets and serves more than 45,000 Kansans with 11 offices in Topeka, Lawrence and Hutchinson. For more information visit www.envistacu.com.
Kansas Book Festival Receives Kansas Humanities Grant
Humanities Kansas recently awarded $9,630 to the Kansas Book Festival to support the annual Topeka event that promotes literacy, encourages life-long readers, and supports libraries and inspiring writers. Tim Bascom serves as project director.
The Kansas Book Festival will take place on Saturday, September 24th, 2022, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. There will be over 50 outstanding authors giving presentations. Authors include Congresswoman Sharice Davids (Sharice’s Big Voice), New York Times Bestselling novelist KJ Dell’Antonia (In Her Boots), social commentator Randal Jelks (Letters to Martin), and many more. The festival also includes 30 exhibitors with books for sale, a children’s activity area, musical performers, and food trucks!
“Literature is at the heart of the humanities, and we are pleased to see a festival for aspiring Kansas poets and authors, as well as for those who love to read,” said Julie Mulvihill, Humanities Kansas Executive Director.
About Humanities Kansas
Humanities Kansas is an independent nonprofit spearheading a movement of ideas to empower the people of Kansas to strengthen their communities and our democracy. Since 1972, HK’s pioneering programming, grants, and partnerships have documented and shared stories to spark conversations and generate insights. Together with statewide partners and supporters, HK inspires all Kansans to draw on diverse histories, literatures, and cultures to enrich their lives and to serve the communities and state we all proudly call home.
Visit humanitieskansas.org
Kansas Book Festival Grant Winners
Every year for the last decade, the Kansas Book Festival has granted funding to Kansas libraries seeking to improve their book holdings or technology, distributing $10,000 in total. This year’s grants, just released, will assist five selected libraries, including Quinter High School Library in western Kansas, Circle Oil Hill Elementary School Library in southern Kansas, and Lebanon Community Library in north Kansas.
Needs vary. At Circle Oil Hill Elementary School, in El Dorado, the student population has become more diverse, and an $800 grant will help to provide books that appeal to kids from multiple cultures. Jonna Garbee, the library media specialist at Circle Oil Hill, says, “It is important for our students to learn about history and the many injustices suffered by people of color, but I am realizing that many of the books in our library focus only on suffering and not on everyday living. I want to provide books that show children of all races and cultures solving mysteries, having adventure, and laughing with friends.”
At Lebanon Kansas, where 28% of the patrons are over 60, there is a need for large-print books. An $800 grant will help Lebanon Community Library to provide 30 new large-print novels.
Some of the annual grants from the Kansas Book Festival go to technology instead of books. Quinter High School is committed to creating an innovative learning lab, where students can collaborate and create using 21st century tech tools. According to Valerie Brown-Kuchera, the K-12 Library Director at Quinter, this lab will include a podcast booth, a recording studio, 3D printing pens, a poster printer, and other devices that will inspire students to imagine and invent in contemporary ways. A $1000 grant from the Festival will help to purchase some of the required technology.
This year, two other libraries have been selected to receive funding from the Kansas Book Festival. Lincoln Junior Senior High School Library will receive $800 for the purchase of graphic novels and updated nonfiction, and Twin Valley Schools will receive $1600 for replacement of failing computers.
The Library Grant Program of the Kansas Book Festival, begun by former First Lady Mary Brownback when she brought the Festival to Topeka in 2011, is dependent on the generosity of donating individuals and agencies.
Keynoter will talk about living happily in one’s own boots
KJ Dell’Antonia was, for years, living in New England and editing Motherlode, a column for the NY Times, but when she decided to write a novel, she drew on her childhood experience in Kansas. The Chicken Sisters is about a stormy, often humorous relationship between siblings who find themselves championing competing fried-chicken restaurants in the little town of Merinac, Kansas, putting their whole family at risk of imploding. When that debut novel came out in 2020 it climbed into the bestseller ranks and was picked by Reese Witherspoon for her influential book club. Now, two years later, KJ is back with a second novel–In Her Boots–which clearly draws on personal experience too. The main character, Rhett, is a fiction writer who has written a bestseller under a pseudonym. Panicked by a broken romance and a tragedy back home at the family farm, Rhett convinces a friend to pose as the author of her new bestseller, only to find that her mother is more impressed with the fake author than herself. How can Rhett prove herself to the distressed mother as she decides to sell the beloved farm? Come hear KJ September 24th, 2022, at the Kansas Book Festival, when she talks about the search for happiness and learning to live authentically in one’s own boots.
See Video of 2021 Kansas Book Festival
Interested in books and Kansas? Here’s a video about our most recent Kansas Book Festival, which featured 50 authors with wonderful new books, including Angela Cervantes, author of the new novelization of the blockbuster Encanto, plus the amazing Aimee Nezhukumatathil with her inspiring book World of Wonders, a Barnes and Noble Favorite for 2021. The next Festival will occur September 24, 2022, at Washburn University in Topeka. Come if you can! We will host a novelist who was a Reese Book Club pick–KJ Dell’Antonia–and a finalist for the National Book Award–Lucas Bessire! To watch the video click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRH5ZGuVkdU
Kansas Notable Books Announced by State Library of Kansas
Every year the Kansas Book Festival helps the State Library of Kansas to honor their selected Kansas Notable Books. We are delighted to announce the newly selected 2021 prize winners. Come to the 2021 Festival–on Saturday, September 18–to see the award ceremony and to hear from actual winners! In the meantime, you can click on the following link to learn more about each of these remarkable books: https://kslib.info/1465/2021-Notable-Books