By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Kansas Book Fest is moving west.
The festival, which has been conducted in Topeka, is having a second day of activities from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday on the quad of the Fort Hays State University campus. This is the first year the festival has had events in western Kansas.
If the weather is inclement (rain, excess heat or wind) the event will move inside to the ballroom of the FHSU Union.
Many of the authors who will be attending the festival in Topeka on Saturday will travel to Hays the next day for the Kansas Book Fest West.
The event is designed to have activities and feature literature for all ages, including children. The event will have fun literacy-building games for children, food trucks, music, the Hays Public Library Bookmobile, books for sale and author readings.
Free books will be available through the Liberate Books Project. The Russell Speciality Books and Gifts will be on hand to sell books by the presenting authors as well as other books and related items.
Authors will be available to sign books.
FHSU's Creative Arts Society also will be participating with a focus on art in books.
On Monday, FHSU is also hosting the Young Reader's Conference. Some authors will be participating in both events. The conference brings hundreds of third- through fifth-grade students to FHSU to promote reading and writing. Some authors also will be presenting at local schools as part of the conference.
"The goal is to have kids out here to have that opportunity to meet authors and know these books are created by real people with real experiences that are not too far from their own," said Carrie Tholstrup, an organizer of the event and FHSU faculty member.
Both events aim to boost an interest in reading among all ages, she said.
"Reading should be fun," she said. "It's not just a chore. It is an important skill. It's very important that we teach it in certain ways, but we also want it to be fun and is a way for students to connect their own experiences to the experiences of other people ... and to find passions."
Genres for Kansas Book Fest West include children's literature, non-fiction, fiction and poetry, and both Kansas authors and those from across the country.
Below is a complete list of all of the authors who will be attending the festival.
Mandy Kern is from the Cheyenne Bottoms area, and she will be reading from her book "Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet." Avocets, large water birds, can be spotted in the Cheyenne Bottoms near Great Bend.
Kate Benz is from South Dakota. She also will be presenting at 6 p.m. Monday in the Schmidt Community Commons of the Hays Public Library in addition to Book Fest. Benz's non-fiction stories are based in rural Kansas and discuss the plight of rural America.
Hannah Harrison of Oklahoma is a children's author. Sarah Broman Miller, one of the organizers of the festival and FHSU faculty member, said she was struck by Harrison's story about how she became a children's book author.
"When she was a child in elementary school, she fell in love with art," Broman Miller said. She found out very early that she had a special gift in drawing and writing stories. An elementary teacher told her, 'You know you can do this for a living.'"
Harrison decided at a very young age that was what she was going to do.
"That's why I wanted her to come to this, so she could encourage other students who just haven't found their niche yet," Broman Miller said. "This might be an avenue they could go down."
Violeta Cornett, author of "My Aunt Flor," is a children's author from Colby. She also will be reading at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday at the Hays Public Library.
Nancy McCabe of Pennsylvania will be sharing her young adult book "Vaulting Through Time."
Lindsay Metcalf of Concordia will be reading from her book "No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change." Her book is geared to children 5 through 9. She also will be speaking to O'Loughllin Elementary School students on Monday.
Janice Northerns will be presenting from her collection of poetry, "Some Electric Hum." She also will be meeting with FHSU English students on Monday.
Husband and wife Tim and Cathleen Bascom will be reading from their books. Both authors draw inspiration from the natural environment of with an eye toward prairie preservation.
Cathleen is an Episcopal bishop. Her novel is "Of Green Stuff Woven," which pits a group who wishes to preserve their rural Episcopal cathedral and the surrounding prairie in the face of a potential hotel development.
Tim Bascom is the author of a collection of stories on fathers and sons titled "Climbing Lessons: Stories of Fathers, Sons, and the Bond Between."
Jen Bailey's novel "Unexpecting" is the story of teens and their families dealing with an unexpected pregnancy.
Kathleen Wilford's "Cabby Potts, Duchess of Dirt," is a historical novel geared toward students in the middle grades. Wilford is from New Jersey.
This is the first year for the Kansas Book Fest West, but Broman Miller said she hopes the festival will become a regular event that grows.
Families are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets to spread out on the grass in the quad.
Broman Miller said she would provide blankets under trees in the quad so children can look at or read books while their parents listen to readings or do other things at the festival.
Readings will be offered by the participating authors throughout the afternoon, with live music in between.
"What we really want is that one-on-one opportunity to meet authors," Tholstrup said.