National Book Foundation event in Topeka

Mark your calendar to meet National Book Award-honored authors Lucas Bessire and Megha Majumdar at the library Thu, April 21 at 7pm. The authors will examine how access and power operate in their work from an environmental disaster in the U.S. to a fictionalized nationalist uprising in India. You'll hear readings and conversation moderated by Huascar Medina, Kansas Poet Laureate, followed by a book signing.

Join us in Marvin Auditorium. Masks are required. Register to attend.

National Book Award-honored authors

Bessire is a Kansas Native and author of Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, 2021 Nonfiction Finalist. He is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Bessire is also the author of Behold the Black Caiman: A Chronicle of Ayoreo Life. Discover more about Running out in our recent Lost in the Stacks article.

Majumdar is the author of A Burning, 2020 Fiction Longlist. She was born and raised in Kolkata, India. Majumdar moved to the U.S. to attend college at Harvard University. She then attended graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. Majumdar works as an editor at Catapult and lives in New York City. A Burning is her first book.

NBF Presents

NBF Presents programs bring National Book Award-honored authors and nationally recognized moderators to libraries, colleges, book festivals, and performance venues for public readings, discussions, and presentations. NBF Presents is designed to give audiences—whether in urban, suburban, or rural communities—access to some of our country’s most renowned writers and their books and to create spaces where authors and audiences can connect, be in dialogue, and share ideas.

The National Book Foundation aims to leave no reader or community overlooked, and to be a catalyst for conversations through great books. Learn more about the Foundation at nationalbook.org.