{"id":172751,"date":"2025-09-21T23:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/172751\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T23:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:08:12","slug":"annual-book-festival-highlights-voices-from-across-kansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/172751\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual book festival highlights voices from across Kansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The Washburn University library hosted the 14th annual Kansas Book Festival<\/a>, Saturday, Sept. 20. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a celebration of literature,\u201d said Tim Bascom, the festival director. <\/p>\n

At the festival, there was something for everyone. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody likes something. some people like carrots, some people like peas, and some of us don\u2019t like them. And that\u2019s the same thing with books and genres,\u201d said Violet Cornett, a children\u2019s book author. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of events, I feel like, kind of open us up to something new, trying something new on that menu that we wouldn\u2019t normally do, and we\u2019re like, you know what, maybe. Maybe give it a go,\u201d Cornett continued. <\/p>\n

From children\u2019s books to memoirs, the festival invited 50 authors from across the state to share their stories. <\/p>\n

One of them is a familiar face in the Topeka community, known for his coverage of the 1966 tornado<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI realized the next few words I would say would mean life or death,\u201d said Bill Kurtis, former WIBW broadcaster and author. <\/p>\n

Kurtis discussed his new memoir, \u201cWhirlwind,\u201d describing his life\u2019s journey after uttering the words: \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, take cover.\u201d <\/p>\n

Authors of all genres were in attendance. <\/p>\n

Marian Washington<\/a>, a retired KU women\u2019s basketball coach, also shared her journey. <\/p>\n

Her new book, \u201cFIERCE: My Fight For Nothing Less,\u201d documents her journey fighting for women\u2019s equality in sports. <\/p>\n

Every book and story told represented a different voice tied to Kansas. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe intentionally focus on bringing people here who have books somehow tied to this state,\u201d Bascom said. Now they may not live here still, but maybe they grew up here, or maybe they wrote something that\u2019s just tied to us, and they come in to about it. We try real hard to give people a mix of things that would speak to everyone, everyone\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, the festival showcased the impact of storytelling. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell our story, whatever our vision, whatever it is that we want to convey to the other person, we say it through words,\u201d Cornett said. \u201cAnd you know what? It\u2019s out there, you\u2019re reading it and you\u2019re reading it in however your tone is, but you\u2019re you know embracing what the words are.\u201d<\/p>\n

WIBW is a proud sponsor of the Kansas Book Festival. <\/p>\n

Learn more about the festival HERE<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 WIBW. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The Washburn University library hosted the 14th annual Kansas Book Festival, Saturday, Sept. 20.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[103179,103181,402,103180,692,223,88,32353,103183,103184,4412,30344,3465,103182,103185,96653,6671,33372,103178,103186,48871],"class_list":["post-172751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-14th","tag-103181","tag-basketball","tag-bill-curtis","tag-book","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-festival","tag-fierce-my-fight-for-nothing-less","tag-for-gods-sake","tag-kansas","tag-ku","tag-library","tag-marian-washington","tag-take-cover","tag-tornado","tag-university","tag-university-of-kansas","tag-washburn","tag-whirlwind","tag-womens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}