Suzanne Perez
News DirectorSuzanne Perez is KMUW's News Director, overseeing our staff of reporters and hosting our weekly feature program, The Range. She previously covered education for KMUW and the Kansas News Service. Before moving to public radio in 2021, Suzanne worked more than 30 years at The Wichita Eagle, where she reported on schools and a variety of other topics.
Suzanne also reviews books for KMUW, co-hosts the Books & Whatnot podcast and helps lead the station’s monthly Literary Feast book club. She created the #ReadICT Reading Challenge, an annual partnership with the Wichita Public Library and The Wichita Eagle that encourages adults to read more broadly.
In her free time, Suzanne enjoys cooking and traveling with her husband, Andy, playing fetch with their Labrador retrievers, Zeke and Raina, and snuggling with her cat, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Suzanne has been honored with a National Edward R. Murrow Award, a national Society of Professional Journalists award, and a national Public Media Journalists Association award, as well as numerous honors from the Kansas Association of Broadcasters.
Suzanne can be reached by email at perez@kmuw.org.
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Julia Langbein's new novel, "Dear Monica Lewinsky," is part comedy, part fairy tale, part historical reckoning — a clever and creative work that will have you rethinking much of what you have come to believe. -
The new name pays homage to bathtub races on the Arkansas River that once were a signature event during the Wichita River Festival. -
A new sports announcer has been selected to replace Mike Kennedy, the longtime voice of Wichita State University Athletics. -
"Small Boat" by Vincent Delecroix is a fictionalized account of a real-life tragedy, during which 27 migrants died after their inflatable dinghy capsized in the English Channel. It was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2025. -
This week on "The Range," it’s almost summer… so what are you reading? Also, local booksellers offer their suggestions for page-turning summer reads. -
Disc golf is a relatively young sport, but it has a rich history in Kansas. There are dozens of disc golf courses in and around Sedgwick County, including 18-hole courses in Derby, Haysville and Park City. -
"The Midnight Show," by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne, tells the story of a 'Saturday Night Live'-style comedy show and the decades-long mystery surrounding the death of its rising star. -
All nine stories in Lauren Groff's new collection, "Brawler," are bold and emotional. Many feature shocking endings. And there’s not a dud in the bunch.
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The State Board of Education plans to announce the next commissioner during its April 14 meeting. -
Maggie Smith is best known for her poem Good Bones, which went viral in 2020. Her new collection, A Suit or a Suitcase, is an emotional, mind-opening study on the relentlessness of time.
