New literary festival in Lawrence postponed until 2021; online event planned in meantime

photo by: Contributed image

Local designer Iris Cliff created the logo for “The Paper Plains Literary Festival," while the name came from the brainstorming of Meredith Moore and Paul DeGeorge, owners of Wonder Fair.

The organizers of the upcoming Paper Plains Literary Festival in Lawrence have postponed the inaugural event for one year, in light of local and national recommendations about gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.

The festival, which was scheduled for April 23-26, had boasted a lineup of free events involving award-winning authors, headlined by Colson Whitehead, Natalie Diaz and Sarah Smarsh.

“In dreaming up Paper Plains, my idea was always to see what happened if Lawrence’s literary and arts community could team up on something big,” Festival director Danny Caine said in a statement announcing the postponement Tuesday. “The answer: something huge and amazing. Paper Plains is a big vision, and that vision doesn’t change with a wait of 12 more months until our first festival.”

Caine, a local poet who owns the Raven Book Store, said organizers intend to hold an online event of some sort during the festival’s originally scheduled dates and that many of the festival’s authors would be involved.

Caine said Smarsh, a native Kansan who gained national acclaim with her recent memoir, has already committed to return in 2021.

Related story

• March 10 — Paper Plains Literary Festival boasts ‘world’s first’ book club parade among event lineup

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