Media Advisory: Kansas Book Festival Sept. 17 and 18 at Washburn University

     Topeka, Kan. – Washburn will host this year’s Kansas Book Festival – an event which had to be cancelled last year due to the pandemic. The winner of the 2021 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award, Rebekah Taussig, will read from her book, "Sitting Pretty" this Friday at 4 p.m. in Mabee Library.  The presentation is the kick-off for festival which will continue on Saturday. This event is free and open to the public. Masks are required indoors, and they are welcome, but not required, in the outdoor exhibitor’s area.

     When and Where:  Friday, September 17 at 4 p.m. and continuing Saturday, September 18; Mabee Library and the Washburn University campus

     Details: The Kansas Book Festival will include presentations by 50 authors, as well as outdoor performances, a book-art exhibit, food vendors, and exhibitor tents with publishers from around Kansas. 
     The headliner for the 2021 Kansas Book Festival is Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments.  Nezhukumatathil’s winsome collection of nature essays includes stories from time spent as a child in Larned, and it was selected as a Favorite Book of the Year by Barnes and Noble as well as National Public Radio.
      Other prominent authors include Wes Jackson, a nationally respected leader of the sustainable agriculture movement, whose just-released memoir is about growing up on a farm near Topeka (Hogs are Up); and Michael Kleber-Diggs, a prize-winning poet from the Twin Cities with a collection about the hazards and beauties of life as a Black man in contemporary America (Worldly Things).
     In addition, there are popular books for young people, from authors such as Elizabeth Bunce with her Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series and Natalie Parker with her young-adult Seafire fantasies that give readers an all-female crew aboard a sailing ship, “mastering high seas, high stakes, and high emotions,” as one reviewer proclaims.
     The Kansas Book Festival will honor the 2021 Kansas Notable Books, to be selected by the Kansas State Library and awarded by Dr. Ted Daughety, husband of Kansas Governor Laura Kelly.