Poetry in Public celebrates our community’s rich literary tradition and local writing talent by displaying poems by writers of all ages. Hear from some of the 2024 Selected Poets. This event is live and in-person, and will be streamed live at: https://www.youtube.com/thelibrarychannel Featuring special guest Iowa Student Poet Ambassador Tanya Rastogi. Presenting Poets: Lucas Askelson, "Big and Small" Melodee Bashir, "A December Walk with Leo" Jacquelyn Bengfort, "The Secret Universal Order...

Take class once a week this month 7–9 p.m. or drop in on one class! Classes: 10/19, 10/23, and 10/30. Drop-in prices are $20! The blank page can feel like a glass wall we’re required to scale. We might wonder where to begin, what to include, and how we’ll ever find our voices. We are adept at narrativizing our own lives — even the dullest, most dreadful experiences become fodder for a good bar stool story — and yet, when confronted with a blank page, our skill and our joy too often abandon us...

Join author James Fitzmaurice in Shambaugh Auditorium in the Main Library for a conversation about his new young adult novel, Hobgoblin Gennel, moderated by Library and Information Science graduate student Theo Prineas. Light refreshments provided. In this off-beat tale of adventure, teenagers Irie and Fred are fast friends. Irie, of Afro-Caribbean heritage, was born in Sheffield where they both live. Fred is an expat American transplanted from Yuma, Arizona, with a keen interest in Sheffield’s...

With his signature crackling prose, literary master Chris Offutt has staked out his own territory in crime fiction, a place of familial allegiances, old wounds, and revenge — the code of the hills. His new book, a sharp, twisty southern noir with echoes of James Sallis and Daniel Woodrell, will force Mick to face up to the way of life he thought he’d escaped. Chris Offutt is the author of two collections of short stories, three memoirs, and six novels. His books have been translated into 12...

Cinematic Poetics Poets Hannah Bonner, Julia Anna Morrison, and Perry Janes read from their work and discuss the intersections of film and poetry. Location: Ulysses Modern Lounge at The Chauncey 2:30–3:30 p.m. Guests: Hannah Bonner, Julia Anna Morrison, Perry Janes FREE and open to the public

At Noon, The Iowa City Book Festival Presents Writers’ Workshop Faculty member Elizabeth Willis, who will read from Liontaming in America (New Directions, 2024), a hybrid work engaged with American belief and relationship structures, theatre, activism, and film. This work has been Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry. "In this vast and masterful book, Elizabeth Willis lays personal claim to the terror unleashed by John Winthrop’s prophecy ‘wee shall be made a story.’ And it’s...

In this panel, writers will discuss place and setting as key in many kinds of writing. They will explore the following questions: How do you convey a sense of place or paint a unique landscape? In what ways does location contribute to your writing? Can a literary work truly be "universal," or will place always determine how a piece is understood? Featuring: Forrest Gander, Catarina Gomes (International Writing Program), Nurit Kasztelan (International Writing Program), Chris Offutt, and Pervin...

Sit in on a one-of-a-kind evening with writer and Iowa graduate Tracy Kidder, “a master of the nonfiction narrative” (Baltimore Sun), as he reflects on his lengthy literary career and reads from some of his bestselling work. The event will feature a conversation about the power of long-form investigative writing between Kidder and renowned author Stuart Dybek (73MFA), as well as a Q&A session and book signing. Register here: https://foriowa.info/3yUJ2h8 The author of nonfiction classics such...

 IWP writers will lead a talk on the ethics of writing about friends and family. Location: Porchlight 1019 E Washington St. Iowa City, IA 52240

How do politics affect what poets or novelists write, and even how they write it? How does literature inform political discourse? What is cultural diplomacy, why is it so important, and what is the UI’s role in promoting it? For this inaugural event in the Obermann Center’s new Counterpoint public conversation series, Christopher Merrill — poet, nonfiction writer, translator, editor, and director of the UI’s renowned International Writing Program — and Loren Glass, a historian of creative...

The Iowa City Book Festival presents Stuart Dybek, who will read from his work. “Masterful . . . Like Proust, Dybek has a deserved reputation as a superb cartographer of memory.” ―Trevor Quirk, The Los Angeles Review of Books Dybek is the author of five books of fiction — Ecstatic Cahoots, Paper Lantern, I Sailed with Magellan, The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods — as well as two collections of poetry, Brass Knuckles and Streets in Their Own Ink. Dybek is the recipient...

Join University of Iowa Arborist Andy Dahl for a tour of the Literary Grove at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, featuring trees with connections to famous authors.

Poets Cass Donish and Melissa Dickey will read from their latest books; Your Dazzling Death and Ordinary Entanglement. Cass Donish will read from Your Dazzling Death. “An elegy is a conversation that never ends. As if death didn’t exist. As if speech isn’t sometimes silence. As if poetry isn’t often the little that’s left. These poems — brilliant, devastating — are evidence that a woman was once alive, and loved, and that that, the all of it, is now equally over and not over: a complicated...

Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Okwudili Nebeolisa & Jessica Laser will read from their poetry. Okwudili Nebeolisa will read from Terminal Maladies, selected by Nicole Sealey as the winner of the 2023 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Prize. “Nebeolisa’s debut, Terminal Maladies, introduces a poet so skillful and original that his book represents a vital moment in contemporary poetry. Centering around the loss of the poet’s mother, these poems match acute observation with abiding...

Join the long, rich, historical tradition of artists creating in our spaces. Professional, aspiring, and amateur artists alike, make our museum your muse. The return of this popular program series welcomes guests into the Museum of Natural History's magical gallery spaces after-hours to work on sketching or writing projects with other campus and community artists. Tell a friend, grab a notebook, and join us on the first Friday of each month. We'll provide a new inspo prompt for each session...

The Truman Capote Award Ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. Oct. 2 in the Old Capitol Senate Chamber.  Gene Andrew Jarrett, dean of the faculty, and William S. Tod Professor of English at Princeton University, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin. This event will feature remarks by Jarrett and a reception in the Old Capitol Rotunda. The ceremony and reception are open to the public. Jarrett will be honored for his...

 Jess Alexander will lead a generative writing salon. Location: Porchlight 1019 E Washington St. Iowa City, IA 52240

Writers’ Workshop graduate Afabwaje Kurian will read from her debut novel, Before the Mango Ripens. She will be joined in conversation by Claire Lombardo. “Before the Mango Ripens is a historical novel that avoids predictable oppositions. Its characters’ relationships and internal qualities are complex, its locals speak in indigenous Gbagyi, and its focus is realistic throughout. It depicts an array of individual viewpoints, desires, and motivations, spotlighting the challenges of political self...

Writers' Workshop alum m.s. RedCherries will read from her stunning, multimorphic work of poetry and prose about Indigenous identity, mother. “This is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in...

On Baldwin: Celebrating a Great American Writer (Night #2) Hosted by Tisa Bryant Hancher Auditorium / Stanley Café Presented by Hancher Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, 5 p.m. Part of Hancher's Infinite Dream festival This year marks the 100th anniversary of James Baldwin, who was born on Aug. 2, 1924. His achievements as an American writer and critic of our cultural condition remain incredibly poignant in these early decades of the 21st century. Across two distinct reading events, local and...

Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Jennifer Banks will read from her fascinating and thought-provoking book Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth. She will be joined in conversation by IWP Director Christopher Merrill. This special event has been co-sponsored by the University of Iowa Department of History, the International Writing Program, Digital Studio, and the Office of the Vice President for Research, and a grant from AHI. "Banks’s insights are nothing short of revelatory. Using Arendt’s...

On Baldwin: Celebrating a Great American Writer (Night #1) Hosted by Donika Kelly Hancher Auditorium / Stanley Café Presented by Hancher Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, 5 p.m. Part of Hancher's Infinite Dream festival This year marks the 100th anniversary of James Baldwin, who was born on Aug. 2, 1924. His achievements as an American writer and critic of our cultural condition remain incredibly poignant in these early decades of the 21st century. Across two distinct reading events, local and...

Join us for a panel discussion at the Stanley Museum of Art, and Online via Zoom, that explores how and why we write for the public as art critics, historians, journalists, editors, and nonfiction writers. Moderator Derek (DK) Nnuro | Author and Curator of Special Projects, Stanley Museum of Art Panel Hrag Vartanian | Editor-in-Chief, Hyperallergic Stephanie Wong | Editor and Co- Founder of Pasts Imperfect Jennifer Banks | Senior Executive Editor, Yale University Press The event will...

Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop is back for the Fall Semester! Join us monthly to generate new creative writing inspired by works in the Stanley collection. Each session will be led by a different talented writer from our area, who will be offering a new prompt and a new approach to ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by visual art). Bring your own notebook and pencil or computer and leave with the beginning of a newly written piece. Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry. Teen...