BkMk Press Celebrates 50 Years

BkMk Press Celebrates 50 Years

BkMk Press was founded in 1971 at the Johnson County Library in Kansas. It officially became part of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1983 under the leadership of founder Dan Jaffe. In 2021, BkMk is planning several events in celebration of this milestone anniversary.

The first of these celebration events  include the following:

A Tale of Two Patricias: Making a Literary Life in Kansas City, featuring Patricia Cleary Miller and Patricia Lawson. Miller’s new BkMk Press book is Can You Smell the Rain?: Poems, and Lawson’s is Odd Ducks: Stories. This online event is cosponsored by the UMKC Alumni Association. Angela Elam, producer of New Letters on the Air, will moderate. Date and time TBA.

Writing Historical Fiction: The Holocaust and Other Challenges. This panel discussion will feature three winners of BkMk’s Chandra Prize for Short Fiction: Scott Nadelson, author of One of Us, Rachel Hall, author of Heirlooms, and Naomi Benaron, author of Love Letters from a Fat Man. Angela Elam, producer of New Letters on the Air, will moderate. This online event is cosponsored by National Archives Kansas City and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.  Date and time TBA. 

Other events will feature Roderick Townley, author of Mozart’s Pigtail, Deborah Miranda, author of Altar for Broken Things, and Dara Yen Elerath, author of Dark Braid.