Emporia, a city of around25,000, was founded in1857. When he bought the Emporia Gazette William Allen White put Emporia on the map, and his writings idealized the small town as a repository of common sense and democratic values. Emporia is home of Emporia State University, which has a strong writing program, including author Kevin Rabas, who, along with Amy Sage Webb, edits the Flint Hills Review. Emporia State is also home to the Great Plains Studies Center, which hosts the Tallgrass Writing Workshop each summer.

Don Coldsmith , renowned for his Spanish Bit Series of novels, makes his home there, as does Jim Hoy, who studies cowboys, cowboy poetry and the literary traditions of the West.