PLEASE NOTE: Tickets are required for admission. To purchase, go to https://writersforreaders2023.eventbrite.com
 

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5100 Cherry St.
Kansas City, MO 64110
Room 401

Writers for Readers, one of Kansas City's premier literary events, returns with an exciting lineup featuring celebrated author Lan Samantha Chang and the announcement of this year's Maya Angelou Book Award winner for poetry.

Chang is director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the author of four books, most recently The Family Chao, selected as an NPR best book of 2022 and winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. Her work has also won a PEN/Open Book Award.

Chang, whose fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, and The Best American Short Stories, joins University of Missouri-Kansas City Associate Professor in a conversation about her work.
 

Terrell is the author of three novels including The Good Lieutenant, selected as a best book of 2016 by The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and the digital media and entertainment website Refinery 29.

The evening also features an announcement of this year’s Maya Angelou Book Award winner for poetry. The national literary honor was established in 2020 by the Kansas City Public Library, UMKC, and five other state universities, alternately recognizing authors and notable new releases of American fiction and poetry that contribute to literature, social justice, and inclusion. It comes with a $10,000 stipend.

Proceeds from the Writers for Readers event go toward graduate internships for students who support the Maya Angelou Book Award or teach free, public writing classes. Writers for Readers is an ongoing partnership between the Kansas City Public Library and UMKC's MFA Program in Creative Writing.

If you need ADA accommodation to use Library services or attend Library events and programs, please notify us at least 3 business days in advance at 816-701-3409 or ADA@kcpubliclibrary.org . (TTY access available via 711 or 866-520-7309 for Spanish.)