- From the heart of the heartland comes a celebration of words, imagination, and community.

Today we're learning about the Kansas Book Festival in Topeka, where stories bloom and authors shine, coming up on Inspire.

- Inspire is sponsored by the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation and by the estate of Ray and Anne Goldsmith.

- Hello and welcome to another fabulous episode of Inspire and it's always such a privilege getting to spend time with my inspire sister Betty Lou Pardue, and definitely with all of you as well.

Today we want to inspire you to unleash your inner reader as we get details about the annual Kansas Book Festival in Topeka.

- The Kansas Book Festival gives even the most casual of readers a chance to discover their next great read and experience, the magic of literature.

And to give us an inside look into the Kansas Book Festival, we have Tim Bascom, who's director of the Kansas Book Festival and one of the festivals featured authors, Rachel McCarthy, James author of Wack Job, A History of Acts Murders.

And we welcome you both.

Okay.

I gotta say I'm a little afraid right now, but we'll be right back.

So, so Tim, let's start with how did this festival, which is amazing, how did it get started?

- Yeah, it began now 14 years ago.

The first lady at the time was Mary Brown back and she wanted to see a festival, particularly so that kids would learn to read at the level they ought to.

And so I was particularly concerned about that literacy.

But it's grown ever since it was at the state capitol.

The last five years it's been at Washburn University where, where I first got involved five years ago.

- That is amazing.

And I know that you had Washington there, Lynette Woodard, Bill Curtis, but this young lady here, what possess we, we've had you on this farm before.

Yes.

But you are back in a big way.

Yeah.

With a whack job.

Yes, please.

What in the book The world?

Yeah, the world.

And even, even your necklace is an act.

Yes, it does.

So I mean, you are personified - Here.

Oh yeah.

Well it's such a, such a potent symbol and it's so long lasting that I think that's a big part of it is the visual.

You know, that's why it's so potent in horror movies is that you love to see it coming through the door and you know, wielded and, and the silhouette itself is very scary.

So I really want, I would really appreciate my cousin Nancy made this for me when the book came out.

So tell us about it though of Yeah, of course.

Absolutely.

So it's whack job history of ax murder.

It's actually my second book about ax murder.

You guys had me on a couple of years ago to talk about my first book, the Man From the Train, which is about a specific ax murderer, one serial killer who came across the country killing families in the middle of the night with an axe.

Oh, I wrote it with my dad, Bill James from baseball, who's some of you will know, he's been at the Kansas Book Festival as well.

And so while I was promoting this, I was thinking about the ax and the term axe murderer especially, and wondered why it provoked, you know, why it's persisted for so long.

Because there's, you know, you don't say knife slayer or gun shooter, true things like that.

But axe murderer, it's really, you know, it started in the 1910s around when this guy was active and it's really persisted.

It's still kind of a punchline today.

So I was interested in how that happened and I started exploring it, got interested in the axe as our earliest human tool.

And it really took me all the way back to the start of human history.

And I kind of worked my way forward through the book, going through Egypt, China, early American history, to kind of find what makes it so terrifying.

And I think it's a really fun read, even though it's a little scary too.

So Tim, - This book festival was hugely successful.

What do you think authors got out of it and why did you decide that you wanted to expand it?

- Well, I'm an author myself actually.

And so I do see it somewhat from the author's point of view, but authors don't, you know, like, here's a book that a lot of people are reading, I'm pretty sure of it, - Right?

- But my hunch is she doesn't get to hear about that much.

But you go into a festival and suddenly you're in a room with all these other people who are actually receiving what you're thinking about and giving you a response.

And that's a very satisfying thing.

I know that as an author and I think you would probably absolutely affirm that, right?

- It's so important to have a community as a writer.

And I think it's really important, especially in Kansas, that we find writers at many different stages of their career and lift them up and bring them to the readership.

'cause there's a lot of readers in Kansas, - The, the, the flip side is that readers actually don't get to meet the author ever.

- Oh yeah, - That's - True.

So for a little bit they're in the same room and they're like, oh wow.

You know, because we may, we may be in love with somebody who died a hundred years ago who wrote a book, but here for a while we actually get to be with somebody who's generating something we care about.

- Yeah.

And you have big time names there, which was just incredible.

'cause there's so many authors in Kansas, but you know, we know Maryanne Washington as a KU coach.

Yeah.

- Right.

- And, and she had one of her players there and then a fellow coach, Maggie Mahood did all of the, you know, the kind of talking and getting everything going.

So how, what was that like having somebody of that magnitude?

- Well, a lot of people came, a lot of people enjoyed it.

I've already seen some of the feedback that's coming back.

One of the things I'd point out is that Maggie's very important to that, right?

She's somebody who knew both people, - Right.

- Having worked with Marianne Washington and could guide a conversation a little bit like you're doing right now.

And people respond to that because somebody who's intelligently aware of what is being discussed can really bring out things and make it an enjoyable conversation and get the audience involved as well.

- Mm.

- So we work pretty hard on making that kind of conversation occur in each of the rooms.

- Right.

So as an author, you're obviously bringing your skillset to planning each year's events.

What is that like?

And do you include people like Rachel and some of the planning?

How, how does that work?

- Well, there's a committee of us.

- Okay.

- And I'm in part of that and there's three or four others and we sit down and we just bat it around.

First of all, we're gathering names and books all year long.

So I already have, - You already had the Whack Job book?

I, - I think for next year I already have 50 authors and books.

- Wow.

That's great.

- And that's gonna grow, that list will be a hundred or 150 before we're done.

And that group will sit down together and start saying, now wait a minute, what if we put Rachel with this book with this person and get a conversation going?

- Another scary - Book.

- Yeah, yeah, - Yeah, - Yeah.

You wouldn't be with cookbooks.

No, - I don't.

Well I just loved it and, and then some, some lesser known, I mean we talked about Bill Curtis, obviously, but some lesser known and this is a way to get them known.

- Right, right.

For me, it's fun.

I care about environmental things.

So a couple of books that the University Press of Kansas had brought out, one was about landscapes of Kansas, had photography, beautiful photos.

Yes.

All the way through it.

And a really intelligent look at that from a geologist.

And then next to them we said, okay, let's put in a bird book.

Yes.

And have an author and illustrator who's taking the photos, all talking together about Kansas natural wonders.

These are books that might not be flying high on the radar, but once you get that conversation going, people are interested.

Yeah.

- So what impact does this have on authors and you've gotten to get in touch with some of your fans.

What, what's the impact that you've seen and what impact has it had on you?

- Absolutely.

Well, I was so appreciative when I was able to talk to give a speech at the 2018 festival.

And that was really a landmark in my career.

It's really nice to, you know, be celebrated by the community and make, make connections.

You know, I talked with Kara Heights, who's a really smart professor over at the KC Art Institute.

So there's always these different connections that you wouldn't necessarily make if you didn't come to this festival.

- Yeah.

And I, I actually had a session myself with a new collection of short stories and I was talking with another author thinking about crossing cultural borders in, in our fiction.

And for me, a lot of the satisfaction was getting to know Lori Dove who had written her book Mask of the Dear Woman and talking with her about parallel interests and having that new connection with somebody who cares about the same stuff.

- Yeah.

Well I just love the variety, like you say, you have photographs, you have axe murderers, you have again, cookbooks and poetry.

So we're gonna be West - Novelist and we'll be learning on the list.

I'm really excited to read their books.

Sylvia Park, - Bren - Greenwood.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of great writers - Children's literature - Too.

Yes.

- Children's.

We had Bes Cal there who just won the bill and Martin Jr.

Picture book award.

And she used to write for the Jimmy Kimmel show.

- Wow.

We - Had Lisa Klein ran Ransom there with a book called One Big Open Sky, which is about exo dusters who used to be slaves coming up into Kansas.

- My family members.

Yep, - Yep.

And this is for kids who are middle grade age and a beautifully written book.

And she actually got a Newberry honor, which is a big deal for the children's author.

So, you know, there's a lot happening that's tied to Kansas and people don't realize how rich that trove is of literature that is somehow connected to this state.

- We gotta keep that going.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I'm loving the whole Kansas connection and now I can't wait to go to next year 'cause Absolutely.

It's coming again.

What, what time of year?

- It's always in September.

- September.

- Mid-September to late.

And yeah.

We'll we're planning towards it.

- Well, I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you both for being on with us today.

This has been awesome.

Hopefully you're getting excited about coming to the next Kansas Book Festival and we're gonna be back in a moment as we learn more about the Kansas Book Festival when we return on Inspire.

So please stay there.

I am honored to be here to feature an inspirational woman, Amy Brady, executive Director of Popular Environmental Magazine, Orion and the author of ICE from Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks.

A cool history of a Hot Commodity.

Amy, thank you for joining us on Inspire.

Thanks for having me.

The whole topic of ice is interesting to me.

Why did you decide to choose it out of all the other things that you could have written about?

- Well, about six years ago, I was visiting my family who live here in Topeka, Kansas.

There was a brutal heat wave that knocked out the power to their house.

So we went to a nearby gas station that was operating on a generator to try to cool.

And as I'm watching the ice cubes fall into the cup so that I could get a nice tall glass of ice tea, it just occurred to me that I hadn't thought twice about whether ICE was available there or if I'd gone a mile in the other direction to the local grocery store, I could have bought a bag of ice there.

Ice is everywhere.

Yes.

In this country.

And when you travel elsewhere outside the United States, that is not always the case.

- Really.

- No.

Americans are uniquely obsessed with this stuff.

And I wanted to know why.

And I discovered the history of the ice industry in the United States.

I learned all about it and couldn't believe how fascinating and strange and at times truly hilarious it is.

- Okay.

So tell me a hilarious story about ice, because I'm just thinking, okay, frozen water, what would be funny about that?

- Yeah, so - Share that with us.

- Well, you know, I could talk about something that is both funny and also kind of disgusting.

- Oh wow.

- And that's that in the earliest days of the ice industry, ice had to be harvested out of lakes and rivers in these giant blocks.

And it took really strong men with saws and ice picks to do it, and horses to pull the big blocks out of the water.

Now, horses being the mammals that they are Yes.

Frequently let loose their bowels.

Oh, on the ice, the very ice that would soon touch the mouths of thirsty Americans everywhere.

Oh my goodness.

So we have come a long way.

- Wow.

So I'm thinking about what, like the Clean Food Act, you know, what was the Upton Sinclair?

Did ice fall into that at that particular time, or it did not?

No, - No, that came many, many years - Later.

Really?

Yeah.

So people were enjoying dirty ice for a long period of time, for a very long period of time.

Oh my goodness.

And when did ice actually become a thing in America?

- Well, the first shipment of ice from the north to the southern states and territories happened in the early 19th century.

- Really?

- So we're talking about 200, 220 years ago.

- And were they just using it for preserving, you know, food?

Or were they actually using it in terms of like putting it in, you know, teas and different liquids?

- Well, we eventually were using it to preserve foods, but the very first uses of ice in the South was actually to make delicious cocktails and ice tea.

Go figure.

Because what is a cocktail without ice?

Yeah.

So, you know, today when you walk into a craft cocktail bar, a higher end place where your bartender cares not just about the taste, but about the aesthetic, one of the most important ingredients they can pay attention to is the ice in the drink.

But even though that's a, a relatively, you know, contemporary phenomenon, it actually hearkens all the way back to the 19th century when the first bartenders in America were considered celebrities.

- Oh my goodness.

And now I'm thinking about all the different ways that we use ice.

'cause you said like if people have cuts and scrapes, we put ice on that.

We have ice sculptures.

Yes.

We have the Zamboni making sure that the ice is smooth for hockey.

I mean, and we don't even think twice about - It.

No, I mean, I didn't think about, think about it twice until I wrote the book.

- Wow.

Well, all of this is fascinating.

So I need to go get the book.

Where am I gonna find the book?

And tell me the title again?

- The title of the book is Ice from Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks.

A Cool History of a Hot Commodity.

You can get it anywhere.

Books are sold - Ready for your next great read.

So are we.

We're back now with Tom Averil, co-editor of Kansas Matters, 21st century writers in the Sunflower State.

And Tracy Brimhall, who is Kansas poet Laureate.

And welcome back to both of you.

Thank you.

You, we need to talk about being the Kansas poet Laureate because you must be exhausted traveling the state.

- It's a pretty big state as I'm coming to realize.

It can take me hours to get from where I live to a different corner.

But it's also the privilege of a lifetime to get to share what I love with other people.

And I love that so many people are interested.

It's, I think sometimes poetry has a bad reputation as something that is difficult or confusing, but so many people invite me to their schools, their libraries, their communities to talk to them about poetry.

So I love that so many people are open and interested and curious and yeah.

So I just feel really grateful to get to be doing this right now.

- And especially young people, because sometimes I think that maybe poetry is seen as like something that the older people like ourselves would really get into, but the young kids are like, Hmm, unless it's rap, they really don't wanna hear about it.

So talk to us about that.

- I think that young people often have a better understanding of poetry because they still see the world in a slightly more magical way.

Okay.

I know my favorite definition when people want me to define what is a poem, I really like this definition I saw by a fourth grader that said a poem is an egg with a horse inside it.

- Oh, - Wow.

And I think this is better than any definition any, you know, adult poet has ever written because it's a metaphor, which is what we know poems are, and it's something small with something large inside it.

And it is something, you know, with a surprise inside it.

And I feel like that surprise, that delight, that when your mind connects things that it hadn't connected before or sees the world in a new way, that's always what a poem is.

And so I really love that definition and think kids are sometimes better at seeing the magic and the surprise in the day in a way that adults kind of have their faces in their phones and their to-do lists and thinking about what to make for dinner.

And they, they, they're missing the magic that's happening in our living rooms and outside our windows all the time.

That's right.

That's - Brilliant.

There's a Kansas poet, William Stafford, who was asked once, when did he become a poet?

And he said, when did everyone else stop?

Because, because we, when we're young and learning language, we, we love to play with words.

We love to lie, we love, you know, we love to, we love to do all of these things to, to show that we have a power in, in the language and it has a power over us.

So I I think you're very right about that.

- I love that.

- Yeah.

- Now Tom, many of our viewers and and your readers know you from road, your book Road RODE.

Tell us about what you have going on now.

- Well, I have a new anthology that I've co-edited with Leslie von Holton called Kansas Matters.

Okay.

21st century writers on the Sunflower State.

And it's, it's kind of a, not a sequel exactly, but this one, which is 35 years old this year Wow.

Came out in 1990 what Kansas means to me, 20th century writers on the Sunflower State.

And the University press emailed me one day and said, isn't it time for 21st century writers and reflecting the diversity and reflecting the, the cultural history of Kansas since these days.

- Yeah.

- And so this, this was much more of a history and culture lesson.

And this book, Kansas Matters, which sort of plays off of William Allen White's, what's the matter with Kansas?

Everybody.

So we thought, well, what is the matter of Kansas?

Right.

What's the material here?

Why does Kansas matter so much to people, whether it's from John Brown to Brown B Board, or whether it's basketball or whether it's prairie and rivers.

And, you know, just so we, we've, we sort of organized this book around the theme of home, you know?

Right.

There is no place like, like home.

Home.

Yes.

And, and then family and communities and the elemental landscapes of Kansas that are so amazing.

And, and then finally Kansas traditions, all those things that Kansans have, have given to the world.

Right.

Whether it's Gilbert Baker in Parsons, Kansas, going on to design the pride flag or whether it's the, the boot makers at, at the end of the cattle drive Oh, who gave, gave us the Cowboy Boot.

- Sure.

- And the late Jim Hoy has an essay in - Here.

Oh, I love him.

Yeah.

- Called How, how Kansas Gave Texas the Boot.

I love that.

Perfect.

I do like that.

- Yeah.

- And, and so we thought it was time to bring something new and fresh out, give us, give a vision of the state Tracy offer offered to let us use her inauguration poem, which I think she's read before on this - Show.

Yes, yes.

Also, we're, we're ready to hear you again.

Yes.

- Yes.

We would love to hear, yeah.

Another one about sort of falling in love with Kansas.

- Oh yes.

I - Don't know if you could say love, but Yeah.

- I think you could say love.

Yeah.

You can say love.

I like, I like loving as many things as possible.

- Yes.

And while you're finding that we do want everybody to know that you have been published in The New Yorker.

- Yes.

Yes.

Which is a big - Deal.

Major.

- Yeah.

I, I've been lucky by Kevin Young, who is a Topeka poet, so - Wow.

- And also in the anthology, if I remember correctly.

So - Cycle of poems about Nicodemus.

Wow.

- Oh, nice.

Yes.

So the editor, the poetry editor of the New Yorker is a Kansan as well.

We are everywhere.

Yeah.

So lucky enough to do that.

And one thing I did wanna say, the title I learned because I am lucky enough to work with other curious people, and I was helping a student with a project on landscape architecture and how to design places that are through ways for animals.

So the Refugium is a, a biologically untouched place.

And so there's in a lot of design, especially landscape design, there's a, a rewilding, a desire to have like indigenous plants and to create, to recreate or continue to preserve landscapes that are through ways for migrating animals.

And that we need all of these chained together to preserve these, you know, historical migratory roots for all these animals.

So a fu is just a set of places that are preserved, that are untouched.

Its original title was actually shelter in place and it was a pandemic poem.

Okay.

And it was something, I'm a person, I've been called Little Wheel, I've been called Chaos on Legs.

Person who is constantly in motion and a little bit chaotic, but I'm always on the go.

And, but Kansas is the longest I've lived anywhere.

But I think it was really the pandemic and sheltering in place that made me really stop and notice what was blooming outside my door and really notice the sky and really notice a lot of things that were kind of just always, you know, whizzing past me as I rushed from one thing to another Right.

As my chaotic self.

So I thought that might be worth explaining before I begin.

- Okay.

- I didn't know I loved Kansas with its wind curring through the arms of windmills.

Its fields gr with lavender, its subscriptions for sunflowers.

I thought I was pollen complaint and water hunger.

I didn't know that I loved the hopeful ugliness of signets or that a group of vultures is called awake, or that a skull oxbows with a signature as unique as a fingerprint.

I thought I loved to verb through the days, but spring annulled that marriage giving me to stillness.

I didn't know.

I would also love the discourse of chickadees and the red bud and insects resting on my books, their legs, testing the strength of ends and os before flitting off, I didn't know I would also love the sundials secretarial shadow I'd forgotten.

I loved the blue of afternoon bold bear, the white of ecstasy at its edges.

The lyric bending me over its knees.

I'd forgotten how to recite the rosary long distance.

But I knew I loved Latin in the shower.

I didn't know I loved using my breath to make a page of the mirror and draw vines of vanishing roses with my ring finger.

I didn't know I loved wasps.

When I set the nest on fire.

I only meant to protect my son from his rushed in and out through the door.

But I watched them pull pearled eggs from muddy tunnels.

And I knew, I didn't know.

I loved raccoons raiding day old cheeseburgers from trash cans.

I once loved brass bands and free boat rides.

But now I loved hammers for hanging pictures and telescopes for imagining a future with mix tapes of denim and rhinestone rodeos my face, unmasked my arm, brushing a strangers.

Even now I love the stout pulses of magicians and the salads my son makes from the wild in our yard.

The bitter dandelion greens, chickweed, henbit, I'd forgotten that I'm good at survival too, that I've taught my son the uses of the earth.

Every day we walk one block further, our own sympathetic magic.

A ritual to ask the world to let us return.

I know I will love tomorrow's moon as it coats its smell on mint.

I will love the drip torch bathing last year's grasses and fire.

I know that hope is a discipline, but so is the dark heat falling toward me.

A citation of grief, a joy ready to welcome a late, continue to fly.

Open the door for my son who's already running.

- Oh my gosh.

That's beautiful.

I love that.

And I love that you were following along in the book so that, and I wish we had more time.

I got out.

We thank you both.

Oh my gosh.

Thank you for sharing your time with us today as well.

And that is all the time we have dog gone it.

But we will have you back and, and buy their books.

This is wonderful.

We love the fact.

And we want to thank all of our guests for joining us today.

And if you find yourself inspired to learn more about our guests and want to see what's coming up on future shows, please visit our website at kw.org/inspire.

- Inspire inspiring women, inspiring you to check out the heartland for your next inspirational read.

Inspiring you on KTWU.

Thank you for watching.

- Inspire is sponsored by the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation and by the estate of Ray and Goldsmith.