Journalist and author Bill Kurtis will be a special guest at the 15th Annual Kansas Book Festival at Washburn University Saturday, Sept. 26. His 2025 memoir, "Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News" will be available for purchase.

Other highlighted books to be featured include "Kansas Matters: Twenty-First-Century Writers on the Sunflower State," "Stories from the Phog: Forty Years of Kansas Basketball," and "Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters, Then and Now."

Additionally, 40+ publishers, nonprofits, and individual authors, and guests are invited to dine at local food trucks, listen to live music, and bring the whole family to enjoy children’s activities.

The event plays host to an award ceremony for the Kansas Notable Books selected annually by the State Library of Kansas, as well as a presentation by the winner of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award, granted by the Kansas Studies Collection at Mabee Library.

The Kansas Book Festival is now expanding to year-round programming, including arranging author visits to local schools and awarding grants to Kansas libraries in need.