Invite Grant to Speak
Audie Award–winning author, journalist, and audio drama producer. Wichita, Kansas.
Grant Overstake has led writing workshops, school assemblies, keynotes, and community listening events for thousands of people, from elementary classrooms to graduate seminars. He brings a reporter's eye, a decathlete's endurance, and the story of how a small Kansas press beat the biggest names in audio. Every program is tailored to your audience and your occasion.
Grant Overstake and Jillian Forsberg on stage at Watermark Books with the 2025 Audie Award.
The Real Education Listening Series — the flagship program, supported by a City of Wichita Cultural Funding Activation Grant. Audiences follow the printed scriptbook while selected scenes from the Audie Award–winning full-cast audio drama play with their original sound design and music, then join a guided conversation about the story and the history beneath it. The series launched at Watermark Books & Café in January 2026 and is available for schools, libraries, churches, and community centers.
Grant has led writing workshops and school assemblies for thousands of students.
Grit, Resilience, and the Stories That Build Them — for schools and youth audiences. Drawing on his decathlon career at Kansas, a newspaper job at eighteen, and Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, Grant talks with students about what perseverance actually looks like up close. Available as an assembly, a writing workshop, or both.
Coming of Age on the Redline: Teaching Hard History Through Story — for educators, librarians, and community organizations. Built on The Real Education of TJ Crowley and the history of 1968 Wichita, this program pairs author talk with immersive listening and discussion. The book and audio drama are taught at Wichita State University in both history and criminal justice courses.
Grant Overstake discusses the historical foundation of “The Real Education of TJ Crowley” during his appearance on PBS Kansas’ “One on One with Victor Hogstrom.
72 Rejections to the Audie Stage — for writers, publishers, and creative professionals. How an independent Wichita press produced a full-cast audio drama that won the industry's top honor, and what that path teaches about craft, collaboration, and staying human in the age of AI.
RECOGNITION
2025 Audie Award, Best Young Adult Audiobook. IPPY Outstanding Audiobook of the Year. AudioFile Earphones Award. Kansas Authors Club J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award and "It Looks Like A Million" Book Design Award.
THE TRACK RECORD
His reading at Watermark Books & Café drew an overflow crowd of nearly seventy, with staff setting out extra chairs. At Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet in Wichita, a gifted-class unit built on The Real Education of TJ Crowley culminated in a live listening session with the author, a classroom model the teacher now commends to other educators.
MEDIA AND APPEARANCES
An overflow crowd at Watermark Books & Café. Photo by Carl Williams.
Grant has appeared on PBS Kansas and on podcasts nationwide, and has presented at Watermark Books & Café, the Winfield library, the National Rural Library Conference, and educator and writer conferences across Kansas.
BOOKING
Programs are tailored to schools, libraries, conferences, congregations, and community events. Honoraria and travel are arranged per engagement, and bulk copies of the books and scriptbook can be included for your audience. To check dates and start the conversation, reach out through the contact page.