Manhattan

I had a wonderful time at the NCKLS Book Fair. It's always a great day when I can spend it with book lovers. I hung out at the Kansas Center for the Book table with fellow Kansas writers Robert Collins, Lora Reiter, Ann Parr, and Roy Bird, who is also the KCFB director; met librarians from all over central Kansas; and talked books with dedicated booksellers from Manhattan and Emporia.

I've been spending a lot of time in Manhattan lately, and as I was driving home it occurred to me that this town, with its wide tree-lined streets and historic limestone buildings, surrounded by the breathtaking Flint Hills, has started to work itself into my heart. This came as a surprise and a bit of a shock. I'm a Jayhawk, a bleeding-crimson-and-blue alumna of the University of Kansas, located in Lawrence, the best city in the state—hands down. I can't have fond feelings for Manhattan, home of in-state rival Kansas State University. Yet I do. I still love Lawrence best. But I look forward to my trips to Manhattan, too.



<--------Kansas Jayhawk