Heartland Book Fest welcomes everyone to ‘find their story’ this October

Courtesy Heartland Book Fest

The Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Humanities, and Missouri Affiliate for Library of Congress’ Center of the Book are partnering to host the Inaugural Heartland Book Fest downtown Oct. 6 and 7. 

The two-day fest will feature a variety of workshops, exhibitions, performances, and activities all centered around the theme “Find Your Story.”

The festival will kick off on Friday with a keynote address from Jermaine Fowler, author of New York Times bestseller The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth and host of the Humanity Archive podcast. He’ll speak at C. Metzler Hall at The Folly Theater at 7 p.m.

Saturday’s featured keynote speaker is bestselling crime writer Karin Slaughter, whose works have been adapted by Netflix’s Pieces of Her and ABC’s Will Trent. She’ll be speaking in Helzberg Auditorium at 1 p.m.

The Saturday schedule, running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., also includes:

• A panel discussion featuring St. Louis author Vivian Gibson, winner of the Missouri Library Association’s Missouri Literary Award for nonfiction in 2022-23, on writing history through the lens of memoir. Gibson was honored for her debut memoir, The Last Children of Mill Creek, about the everyday life of a working-class Black family in a segregated St. Louis neighborhood demolished through urban renewal.
• Kid-friendly discussion by Colter Jackson of her children’s book, The Rhino Suit, about a sensitive girl who makes a rhino-tough suit for protection from the world’s hurts. It was one of two books from Missouri—with Gibson’s—selected for this year’s National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., to represent the state’s literary heritage.
• Presentation on creativity by Columbus, Ohio, illustrator and storyteller Andy J. Pizza, host of the Creative Pep Talk podcast.
• A writing workshop, “Telling Our Stories,” led by Missouri’s sixth poet laureate, Maryfrances Wagner.
• Discussion by local authors Desideria Mesa, Glenn North, Grace Suh, and Whitney Terrell on how the Kansas City area has influenced their work.
• Discussion by another panel of Kansas City-area authors, C.J. Janovy, Phong Nguyen, and Steve Paul, on turning historical research into a compelling narrative.
• Presentation on children’s picture book making by Kansas City illustrator Charlie Mylie and local graphic designer and creative director Jordan Morris.
• Children’s theater performance workshop conducted by professional actors with Starlight Theatre’s Just Imagine interactive program.

The fest is free and open to the public. For more information and to reserve tickets, click here.