The TALK program is made possible by a grant from Humanities Kansas.
Spring 2021
No program due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Fall 2020
No program due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Spring 2020: On the Lighter Side
Fall 2019: Women Around the World
Spring 2019: A Woman's Place
- A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris. Discussion leader: Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Discussion leader: Thomas Prasch
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Discussion leader: Margy Stewart
Fall 2018: Food for Thought
- Secrets of the Tsil Café by Thomas Fox Averill. Discussion leader: Gene Chávez
- Epitaph for a Peach by David Mas Masumoto. Discussion leader: Deborah Peterson
- Miriam's Kitchen by Elizabeth Ehrlich. Discussion leader: Ann Birney
Spring 2018: British Classics
- The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. Discussion leader: Kim Stanley.
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Discussion leader: William Clyde Brown.
- Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Discussion leader: Trish Reeves.
Fall 2017: Kansas Literary Heritage
- Picnic by William Inge. Discussion leader: Dennis Etzel Jr.
- Sod and Stubble by John Ise. Discussion leader: Anne Hawkins.
- The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks. Discussion leader: Shawn Leigh Alexander.
Spring 2017: Coming of Age in Rural America
- Good Land, or My Life as a Farm-Boy by Bruce Bair. Discussion leader: Sr. Rosemary Kolich.
- Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Discussion leader: Sara Richter.
- Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes. Discussion leader: Dennis Etzel Jr.
Fall 2016: Growing Up American
- Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Discussion leader: Linda Lewis.
- Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl. Discussion leader: Sara Richter.
- Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead. Discussion leader: Dennis Etzel Jr.
Spring 2016: The Civil War
- March by Geraldine Brooks. Discussion leader: Diane Quantic.
- The March by E. L. Doctorow. Discussion leader: Deborah Peterson.
- A Diary from Dixie by Mary Boykin Chesnut. Discussion leader: Tom Prasch.
Fall 2015: Encountering Asia
- The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert Van Gulik. Discussion leader: Anne Hawkins.
- Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Discussion leader: Brenda Craven.
- Waiting by Ha Jin. Discussion leader: Kim Stanley.
Spring 2015: Native American Writers
- Tracks by Louise Erdrich. Discussion leader: Diane Quantic.
- The Grass Dancer by Susan Power. Discussion leader: Anne Hawkins.
- Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie. Discussion leader: Kevin Rabas.
Fall 2014: Between Fences
- Fences by August Wilson. Discussion leader: Tom Prasch.
- The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle. Discussion leader: Susan Anne Carlson.
- The Wire Cutters by Mollie E. Moore Davis. Discussion leader: Sara Jane Richter.
- Spring 2014 - The 1930s
- Fall 2013 - Hispanic Heritage: Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters
- Spring 2013 - Kansas at 150
- Fall 2012 - Community: The Way We Live
- Spring 2012 - The Great Plains Spirit
- Fall 2011 - Faith in Fiction: World Faiths
- Spring 2011- Contemporary Immigration
- Fall 2010 - Before the Civil War
- Spring 2010 - World War II Generation
- Fall 2009 - Today's Mysteries
- Spring 2009 - Award Winners
- Fall 2008 - Westering
- Spring 2008 - The Best of the West
- Fall 2007 - Literature with Kansas Connections
- Spring 2007 - Living with the Land
- Fall 2006 - Childhood Classics
- Spring 2006 - Behold Our New Century: 20th Century Visions
- Fall 2005 - The Immigrant Experience
- Spring 2005 - American Classics
- Fall 2004 - That's Funny: Books That Make Us Laugh
- Spring 2004 - Women Around the World
- Fall 2003 - Kansas Literary Heritage
- Spring 2003 - British Classics
- Fall 2002 - Coming of Age in Rural America
- Spring 2002 - Today's Mysteries
- Fall 2001 - Faith in Fiction: Christianity
- Spring 2001 - Generations
- Fall 2000 - The Great Plains Spirit
- Spring 2000 - Urban Indians: Native American Writers of the 1990s
- Fall 1999 - Community: The Way We Live
- Spring 1999 - Best of the West
- Fall 1998 - Looking for Nature
- Spring 1998 - Golden Age Mysteries
- Fall 1997 - American Writers of the Gilded Age
- Spring 1997 - Beyond Kansas History
- Fall 1996 - What America Reads: Mythmaking in Popular Fiction
- Spring 1996 - Generations
- Fall 1995 - Native American Writers of the Plains
- Spring 1995 - Not for Children Only
- Fall 1994 - American Classics
- Spring 1994 - Kansas Literary Heritage
- Fall 1993 - A Woman's Place
- Spring 1993 - Small Towns
