Center for Kansas Studies

This year’s Kansas Book Festival Panel Schedule is LIVE!

We are thrilled to announce that the panel schedule for the 15th Annual Kansas Book Festival is officially available on our website!

Head over to the link in our bio to check out our exciting lineup. You can now map out your perfect day of panels! Whether you're excited for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or children’s books, or meeting your favorite authors, there is something for every book lover.

Save the Date:
Saturday, September 26, 2026 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Washburn University Library (Topeka, KS)

Let us know in the comments which panel you are most excited to see!

A week of Sunflower Music Festival free concerts starts Friday at White Concert Hall on the Washburn campus. Everyone is welcome! Learn more: https://www.wibw.com/2026/06/15/sunflower-music-festival-ready-sound-off/

Last evening we had the privilege of hearing from Bill Kurtis on the anniversary of the 1966 Topeka tornado when he’s so famously told people to take cover, saving countless lives. Thank you to everyone who came out and shared their powerful stories, deep personal memories, and cherished family photos with us at the Center for Kansas Studies table. What a turnout!!!! The line was long for the book signing, but Bill stayed to sign each copy of “Whirlwind.” 

CKS Fellow and Washburn University Archivist, Martha Imparato, got a chance to exhibit archival materials of the tornado and Bill Kurtis’s time as a law student at Washburn when he also worked at WIBW. Bill and Donna were very moved by Martha’s display; it was such a wonderful moment to catch their interaction.

We thank the Kansas Book Festival director Lara Avery for inviting us to co-sponsor this event, which was clearly meaningful to so many people in our community. We also appreciated her opening remarks and land acknowledgement statement.

We also thank CKS Fellow Dennis Etzel, Jr. for volunteering to help check people in and collect donations for the Kansas Book Festival. 

📷 Please check out these photos taken by CKS Director Laura Murphy. We were all particularly moved by the number of people in the audience who stood in recognition of their experiences on that day with Bill Kurtis.

Kansas Book Festival

Washburn University College of Arts and Sciences

WIBW

Washburn University Libraries