Kansas poet to be awarded during Washburn’s Kansas Book Festival

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - One Kansas poet will be awarded with the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award during the Kansas Book Festival at Washburn University.

Washburn University says it will host the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award Presentation and Reading during the annual Kansas Book Festival between Sept. 23 and 24. It said both events are free and open to the public.

Washburn noted that the award is given each year to celebrate all who write and read and whose lives have been enhanced by their engagement with literature, history and Kansas culture.

WU said the award rotates between poetry, fiction and nonfiction and is sponsored by the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection and the Friends of Mabee Library.

According to the university, the winner of the 2022 award in poetry, Michael Kleber-Diggs, will do a reading of his collection “Worldly Things” after the award presentation.

Washburn said that the 2023 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Fiction is also now accepting submissions from Kansas fiction writers with book-length works published in the past three years for a chance to win the $1,000 grand prize.

The university noted that the 2023 judge will be Robert Stewart, long-time editor of New Letters quarterly magazine, New Letters on the Air and BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Washburn indicated that the 2023 deadline for submissions is April 15. There is no fee to enter. For complete guidelines, click HERE.