Hello friends, I’m Huascar Medina, Former Poet Laureate of Kansas, here for Poets on the Plains. I hope you are well and finding laughter. I’m excited to share more wonderful poetry from Kansas poets. Today, I will be sharing the poem “What You Allow, Lingers” by Annette Hope Billings.

Hi, this Alan Erwin from Amarillo. I just finished reading The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin. As I write this, Amarillo's extended weather forecast calls for multiple days over 100 degrees.

Damar, Kansas, is a tiny town in northwest Kansas with a population of less than 115 people, some of whom can trace their lineage back to the early immigrant settlement of the area in the 1880s.

It takes a lot for us to embrace an outsider writing our stories. I sat with Duane West, the prosecutor of the murders of the Clutter family, in his living room for three hours in 2017, and he had quite a bit to say about his distaste for Truman Capote. While I don’t have the same personal animus that our mournfully departed Mr. West had for In Cold Blood, I’ll admit it’s tough for a New Yorker to “get it,” and the readers of this book club often just know when someone has it right.