The 2021 Kansas Book Festival; Unknown

today i'm kate pierre presents it's a sneak peek at the twenty twenty one kansas book festival i'm kate mcintyre the tenth annual kansas book festival will be held saturday september eighteenth to baskin is the director of the festival he joins us today tim it's great to see you again dionne great to be with you for our listeners who have never bend the kansas book festival never heard of it what is that the book first voices first off on time a combination of having officers who come and talk about their barks and some of the ideas that go with those books but also our performers that you can hear at an outdoor stage and some exhibitors presses from the area as well as individual authors who've got new self published books or others have come out from presses so it's a chance to see those authors primarily get get a bork so get it signed talked people this year the kansas book festival is taking place on the campus of

washburn university in topeka it's a couple different locations through the years white's washburn university bring to the picture well we're excited about moving over there for a couple reasons one is that that space is just beautiful autumn you've got this huge green space in front of them maybe library and that's where the exhibitors and the performers will be and then the library itself is a beautiful facility and the memorial union ballroom where some of the larger talks will be and those are on each side of that green space so it's it's going very accessible and lovely space but the other thing is the washburn has gotten enthused about what we're doing and they want to collaborate so are there a couple of special events that came out of that they're have to go online with one of them nancy bristow who has a book called the american pandemic and that's going to be on wednesday before the festival i think that september fifteenth on but people can see it

online and they'll be records you go to it later as well and that'll relate to covert of course on because she's look at the flu epidemic in nineteen eighteen but also hear from rebecca toss it to i know you've already interviewed and had on the show here mom and she's tremendous and show that she's receiving at all or on call to have their heights kansas book award and she'll speak before the festival then show also be featured during the festival as well at nine am on september eighteenth i'm glad you brought that up because of course rebecca was our featured guest on like a pr presents book club and you can watch that on k pr is youtube channel you can also hear it the radio version of our conversation are at kansas public radio dot org tim i mentioned this is the tenth year for the kansas book festival how it's changed since two thousand eleven while in fact it did exist briefly in wichita

kansas farm prior to becoming what we know is the kansas book festival it it was called that and they hosted at their height in several places as i understand it but after several years there was no funding and so it really it disappeared and it was like that had lapsed for i think three four five years before on mary brown back the wife of governor brownback and said we should bring it back home and make it a topeka and to he's so she started up and at first it was at the historical museum in kansas history museum in topeka and then i cut it outgrew that space so it ended up at the state capitol for a number of years and then eventually jumped over washburn this year arm i knew i knew to the position as the director so i haven't seen all that history i had to kind of learned here say overtime

i visited to in bascom he's the director of the kansas but first well again that takes place saturday september eighteenth at washburn university and sippy get the presentations at the kansas but first of all many of them hard grouped by subject you have one on for example cowboys horses and prairie is another one up on the african american experience in poetry and drama so i'm curious how do you go about coming up with those groupings i have this vision of having dozens of books to choose from and trying to figure out where the common themes are what is the process look like well to be honest tom a role and i win talking to the program at first were just trying to find new books because we won a feature people who've just come out of something in the last year or two and we were surprised how many books there actually are by people who either lived in kansas or have

some connection to it which is sort of the main feature for our festival and then we started thinking well how does this work tie with that one or that one or that one and started playing out kind of scenarios where we can group prepare to officers around the topic and as we talked about it we also thought well this festival ought to be as diverse as possible on in terms of different voices as well as thinking about topics and trying to think our car could we make an appeal an appealing experience for almost anyone om so we start to push oh well we need to have something that's for children we need to have more for children arm and we need to have not only something for really little kids and their parents bert for middle grade own kids and we need to think about young adult arm so you also think about the different genres and kind of clustering offers and then thinking

about some topics with emotion on marriage and done it was just it was a lot of fun to do that brainstorming we didn't go out to our thirst away some wood where they put out a request for applications saying can you propose a topic but after we had thought about it we then would go to authors as a pear or three and say what you think about this and if you were to do it if it was interesting how would you change it alcohol could make it even better i'll answer sort of evolved it i took a lot of footwork a few films like it enough but a lot of fun and the idea was there was the most enjoyable part of the whole process for me i'm glad you mention that how many books there were out there because each year literally dozens and dozens of books by kansans are with some kind of kansas connection come out i know because they come across my desk how do you

decide which authors to pick and which ones may be to take a pass on in well in some cases maybe we just heard too many authors it was tough because with young adult fiction today is an awful lot of ego bookstore you're going to see on the shelves reflected their an and there's some really good young adult authors from lawrence kansas city area and elsewhere and we just couldn't do all that because it would be too much so we had to let go of some of those in some cases we would be thinking wall men are being drawn as much as they might be and arm we need something that maybe would appeal to male group arm i'm doing a presentation myself i'm a bork that just came out last year of my own this two have fathers and sons which is somewhat a response to that bit more importantly mom we've

got bob davis and geoff ball it was a book about his broadcasting career bob davis as a broadcaster with a k u g h harps and other teams and tom we knew that that would be appealing and then put alongside of andrew no word as a traffic rider even a book on bean country hark obsessed and growing up in a syria without will that that's going to be interesting for some in reverse not that i won a stereotype but beyond that there will be some readers should say ya my dear i just want to jump in here and are lowered with a guest on the show are a couple years ago are talking about his book the jet hackers an and he's he's a fascinating guy and it's a really fun book even for someone like me who is not a huge basketball fan so whether you're a sports fan are night you'll enjoy listening to him talk about his relationship with basketball and laurence in kansas and history it's just that he's a fascinating person that i'm really looking for daring to myself to him that

kansas book festival was canceled last year along with almost everything else because i've covered nineteen what are you doing to keep festival goers safe this year good question well we had hoped that things would be even safer at this point the summer was standpoint that direction and i was excited about that because some festivals had already decided we're just going to go online and we're little different we've held me to it and said we're going to keep the face to face and get people together the author's by the way are many of them very happy to finally have a chance to maybe meet with some actual people would come and have their books read an end to interact with folks on but we have to be careful given the way things have turned things are getting a little better it seems maybe maybe were starting to get over the hump slightly with the delta variant but we're going to follow the washburn protocols at the university

and they are expecting that everyone will wear a mask if they're indoors so that's that's a requirement mass will be available to those who don't have them when they come on outdoors they're not requiring a mask and we have exhibitors and performers on who may or may not wear them themselves vote we will have some signs still encouraging people to think that way that maybe it would be wise to wear a mask at least when close to others on so we're doing that primarily hard there's no mandate on being vaccinated but it my hunch is that most people are by now i'm pretty clear in the kind of audience that will be coming so we we think it's going to be a pretty safe experience were also are deciding though because of circumstances to live stream everything so they'll be it looms in essence on the zoom that people can go into and those rooms are co organized by genre and they can hear all day long arm

the speakers are or see them in action those are some of the key things were going you know we'll keep our fingers crossed for you provide a heavy back in business though you know as regular listeners to keep your prisons know each year the state library of kansas selects fifteen books as kansas notable books these are books by kansas others or about kansas tam what's the role of a kansas notable books that the kansas but just all kind of a backbone to the whole program that we have each year it has been all along so we have a good working relationship with the state library of kansas state librarian nick derek norris and tom this year we believe we're going to have fourteen out of the seventeen offers president actually at the festival that it out stretching into we've got at least ten or eleven of the books out of the fifteen

that are on being featured with present presentations so you're asking how we make decisions on who's going to present that also was a factor we'd like to features many of those those books as we possibly can and for those people attending the kansas book festival you'll see those kansas notable actors walking around with a big metal only excessive like they're like olympians that dave kind of like you know the rock stars of the place that we should have the national anthem blasts some point with the flag raised that if you come then you're going to get to see them at nine o'clock in the morning on september eighteenth at eight awards ceremony and actually the husband of the current governor mark kelly i will be there this is darker turn and he will be helping to preserve the awards at that ceremony and those authors have done great work and i'm excited about just that that lists which i know

you've spoken with some of them in interviews but to hear that the whole collection is worth it it's pretty impressive list of authors each year and their books covered the topics covered among the kansas notable books is always a wide ranging an incredibly interesting i got a throw in there a favorite of mine is lindsay metcalf who own that brought out three books in one here which i find amazing all of them debut books but one of them won an award and as she's written a children's book that is about farmers protesting during the farm crisis and i just think it's wonderful that kids could add a pretty young age see photos and read text that would help them know about an important movement and helped empower them a bit but that's one example and for me it's fun to see rex buchanan and his fellow officers with a book on petroglyphs in the kansas smoky hills

and to know that through them talking and through their book we can kind of help recover some native american history here in the state of kansas those sorts of things are kind of hidden treasures that are worth comment to learn about team i feel like you and i or maybe just dancing around each other first rex buchanan was featured on the show to talk about his book about the petroglyphs so actually gets a small world in today in the world of kansas literature isn't it us what else you got going on at the festival well there is one other dimension here that are gonna make sure to throw in that we've got performers who will be on an outdoor stage there's just south of the memorial union at washburn university so there's somebody every hour of the day from nine until four pm we've got dancers from power the folkloric road the topeka and we've got acoustic music by the church ladies a group that i've really enjoyed a trio that as instruments as well as

voice rap music jazz and storytelling to in addition to being the director of the cancers book festival as you've mentioned your and are thirteen your own right and we featured you and keep your prisons back in june of twenty twenty talking about your book and learning lessons as the lead off their what's the importance of events like the kansas book festival well it's kind of a philosophical question in a way i keep a big lesson and i've been thinking about this for a while i personally right to connect i believe and i don't think authors do i am i think some our are so served by creative expression itself that it's enough that i really like to reach across and that and i do have a theory that even those who are less willing to engage are at

some level trying to reach out through the writing and to have received by somebody and to make a connection i think that's a human impulse time that's very strong and so the festival is that opportunity alm to make that connection with many readers never realize is that you can publish a book and it can even be well white arm and never have word back from the people who are reading it i mean with exception when it is that the readings at the bookstore or at the library those readings or at the book festival where the author actually gets to engage with somebody who read the book and so there's an experience of it being received that doesn't ordinarily happen and that's very satisfying release it is from a man

that's probably at the bottom why i'm directing the first war that is that i would like other authors just as i would like to experience their you know to have that engagement added that they would tend to ask and he's the director of the kansas book festival it will take place this saturday september eighteenth at washburn university in city get tim thanks so much for coming in today dr great talking with you i'm kate mcintyre will have more k pr present coming up right after this from the university of kansas we are kansas public radio ninety one five in lawrence and ninety one three jobs and freely online of kansas public radio dot org or just over a month away from our next pick pr prison book club our selection for october is

ratings sweep wrath by robin lot of humor an exploration of clamps nature and our relationship with the world around us is the twenty twenty one k you come and work in partnership with haskell indian nations university read the book join us for the keep your prisons for club on october twenty first then plant a fee rather <unk> murph when she comes to lawrence in november i know more about the keep your present book club on our facebook page and a kansas public radio dot org and now back to the kansas book festival i stop by washburn university earlier this week to get a sneak peak at two exhibits they're curated by topeka writer time ever all once we decided that that the water would be able to host the kansas book festival we really felt like we could take advantage of the couple of resources that we have one of course in the more than art museum with with a great collection and any other course maybe library with which will

host the main part of the festival and the mai mai qatar may vote kansas studies collection of data so that has a lot of books and a lot of interesting art so that we create essentially would dovetail because there are going to be a lot of artists illustrators kids writers back i think at the festival that maybe we could do one exhibit hurt more thing with two of the i think the finest illustrator maurice in kansas brats me and steven t johnson who'd gotten an amazing work that inspired by even less versatile have alphabet books and infect your exhibit here to more thing is going to be called picture a text and both of them and inspired greatly by tax even my letters you get the letters then you get the worst and you get the census then you get the characters in the stories and each of them has such a unique way of

approaching dean inspired by that and also sort of the art inspires you about the attack so the series is in aaa i think that goes on from way way way back with you know monk's illuminating tax have more posters in the middle ages or this notion that that you can somehow and enhance text and somehow make it more beautiful more more infighting you know rich or all of those things and so we we asked stephen breyer to bring bring worked to our our coverage from gallery here at the mall think this is kind of a poppa gallery where people can do quick quick chosen as one will be upfront is almost completely up as of this week but by by the time but the show airs the more tame who will have all the signage up and people will be able to come and look at the incredible are done

and there are some school troll worker as well and three dimensional artwork from stephen keven t johnson as well so this didn't really fun to do just look at visually it's both of them worked so much with with color and end with interesting sexual story sen stevens alphabet book is just a huge bunch of alliteration for each letter so so he's he's inspired by even the sounds that come out of language and then puts that inspiration late into his interviews are but what i think i do think it has that dimension of all was working at a different part of your brain and that thats what stephen breyer bringing together they're bringing one side of the brain into another puppet regime and they give you like a whole

experience i'm always i'm always so fond of telling my writing students that the words or sequential you know has one can work after another and you know when you say free and all alderson this whole world springs and your head almost thirty hole and almost like an experience that you have and in essence it's more like a dream or more like looking at a piece of our experiences whole world at the same time it's simultaneous it's not sequential anymore simultaneous it's like when you have a dream you know always enjoyed simultaneously as like a movie in your head and then you cook the city does it all had the screaming you could start to explain it and the magic disappearance because you have to really craft secrets of work to evoke the dream so i think that's that's like that that's getting any mike carrier statement for this one

this notion that these bizarre helps make this experience or pull them or simultaneous more like real experience that's remembered and less like just you went to work on the page than anything else that was your impulse with the the maybe library because if you owned book festival day when you go into maybe labor on the entryway onto the wall in the entryway we will come from some books that have really interesting cover that sort of lure you into the experience the book and recalling an exhibit you can't judge a book by its cover and i got that from un actually i first thought of that when i was talking to harriet lerner writer who now lives in lawrence of the bestselling the dance of anger and then she would she wrote me once that

her first publisher harpercollins had a framed poster on the wall that said whoever said don't judge a book by its cover never sold a book he'd get censored the visual element can draw you into a world and going at least make you open the page and branch he talks about the two of you wanting something that makes somebody one look at the next thing so we have we have cover our grant snyder who's from wichita discover four i will judge you by your bookcase and he says he rarely does one whimsical car tonight illustration isn't a wonderful and he he made portraits of the coverage of six of those for us jay and then and as a wall we have another breast meat that cover design

and the proof of the cover for fumbling her but he didn't and there we have marcia sapolsky is watching them dance that barbara waterman peters a vocal artist did the front and back coverage for that we have that art and then in the basement of that maybe you're my collection we have what we call a limited kansas are posters and broad sides i guess you'd call that that i've collected over the years although there's only as art and language the coast for you just is what does what we celebrated hands experience and an unlikely to revisit will be up from you know that's we kill probably mid to late october so people have plenty of time to come roaring and look at our professionals will happen when they issued last a little bit longer so if you miss the festival on september eighteenth make

sure to stop at the mall they in art museum and it the maybe library and take a look at these exhibits bed if you're at the festival on the eighteenth to make sure the pop in and take a look at these will be a nice little break in your day talk you know have you describe one more piece for me again if you are coming into the mall vein art museum at the western university campus you walk in immediately take a right and there are several i guess you'd call them sculptures immediately as you walk in by steven johnson describes as for me were called souvenirs from his souvenir series and as course the letter s for souvenirs and they would with a look like is so like a there's a block a ball and unbalanced on the ball is a spoon and the spoons are buried almost in the shapes of assets but them we've we've let them as he did for the book from behind so that the

shadow which is another as kobus fifty basic mason as an in an arab they're painted different colors as well one of painted silver an enormously the silver spoon shadow forth for this year's covers the shadows you can see steven johnson's silver's supreme sad opiates along with other work by him and by artist brad snead of the morphine art museum in topeka it's part of the kansas book festival taking place on the campus of washburn university this saturday september eighteenth why you're there also check out the display of cover art at the maybe library you can find out more about the day's events including other presentations entertainment and logistics at kansas book festival dot com the event is free and open to the public again their website is kansas book festival dot com