Page Getz hosts her Vancouver based launch after her initial book launch in Wichita, Kan. (Photo courtesy of Page Getz)
Since its inception, The Kansas State Collegian has been located in Kedzie Hall. Over a century’s worth of writers have graced Room 116 — The Collegian’s beloved newsroom.
Thirty years ago, from 1995 to 1997, the newsroom was home to Page Getz, who majored in creative writing.
“I worked at The Collegian for two years; I was fired twice,” Getz said. “I started working there in 1995. I think they initially hired me for reporting and then at some point started writing a column.”
The Collegian was a daily paper back when Getz started.
“It was so stressful,” she said. “I honestly don’t know how we did it. I mean, I ended up on crystal meth.”
While with The Collegian, Getz battled with addiction, stringing along a few months of sobriety here and there. She is now 24 years sober after working through a 12-step program.
Getz was originally fired for “writing over the heads of the masses.”
“I think that was the nice way of putting it,” she said. “I just thought everyone could see shapes and colors in music. One of my first stories was covering live music, so I went to a show and I was experiencing everything in colors and moving shapes. Every band had a different vibe, so I was describing it that way. I had no idea that people didn’t see things the way I did.”
The reason Getz saw things the way she did was due to a neurological condition called synesthesia.
“I can taste music,” she said. “I didn’t realize people couldn’t taste music the way they could taste something like root beer.”
One of Getz’s editors, Nolan Schramm, fought for her to be rehired, taking her under his wing and teaching her how to properly write for a news story.
“I hung in there for a while,” she said. “But I would be late on my deadlines and eventually, my editor just told me they couldn’t keep me on.”
After getting fired for the second time, Getz realized she was really only going to college to work for The Collegian.
“I feel like part of me is still there [the newsroom], still surrounded by Dr. Pepper and Skittles,” she said.
After leaving K-State, Getz put her cat into her truck and drove west. She wound up in California, getting a job with the Los Angeles Times.
“They started me at a local paper, their local section in Pasadena,” she said. “I was only there a few years, but I think my biggest issue was I just hated LA; that was the problem. I’ve always struggled with suicidal ideation, so while I was with the LA Times, I got really suicidal. I think some of it was just GFK: Girl From Kansas problems,” she laughed.
After her stint with the Los Angeles Times, Getz found herself working for a progressive, left-winged radio station — KPFK, a Pacifica Radio affiliate.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Getz realized she wanted a change of scenery and moved to Vancouver, Canada. She got her master’s in creative writing from the University of British Columbia.
Even before going to graduate school, Getz was working on publishing a novel.
“I’d been sending my novel out during COVID, to about five different publishers, and it just kept getting rejected,” Getz said. “So I was like, ‘I’m just gonna go to graduate school, maybe I’ll learn something.’”
While in the middle of graduate school, she received an email from an agent.
“It was from one of the offices that rejected me, well, they rejected my book,” she said. “She had said, ‘I read your book as an intern and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for two years.’ She told me that she’d told herself if she ever became an agent and got her own list that she’d look me up to see if I’d been signed.”
Getz’s book, ‘A Town with Half the Lights On,’ is her debut novel.
Set in the imaginary Goodnight, Kansas, the novel focuses on a family’s move from New York City.
“I started this little universe when I was living in LA, and everything in the news was just bad,” she said. “I would go from writing and listening to news during the day to writing this fantasy world at night. It’s based on all my favorite little things about Kansas, while also addressing all the injustices that can come with small-town Kansas. Some of the class injustices, the kind of factory town injustices with these small towns that are kind of dying, kind of just trying to stay on the map.”
Written as an epistolary, written essentially through the form of letters, news articles, notes being passed as well as diary entries, ‘A Town with Half the Lights On’ is written in multiple perspectives.
The novel is available on Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, as well as some local bookstores.