Kansas Matters: Twenty-First-Century Writers on the Sunflower State

by Thomas Fox Averill (Editor), Leslie VonHolten (Editor)

An anthology of poetry and prose from thirty-five of today’s leading literary voices from the Sunflower State, brought together to explore how Kansas makes us feel and why we’re proud to call it home.

Kansas Matters gathers thirty-five of the state’s leading literary voices to offer profound insights into the feelings that Kansas evokes. This living map of personal geographies and histories draws on the rich emotions and memories that bind Kansans to the Sunflower State.

Brought together in a new anthology of thirty-five poems, essays, and short fiction, these writers reflect on twenty-first-century on the beauty of the land and the fight for its preservation; the divisions of identity and the belonging of home; the context of our history and our hopes for the future.

These contemporary voices show us Kansas as we know it to be and Kansas as we want it to be—a complex, emotional, and inspiring assertion of why Kansas matters.

Genres: Essays

421 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2025

About the author

An O. Henry Award story writer, Thomas Fox Averill is Writer-in-Residence at Washburn University of Topeka, KS. His novel, rode, published by the University of New Mexico Press, was named Outstanding Western Novel of 2011 as part of the Western Heritage Awards. His recent work, "Garden Plots," consists of poems, meditations, and short-short stories about gardens, gardeners, garden design, plants, and the human relationship to nature. They can be found on his website. His most recent novel is A Carol Dickens Christmas, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2014.

Previous novels are Secrets of the Tsil Café, and The Slow Air of Ewan MacPherson. His story collections are Ordinary Genius (University of Nebraska Press) and Seeing Mona Naked (Watermark Books).

Reviews

[Trish Remley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have lived in Kansas almost 30 years now. The variety of subjects, voices, info, and tales encompassed in this book is why Kansas has joined the other home places of my life that I love.

[Eric Farnsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of essays by a wide variety of people writing about Kansas.
The book is actually the perfect answer to all those people who ask me, incredulously "You moved from northern California to Kansas? Why would you do that?"

Well, I didn't know at the time, and probably still don't, but the stories here describe some of the charm and delight and yes, oddness of living in a place that most of the world actively misunderstands - if they've even heard of Kansas.

I have never felt more at home than I do in Kansas, and these essays are a good start at understanding why. Congratulations to Thomas and Leslie and all the essayists for putting that sense of place into words.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[George Frazier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure of Kansas stories and poems. Kelly Erby's John Brown made me want to drink beer and walk through the Kansas backcountry at night, listening for echoes of bolder times.

[Cathlina Bergman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Skimmed. Collection of short stories, essays, poems. Well written.