On Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, the 14th annual Kansas Book Festival will take place at the Washburn University Library.

To see the full PROGRAM for the 2025 KANSAS BOOK FESTIVAL, including exhibitors, music, and children’s activities, click here: KBFProgram2025.

To see just the panel schedule, scan the outline below:

Main Festival Presentations

9:00 am 

Saturday, September 20

The Art of the Cartoon – University Library 118 

Grant Snider (Thinking about Thinking) and political cartoonist Greg Kearney swap stories about the relationship between words and drawings in their graphic depictions of consciousness and contemporary politics. Moderator: Clay Wirestone, Opinion Editor, Kansas Reflector.

Ad Astra: Emergencies, Emergences and Restorations  – University Library 119

Join memoir writers Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg (The Magic Eye) and Craig Yorke (Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon’s Journey), plus novelist Ruth Maus (Lunacy and Acts of God), in an honest conversation focused on writing about struggles and successes.  

Breaking Form / Building New – University Library 120

Canese Jarboe (Sissy) and Matt Porubsky (Stand in Old Light) discuss how dismantling poetic forms can build a broader view of Kansas. Moderator: poet Hyejung Kook.

10:00 am

Who’s In?  Who’s Out? – University Library 221

Two authors of middle-grade novels, Anne Rellihan (Not the Worst Friend in the World) and Kristin Gray (The Amelia Six), discuss friendship themes in their fiction. Moderator: Andrea Norman, McCarter Elementary librarian.

Out of the Shadows – University Library 118

Holly Baggett (Making No Compromise) and Iris Jamahl Dunkle (Riding Like the Wind) discuss Jane Heap and Sanora Babb—two Kansas women who shaped modern literature and never got their due.  Moderated by Kara Kendall-Morwick, Professor of English, Washburn U.

Finding Words for It – University Library 119

The authors of new poetry collections, Traci Brimhall (Love Prodigal) and Sarah Green (The Deletions), examine divorce, illness, trauma, and healing with unflinching directness and uncommon lyricism. Moderator: poet Melissa Fite-Johnson.

Kansas Matters: Twenty-First-Century Writers on the Sunflower State –  University Library 120

Join Thomas Fox Averill and Leslie VonHolten as they launch a new anthology about Kansas, with contributors Josh Svaty, Jesse Nathan, Jeffrey Ann Goudie, Michael Kleber Diggs, and Kelly Erby, History Professor, Washburn U.

11:00 am

New Settler Stories for New Readers – University Library 221

Lesa Cline-Ransome (One Big Open Sky) and Susan Lynn Meyer (A Sky Full of Song) talk about ex-slaves and Ukrainian refugees migrating to 19th Century Kansas and North Dakota.  Moderator: Alice Reinert, Wanamaker Elementary Librarian.

Creating Reality – University Library 118

Suspense novelist Bryn Greenwood (Nobody Knows You’re Here) talks with sci-fi novelist Silvia Park (Luminous) about creating a believable reality both in current U.S. society and futuristic Korea.  Moderator: Joanne Janssen, Baker University.

Watery Ways – University Library 119

George Frazier (Riverine Dreams) and James Locklear (In the Country of the Kaw) share personal stories of the history and ecology of grassland rivers. Moderator: author Leslie VonHolten.

The Home Team – University Library 120

Close friends Ben Lerner (The Lights) and Cyrus Console (The Wayfarer) are longtime first readers of each other’s work. They’ll talk about their newest books of poetry, starting life in Topeka, and the value of lifelong literary friendships.  Moderated by Evan McHenry.

12:00 pm—Keynote

For God’s Sake Take Cover – Memorial Union, Washburn Rooms A and B

Bill Kurtis, who made his broadcasting start in Topeka, covering the 1966 tornado, will talk about his memoir Whirlwind. Moderator: Melissa Brunner, news co-anchor, WIBW.

1:00 pm

Buffalo Fluffalo – University Library 221

Bess Kalb, whose picture book about a vain young buffalo won the 2025 Bill Martin Jr. Picture Book Award, talks about using humor when writing for kids—a big shift from writing comedy for adults at the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Moderator: Heather Caswell, Emporia State University.

Fierce Hoops – University Library 118

For 31 years, Marian Washington coached KU women’s basketball and was called the “Jackie Robinson of collegiate women’s basketball coaching.” She will talk about her memoir FIERCE: My Fight For Nothing Less. Moderator: Maggie Mahood, former K.U. assistant women’s basketball coach.

A Critical Moment – University Library 119

Kate Tuttle — books editor of the Boston Globe and former president of the National Book Critics Circle — talks about the role of the reviewer in the digital age.  Interviewed by Eric McHenry, former Kansas Poet Laureate.

Border-Crossing Fictions – University Library 120

Laurie Dove (Mask of the Deer Woman) and Tim Bascom (Continental Drift) discuss how they bring their own complicated histories to stories that cross cultural borders.  Moderator: fiction author Cate Browder.

2:00 pm

DisabilityVisibility – University Library 221

An award-winning novelist, Gretchen Schreiber (Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal), and an award-winning memoirist, Louise Krug (How to Explain), discuss books that draw on their unique experiences with disability.  Moderator: KPR commentator Kaye McIntyre.  

Seeing Red – University Library 118

Rachel McCarthy James (Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder) describes the challenges and unexpected rewards of writing about the horrific. Interviewed by Kara Heitz, media producer and professor, Kansas City Art Institute.

Blacks Against Brown – University Library 119

An important new book by Topeka native Charise L. Cheney examines the conflict within the city’s Black community over school desegregation. Interviewed by Beryl New, former Director of Equity Council, Topeka Schools. 

Classics Remixed – University Library 120

Tales of Dionysus is an off-beat “group translation” of the longest surviving Greek epic poem, and Day After the Waste Land is T.S. Eliot’s masterpiece relocated to Lawrence, Kansas.  Hear translator Stanley Lombardo and poet Will Averill discuss giving those classics a makeover. Moderator: Mark Luce, writer and K.U. lecturer.

3:00 pm 

Picture Books Dealing with Loss & Grief – University Library 221

Anitra Rowe Schulte (Willow and Bunny) talks with Scott Emmons and illustrator Stacey Lamb (Hope and the Winds of Grief) about helping kids move through difficult experiences with honesty and hope. Moderator: Anuja Madan, Children’s Literature Professor, KSU.

Ancient Myths/Modern Fantasies – University Library 118

A debut novelist draws on ancient myths of the four seasons (Amy Avery, The Longest Autumn), while another builds a whole series around an invented school of magic (Shami Stovall, Astra Academy Series).  Moderator: Margo Moore, Youth Librarian, Lawrence.

Kansas Natural Wonders – University Library 119

Two author/photographer teams share about Kansas landscapes (Landscapes of Kansas by Keith Miller and Scott Bean) and Kansas birds (The Guide to Kansas Birds and Birding Hotspots by Pete Janzen and Bob Gress).  Moderator: filmmaker Dave Kendall.

A tribute to Jonathan Holden – University Library 120

Kansas’s first poet laureate, who passed away in 2024, mentored generations of writers during his decades at K-State. Poets Amy Fleury, Kevin Rabas, and Ed Skoog tell stories about their teacher and share favorite poems.

Bonus Feature at Lawrence Public Library, Sunday, Sept. 21 at 2:30 pm 

Sunday Afternoon with Kevin Young – Lawrence Public Library, Auditorium

The New Yorker poetry editor and former director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture shares poems from his brand-new collection, Night Watch.