Join New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones for a conversation about her most recent novel, Kin. It explores the connections between mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South. Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, unforgettable work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction. 

Jones is the author of five novels. Kin is an Oprah’s Book Club Selection, and The New York Times and Amazon editors have named it the best novel of the year so far. She is also among the TIME100 list of the most influential people in the world. Her previous novel, An American Marriage, was also an Oprah’s Book Club Selection, appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list, and won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award. It has been published in two dozen languages. 

A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, Jones has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her third novel, Silver Sparrow, was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. 

She is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.

Timeline

Event Time: 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Book Signing: 7:45-8:45 p.m.

The success of Bruce R. Watkins Drive is just as complicated as its tortured construction. More than 35 years since construction began, this exhibition reflects on the good and the bad in the road’s winding legacy.

This exhibition of historic photographs, based on the KCUR 89.3 podcast A People's History of Kansas City, invites guests to participate in this chapter of Kansas City’s soccer story while learning more about how it became a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The Flood of 1951 was the worst natural disaster in Kansas City’s history. Seventy-five years later, this exhibition looks back at its impact on the region, commemorating those who lost loved ones and property, the first responders, social service providers, citizen volunteers who helped in rescue and relief efforts, and the “Kansas City Spirit” that inspired a community to rally, recover, and rebuild.

This workshop helps readers discover new genres by offering a menu of book options. Choose a genre from the menu, sample a book, and let your server know when you’re ready for the next round. You can enjoy three rounds of reading or go at your own pace. Use notes to track the books you want to read in the future.

Learn how to search library catalogs and databases for historical records and archival resources — then use that research to write in historical context.

Learn writing techniques of horror and the supernatural, including the uncanny, the fantastic, and more.

Use simple sewing and gluing to make felt bookmarks inspired by the season. Get creative and take home a unique handmade souvenir from the Heartland Book Festival and the Central Library.

Chico Sierra is a self-described artist, musician, writer, thinker, and doer. In this highly visual performance, Sierra creates bookish paintings in locations inside and outside the Library. Just look for one of his easels throughout the day!

10-11 a.m., signing to follow at 11:15 a.m. Daniel Miyares shares who he is, why, and how he makes picture books. The presentation stresses the power and value of visual storytelling and includes a reading of one of his picture books as well as a shape animal drawing activity that everyone can participate in. BOOK: Hope at Sea‍ ‍

The New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey is in conversation with Sierra Simone (Priest, American Queen), also a bestselling romance author. Bailey discusses her latest book, Broken Rival, a time-travel romance about a high school girl stuck in the past and torn between two Kansas brothers.

Entertainment Weekly described Bailey as the “Michelangelo of dirty talk” for her spicy, feel-good romance novels. Her favorite trope: enemies-to-lovers.

She’s written more than 60 contemporary and romantic comedy books, often with a focus on stubborn, blue-collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. Her breakout book was Fix Her Up, and she's also known for the hit romcom It Happened One Summer and its sequel, Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Bailey now lives on Long Island, New York, with her husband and daughter. She says she is grateful to be living her dream, writing stories about people falling in love.‍‍

Sierra Simone is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She's also a former librarian and says she spent too much time reading romance novels at the information desk. Simone's newest release is Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl. Her best-known books are Priest, American Queen, and Misadventures of a Curvy Girl. She has bylines in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, and Buzzfeed. Simone lives in Kansas City with her husband and family.‍ ‍

Sensuality is at the heart of this fast-paced workshop, where you’ll discover both the strengths and challenges of describing sensations. In this class, look at the five basic senses and more, starting with exercises to help you notice how you experience the world. Apply these discoveries to different media and leave with a challenge to see your daily life in a new way.

If you’re already part of a book group or thinking about starting one, this workshop covers tips and tools to help make it a success. Participants can share their own experiences of what’s worked and what hasn’t, hear some great title suggestions, and recommend favorite book group reads.

Help create a collaborative coral reef sculpture. Paint a reef, add more coral, or design a fish. Materials provided by Magpie Creative Reuse Collective, a Kansas City non-profit serving artists and makers of all ages.

‍Everyone waves hello — and everyone's hiding something. Four authors reveal how the coziest settings make for the most compelling mysteries.

Moderator: Kaite Stover

Panelists:

• Michelle Collins Anderson (The Moonshine Women)

• Bryn Greenwood (All the Ugly and Wonderful Things)

• Tiffany Killoren (Pretty Dead Things)

• Yvette Walker (Trial of the Heart)

Learn how to search library catalogs and databases for historical records and archival resources — then use that research to write in historical context.

Learn writing techniques of horror and the supernatural, including the uncanny, the fantastic, and more.

Play a storytelling game where everyone has secrets. Writers of all levels use simple tabletop roleplaying to explore the idea of the unreliable narrator. Work in small groups, create a shared story influenced by hidden motives, bias, and incomplete memories, then use the experience to write a story. Try out new voices, perspectives, and the creative fun of contradiction.

Learn how to make your own zine. A zine is a small, self-published book or magazine about anything you love, like writing, art, recipes, or poetry. In this workshop, watch a quick demo on how to cut and fold a zine. After that, use the art supplies in the Vault's zine library to make your own.

Pop by for a free portrait session with artists Graham Carroll and Andy Ozier of The Memory Limited. Take a 4 x 6-inch print home with you.  

Sensuality is at the heart of this fast-paced workshop, where you’ll discover both the strengths and challenges of describing sensations. In this class, look at the five basic senses and more, starting with exercises to help you notice how you experience the world. Apply these discoveries to different media and leave with a challenge to see your daily life in a new way.

If you’re already part of a book group or thinking about starting one, this workshop covers tips and tools to help make it a success. Participants can share their own experiences of what’s worked and what hasn’t, hear some great title suggestions, and recommend favorite book group reads.

Play a storytelling game where everyone has secrets. Writers of all levels use simple tabletop roleplaying to explore the idea of the unreliable narrator. Work in small groups, create a shared story influenced by hidden motives, bias, and incomplete memories, then use the experience to write a story. Try out new voices, perspectives, and the creative fun of contradiction.

‍ ‍

Fascist taco trucks. A theocratic 1965. A very inconvenient vampire. Three authors prove that the most unsettling social commentary arrives with a sidekick — and possibly a trash can. 

Moderator: Marshall Cox‍ ‍

Panelists‍ ‍

• Lynette M. Burrows (And When I Wake: The Fellowship Dystopia, Book Three)‍

• William Brian Johnson (Middle-Aged Man in a Trash Can)‍

• Michelle McGill-Vargas (American Ghoul)

Daniel Miyares presents the why behind his interest in making books for young readers. He focuses on his new graphic novel, How to Say Goodbye in Cuban, and the process for making it. Miyares also guides participants through a hands-on visual storytelling and sequential art-making activity, encouraging students to believe that their stories matter and to share them with others in meaningful ways.

Bestselling authors Victoria Aveyard and Soman Chainani record an episode of their Plot Twist podcast. Live at the Heartland Book Festival, they discuss Aveyard’s latest novel, Tempest, the story of protagonist Cat Rose, the queen of a pirate tavern. When opposing forces close in on her people, she must decide how she will save her kingdom: Turn in the only man she’s ever loved — or hang.

The two authors started the weekly podcast in 2025 to talk about their creative processes, hot topics in publishing and entertainment, and to imagine plot twists they’d like to see happen in real life.

Aveyard is an internationally bestselling author and screenwriter, born and raised in a small town in Western Massachusetts. She has a BFA in Writing for Film & Television from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and is the author of eight Young Adult novels, including the Red Queen series and the Realm Breaker series, both of which have topped the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times bestseller lists.

Chainani is the New York Times bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil, a global franchise spanning books, film, and education. The series has sold more than 4.5 million copies, been translated into 35 languages, spent over 50 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was adapted into a major Netflix film that debuted at #1 in more than 80 countries. His latest book, Young World, is a geopolitical YA thriller. Chainani is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University’s MFA film program. He lives in St. Louis.

Picture-book author Giselle Anatol shares Small-Girl Zora and the Shower of Stories, a tall tale based on the life and work of legendary writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston (born 1891), who challenged audiences to recognize the power of stories and the vibrancy of her small-town community.