Heartland Book Festival

An impressive lineup of nationally prominent and regional authors will be featured at the third year of the Heartland Book Festival on Friday, October 10, at Mid-Continent Public Library’s Woodneath Library Center and Saturday, October 11, at the Kansas City Public Library’s Central Library.

The Heartland Book Festival – co-presented by Missouri Humanities, the Kansas City Public Library, the Missouri Affiliate for the Library of Congress Center for the Book, and new partner, Mid-Continent Public Library – will offer an array of workshops, panels, local vendors, and activities for children. All events are free and open to the public, with audiences of all ages welcome. Festival highlights include:
• Percival Everett will speak about his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James in a special Friday night program to open the festival.
• Mega-bestselling author Taylor Jenkins Reid will discuss her latest novel, Atmosphere, with Kansas City-based author Adib Khorram, author of the forthcoming It Had to Be Him.
• Adib will also lead a storytime for his picture book Bijan Always Wins, the 2025 Great Reads from Great Places children’s selection from Missouri.
• Internationally award-winning sci-fi/fantasy author Nnedi Okorafor, known for drawing her stories from African cultures, will speak about her novel Death of the Author.
• Bestselling and award-winning children’s book author Derrick Barnes, a former Kansas City Public Library youth outreach specialist, will discuss his forthcoming middle-grade novel, The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze.

The Heartland Book Festival is made possible in part by our sponsors: the Missouri Arts Council, the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, Pete Browne and Julie Walker Browne, Kissick Construction, and the Kansas City Public Library Greenwood Society.

Admission is free, but entry tickets are required for each day.

For more information and to reserve free tickets, visit www.heartlandbookfest.org.