Tim Bascom Wins 2026 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Fiction
Topeka, Kan. — Tim Bascom of Topeka, Kan., won the 2026 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Fiction for “Continental Drift: Stories” (Mint Hill Books, 2025).
Bascom is the author of two prize-winning memoirs about his years in East Africa as a youth, "Chameleon Days" and "Running to the Fire." His essays have been selected for the anthologies "Best Creative Nonfiction" and "Best American Travel Writing," and his stories have been published widely. He received his MFA from the University of Iowa and recently served as director of the Kansas Book Festival. His most recent book is "The Boundless Game: Soccer Stories from Across the Street to Around the World" (University Press of Kansas, 2026).
Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award judge Catherine Browder, who won the 2023 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award for “Resurrection City: Stories from the Disaster Zone,” wrote, “In ‘Continental Drift,’ writer Tim Bascom has given us a book that matters. Set largely in Africa, or in a foreigner’s United States, the characters in these stories encounter their own foreignness as Western culture clashes with an African understanding of the world. In pitch-perfect dialogue and sensual language, Bascom’s people—whether Ethiopian, South Sudanese, South African, Kenyan or American—come alive through pivotal moments, often unsettling, that shape their understanding of the world. These are memorable stories from a talented writer, a work of fiction that fulfills what writer John Gardner once defined as the moral responsibility of Art—to explore and rediscover our values and humanness.”
Browder selected three books for honorable mention: “Sad Grownups: Short Stories” (Stillhouse Press, 2024), by Amy Stuber; “The Last Rancher: A Novel” (Meadowlark Press, 2024), by Robert Rebein; and “Mask of the Deer Woman” (Penguin Random House, 2025), by Laurie L. Dove.
“It’s reassuring to see so much creative energy in the heartland,” Browder wrote, adding, “Several of the books were promising debut novels or stories, and I think we can look forward to seeing more from these youngish writers.”
The Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award alternates among genres. The 2027 prize will recognize Literary Nonfiction. The award is sponsored by the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection at the Washburn University Libraries and the Friends of University Libraries.
This year’s award ceremony is at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in the Plass Learning Resources Center Room 120, on the Washburn University campus (1731 Plass Ave.). This free event will kick off the 15th annual Kansas Book Festival, Saturday, Sept. 26, on the Washburn University campus.
For more information about the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award, visit https://www.washburn.edu/ksbookaward.
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For further information, contact:
Lacey Kinder
Content Specialist
Telephone: 785-670-2154
Cell: 785-845-1909
Email: lacey.kinder@washburn.edu
OR
Eric McHenry
Professor of English
Email: eric.mchenry@washburn.edu
