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.

Organizers of a literary festival set for next spring are lining up authors for the four-day event in Lawrence.

“The Paper Plains Literary Festival,” scheduled for April 23-26, 2020, will be a collaboration of the University of Kansas Hall Center, The Commons, the Raven Book Store and the Lawrence Public Library.

Danny Caine, the owner of the Raven Book Store and one of the festival organizers, said the idea for the festival came about because on many occasions throughout the year, KU, the public library and the Raven have collaborated to bring individual authors to town, so they decided why not bring a large group of authors together at once?

The lineup of almost 30 authors for the festival will be announced during a launch party at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18, at Maceli’s Banquet Hall, 1031 New Hampshire St.

“People will be excited to see who will be appearing at the festival,” Caine said.

The event will include both adult and young adult programming, which Caine hopes will attract readers to Lawrence from a wide region.

“We want to celebrate the literary landscape of the Plains,” Caine said, “not just authors within the Lawrence city limits or the state of Kansas.”

In selecting the April dates, Caine said organizers were aiming for a time when hotels would not be full with other events.

“We didn’t want to interfere with basketball but wanted the college students still in town,” Caine said.

On Tuesday, The Paper Plains Literary Festival will launch its social media with a webpage as well as the PaperPlainsFest Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Local designer Iris Cliff created the event’s logo. The name of the event, “The Paper Plains Literary Festival,” came from the brainstorming of Meredith Moore and Paul DeGeorge, owners of Wonder Fair, 841 Massachusetts St., who are also organizers of the event.

Although festival partnerships are helping to pay the cost of the festival, it’s an expensive undertaking, Caine said, especially since some of the authors will be flown into Kansas City, Mo. Plus, every author speaking at the event will be paid. Organizers are looking at various fundraising ideas, including charging $10 to attend the launch party.

During the event, there will be an opportunity for “typewriter warriors to bring their trusted machines and compete with speed and accuracy on the keys,” Caine said.

There will also be a silent auction with books signed by the authors, tarot readings and button making to create “The Paper Plains Literary Festival” button.