Kansas Book Festival held at Washburn

photos by Tiana Smith

Poet Michael Kleber-Diggs shares his experiences with teaching poetry and writing programs for prisoners. He shared stories from his students and the effects that writing had on them.

 

  • Author A.C. Williams explains her books to festival attendee Hannah Stair. Williams has published many stories spanning a wide variety of genres.

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  • Jontavian Blackwell paints a picture at the Children’s Discovery Center activity tent. There were activities for children to engage in while their guardians viewed the other vendors.

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  • Author Angel Edenburn discusses her books with interested individuals. Authors brought many of their past releases to share with festival attendees.

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  • Author Matthew J. Olson has a discussion with his friend, Rob Friesen. The Kansas Book Festival was a great opportunity for authors to share their art with other literary enthusiasts.

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  • Author Brooke Beyfuss views the book of fellow author, Wyatt Shield. The book festival gave authors a chance to meet other people who share their passion.

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  • Author Mandy Kern helps lead children in an activity based off one of her books. Kern is a children’s book author who writes books about Kansas’ environment.

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  • Washburn English professor Melanie Burdick moderates a panel titled “Writing and Rehabilitation.” The panel focused on the benefits of writing programs in prisons.

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  • Poet Brian Daldorph reads a poem that one of his students wrote. The panel was filled with many emotional pieces of writing from the perspectives of those incarcerated.

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On Sept. 24, the Kansas Book Festival was held at Washburn University. The festival brought the reading and publishing community of Kansas together, and was sponsored by organizations such as Humanities Kansas, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, Paper Plains and others.

The festival started with 2022 Kansas Notable Book awards in Mabee Library where 15 Notable awards were handed out to standout Kansas authors. Following the event, separate sessions were held with award-winning author Michael Kleber-Diggs, author Randal Jelks and poet Tracy Brimhall, where they talked about their experiences and art.

There were conversations regarding such diverse topics as the future of Native Americans, the impact of populism and socialism, child perspective, dealing with disability, experiences with teaching poetry in prison and so much more. The Kansas Book Festival had a wide range of programs within itself.

The book festival was held in front of Memorial Union, where 30 exhibitors from organizations such as the University Press of Kansas, Meadowlark Books, the Kansas Authors Club and more were present with their publications.

The exhibitors were divided into booths where different genres of novels and magazines were displayed. They also provided opportunities for free skill shops and programs focused on creative writing.

“The exhibitors include individual authors and regional presses that have books from the area and include nonprofits,” said Tim Bascom, the executive director of the event. “There’s one that collects boxes to put into jails in their libraries to create libraries with jails from prisons called ‘Liberate Book Project.'”

Indoor programs included keynote presentations inside Washburn A&B in the Memorial Union. Presentations by the Culpable Community, nonfiction writers Megan Kaminski and Sara Dykman, Lucas Bessire and many others were given until 3 p.m. in the afternoon.

Starting at 11 a.m, outdoor performances included acoustic music by the Church Ladies, children’s entertainment, jazz by Doug Talley and Friends and rock music by Bad Astra.

Book art exhibitions in the Mulvane Museum and Mabee Library entrances displayed handmade books and paintings from “The Fine Arts of Ruth Fisher.”

The Kansas Book Festival hosted a variety of events on campus, giving the community an exceptional opportunity to understand the literary as well as presentational dynamics of Kansas. The festival is hosted annually.

Edited by LeSha’ Davis, Justin Shepard