Wabaunsee County Author K. L. Barron Presents Thirst

“Expertly weaving history with an identity narrative, this novel delivers a first-hand account of life with the Tuaregs… Sensory details, cultural and religious traditions, and a savvy narrative structure to both construct a young woman’s story and document a cultural perspective… a remarkable novel.”             Kirkus Review

T H I R S T, the  recently published novel by K. L. Barron, is a captivating story of a young woman who, after being betrayed, must make her own way in the Sahel  Desert. Soon she finds herself caught between several competing groups in the area, forcing her to navigate political strife along with the austere landscape.

K. L. BARRON
"I am a writer of place: poetry and prose. To my mind, our earth is a shared space, a sacred place that connects us all. We are formed, informed, and at the mercy of nature. I like to explore relationships between nature and people on the page through the written landscape of words and images."

Thirst is Barron’s first novel. She spent time  in the northwest part of Niger in the Sahel, on the edge of the Sahara, among the Tuareg between 1980 and 1982. She served with the Peace Corps and taught English to the children of the Tuareg and other nomadic tribes. The memory of the experience never left her. She was drawn to write this book because of the “high contrast, dominating landscape” and the desire to shine a light on an endangered traditional culture before it disappears.

Barron is a resident of Wabaunsee County. She earned an MFA from Bennington in 2005 and has taught writing & literature at Washburn University for almost 20 years. Her work has been published in New Letters, The Bennington Review, The Little Balkans Review, terrain.org. among others, and in several anthologies, including Echoes from the Prairie, and the upcoming Monster Bodies.

T H I R S T was the inspiration for bringing Tuareg musician Bombino to Volland in October 2023.

The author heard Bombino perform several years ago and was inspired by the universality of their distinctive desert blues sound that to her ear combines the rhythms of the camels and the grit of an existence in the Sahel.

Volland was delighted to host Barron prior to the Bombino concert. She was available for informal conversations from 5pm (Doors) until the beginning of the concert at 7pm.

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