Kansas Fiction Writers with book length works published in the past three years (2020/21/22) are eligible to win the $1,000 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Fiction.

The annual award, rotating between poetry, fiction and nonfiction is sponsored by the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection at Washburn University in Topeka and the Friends of Mabee Library. There is no fee to enter.

According to Washburn, this year’s 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.

Deadline for submission is April 15, 2023.  For complete guidelines, please visit:  https://www.washburn.edu/mabee/ksbookaward/call-for-submissions.html

Washburn University’s Mabee Library will host the annual Kansas Book Festival Sept. 16, 2023 on the campus of Washburn University. The 2023 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award will be presented during a pre-festival ceremony on Sept. 15.

Michael Kleber-Diggs won the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry for his collection “Worldly Things.” Rebekah Taussig earned the 2021 Award in Nonfiction for her memoir “Sitting Pretty.”

The Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection—sponsor of the competition—is an eclectic, inclusive set of materials dedicated to the study of Kansas literature through the state’s folklore, history, geography, flora, fauna, social fabric and culture