Kansas Book Fest West

The Abilene event will begin with a reception* hosted by the Arts Council of Dickinson County, 401 N. Cedar Street, Abilene, from 5:30 -6:30 pm. The event will give attendees the opportunity to meet the authors before the reading.

Following the reception, author readings will be held in the Abilene Public Library, 209 N. W. Fourth Street. The children’s book authors will read in the children’s section of the library, with the authors of adult works upstairs in the main meeting room. The event will begin at 6:30 pm and will conclude by 8:00 pm to allow children to attend.

Seven authors will participate:

• Kathleen Wilford will share from her 2022 middle-grade novel Cabby Potts, Duchess of Dirt, set in the 1870s on the Kansas Prairie and told by a clever settler girl who must work as a housemaid.
• Jenn Bailey will share Meowsterpieces, featuring Mama Cat and her playful kittens as they take inspiration from some of the world’s great masterpieces to learn the art of being a cat.
• Nancy McCabe will read from Vaulting Through Time, a YA novel about a sixteen-year-old gymnast and her adventures with a time machine.
• Lindsay Metcalf, a former journalist, will read from one of her books for young readers, inspiring them to make a difference with regard to the environment and social justice.
• Poet Janice Northerns will share works from her debut collection, Some Electric Hum, which disentangles the gnarled branches of a family tree into poems of complicated love and endurance.
• Tim Bascom will read from Climbing Lessons, which illustrates the special bond between fathers and sons and how that relationship must change with time.
• Cathleen Bascom will read from Of Green Stuff Woven, an eco-novel which depicts a group of native gardeners who are restoring tall grass prairie on land connected to their historic Episcopal cathedral.

• *  Tickets to the reception held are $25 and can be purchased online at www.artscouncildc.org. or by calling the Arts Council at 785-263-1884. “Meeting the authors beforehand will allow listeners to be more engaged in the readings.”