Media Advisory: Washburn University to Host Hefner Heitz Book Award and Kansas Book Festival Sept. 23-24

      Topeka, Kan. – Washburn University is hosting the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award Presentation and Reading during the Kansas Book Festival Sept. 23-24. These events are free and open to the public.

      What: The Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award is given annually in celebration of all those who write, read and whose lives are enhanced by their engagement with the literature, history and culture of Kansas. The annual award, rotating between poetry, fiction and nonfiction, is sponsored by the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection at Washburn University and the Friends of Mabee Library.

2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award Presentation and Reading

      When: Friday, Sept. 23, 2022 at 4 p.m.

      Where: Mabee Library on the Washburn University campus

      The winner of the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, Michael Kleber-Diggs, will do a reading of his collection “Worldly Things” after the award presentation.

      The 2023 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Fiction is now accepting submissions from Kansas fiction writers with book length works published in the past three years (2020/21/22) for a chance to win the $1,000 grand prize. This year’s judge will be Robert Stewart, long-time editor of New Letters quarterly magazine, New Letters on the Air and BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2023. There is no fee to enter. For complete guidelines, please visit:

https://www.washburn.edu/mabee/ksbookaward/call-for-submissions.html

Kansas Book Festival

      When: Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 Beginning at 9 a.m.

      Where: Washburn University campus

      What: The 11^th annual Kansas Book Festival will have a lineup of 60 authors and their presentations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children’s fiction. The festival will also have outdoor performances, a book-art exhibit, food trucks and exhibitor tents with publishers from around Kansas. For more details on the schedule of the festival visit:

https://www.kansasbookfestival.com/festival-2/festival-schedule/

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