photo by: Contributed

The keynote speakers of the Free State Book Festival, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 3, 2026, at the Lawrence Public Library and The Raven Book Store.

Many so-called “book festivals” aren’t really that festive at all, says Maureen Carroll of the Kansas Authors Club.

Often, they’re focused on publishers and are more like industry conventions. But the club’s Free State Book Festival this weekend, she said, will really be a festival – with live performances, food, beer and the chance to meet dozens of authors from northeast Kansas.

“You can bring the kids, and there’s a kids area,” she said. “You can come with your bud and drink a beer and sit over and listen to science fiction stuff. You can hear a poetry open mic. There’s just so much to do for anybody that loves literature. And if you want to drag along your friend or spouse who maybe doesn’t love it as much, they’ll have fun too.”

This is the first year for the Free State Book Festival, which is from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, mostly at the Lawrence Public Library. Carroll, who is the chair of Lawrence’s branch of the Kansas Authors Club and the founder of Anamcara Press, said there will be about 70 writers promoting their work in the free event – 50 prose authors and 20 poets. (As of Thursday, she didn’t have a list of participating authors to share.)

Despite the name, it’s not associated with the Free State Festival, the Lawrence Arts Center’s film, arts and culture festival that takes place each summer. Carroll said the organizers weren’t aware of the Free State Festival when they came up with the name.

The authors sign up for the festival themselves, Carroll said, and while the majority are from Lawrence, they come from all over northeast Kansas – “from lots of little small towns and as far away as Emporia.” There was actually more interest from authors than the organizers were able to accommodate, she said.

Their writing encompasses all sorts of genres, she said: “science fiction, memoir, history, you name it.”

On Sunday afternoon, about 40 of the authors will be set up on the library lawn. Carroll said the organizers didn’t want to feature any publishers or book vendors, but rather to keep the whole thing “much more just hands-on” and let people interact “directly with authors.”

“Rather than vendors that are businesses, unless it’s an author business, we’re focused on authors,” Carroll said. “We’ve kept the price very low so it’s accessible for many different authors to come in and share their work, and we’ve also required that the authors have newer works” – ideally from the past five years or so.

There will also be a poetry area behind the library on Kentucky Street, in the space where book sales are held. Here, you can hear from former Kansas Poet Laureate Huascar Medina at 1:45 p.m.; M. Palowski Moore, founder of the Sunflower Poetry Society of Kansas, at 3 p.m.; and longtime Lawrence writer, director and playwright Will Averill at 4:20 p.m. An open mic will be held there from 2:15 to 3 p.m. as well.

“There’ll be something going on at a microphone all afternoon there,” Carroll said.

Inside the library, you’ll find children’s authors along with hands-on activities for kids, Carroll said. They even get their own keynote speaker, award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Stephen T. Johnson, who will speak at 3:15 p.m. in the library auditorium.

One of the festival’s talks will take place a couple of blocks away at The Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St. It’s by science fiction author Chris McKitterick, who teaches at the University of Kansas and whose 2010 novel “Transcendence” was nominated for a Nebula Award. McKitterick’s talk starts at 4 p.m.

Expect live music at the library, too, as well as beer from Free State Brewing Company and the Mad Greek’s food truck.

“We have the keynote speakers and music and beer and food, so it’s much more of a festival atmosphere,” Carroll said.

Moving forward, Carroll said the organizers intend to make the Free State Book Festival an annual event, and she hopes it will be even bigger next year.

“We have an incredible lineup of keynote speakers and authors,” she said. “… And we have not even come close to tapping the resources of creative minds in this area. So I imagine next year we’ll have an even better lineup, and as it becomes more well-known, I expect it will grow.”