University of Iowa school of journalism alum and former soldier Alicia Dill will read from her thriller, Squared Away.  One phone call in the middle of the night changes the life of a former soldier, Joelle McCoy. Her best friend and battle buddy, Concepcion Chapa, is dead and McCoy isn't taking the alleged car accident at face value. Determined to discover the truth, McCoy sets out on a mission to find her best friend and bring her home  Alicia Dill spent six years as an Army soldier and...

The Coralville Center for the Performing Arts and Central State Bank present Chris and Emily Norton, who will talk about their inspiring story and sign copies of their new book, The Seven Longest Yards: Our Story of Pushing the Limits While Leaning On Each Other. In a moment, Chris went from a talented 18-year-old Luther College football player with a promising future to flat on his back with a broken neck and a 3% chance of ever moving or feeling anything below his neck, much less walking again...

We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa, Volume 2 is an anthology of Iowa residents who have multicultural backgrounds, compiled and edited by Andrea Wilson. This years’ readers will be Antonia Rivera, Dawson Davenport, Hieu Pham, Ajla Dizdarević, Rana Hewezi, Anthony Mielke. Experience their remarkable stories of living between two worlds in the middle of the American Heartland.

The IWP Between the Lines Program presents José Olivarez and Poupeh Missaghi, who will read from their work.  José Olivarez is the author of Citizen Illegal, which was shortlisted for the 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. "Citizen Illegal is a fearless, instrumental, honest collection of poetry. In other words, the book is fire— Olivarez's poetry navigates the razor sharp duality and utter contradiction of citizenship." —Willie Perdomo Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. He is a co-host...

Spoken word poet Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey, will present his new book, Look, Black Boy. In his debut poem collection, Rainey explores racial tensions in America from the perspective of a young Black male. Rainey hails from Columbia, Missouri, and holds a bachelors degree in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Iowa. He co-founded the literary magazine Black Art; Real Stories, and has been published in the Little Village Magazine. As a performer he is the winner of the Des...

Iowa City poet and political scientist, Michael Lewis-Beck will read from his new collection of poems, Rural Routes.  "The people that Mike Lewis-Beck conjures in Rural Routes are so enmeshed in their landscapes that where they are and who they are flicker so quickly as to become one continuous light. This is the glow of the all-night diner, the lunar light of eggs. Summer storms, lightning bugs in a jar, a faint dawn 'but enough to navigate our fall field of corn.' This is a book you can see...

As part of the ongoing celebration of Walt Whitman's 200th birthday, editors Ed Folsom, Jim Perlman and Dan Campion will be here to read from the new edition of their anthology, Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song. First published to wide critical acclaim in 1981, now re-issued as an expanded and updated third edition to celebrate Whitman's 200th birthday, this monumental anthology charts the ongoing American and international response to the legacy of the seminal poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892)...

Writers’ Workshop graduate Julie Orringer will read from her new novel, The Flight Portfolio, based on the true story of Vivian Fry’s attempt to save the work, and lives, of Jewish artists fleeing the Holocaust. “Magnificent… Unforgettable . . . Brilliantly conceived, impeccably crafted, and showcasing Orringer’s extraordinary gifts, this is destined to become a classic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Julie Orringer is the author of the novel The Invisible Bridge and the award-winning...

Local author Marianne Maili will read from her novel, Lucy go see. Called an “intriguing tale of sexual revelation” by Kirkus Reviews, Lucy, go see is the bildungsroman of Lucy Pilgrim, an introspective and curious young woman from rural Iowa who becomes an international model to see the world. As Lucy explores the highs and lows of the glamorous life, the novel considers what female agency, and in particular, female sexual agency, can look like. Lucy’s world has humor and romance, but the novel...

Prairie Lights celebrates the launch of two new dragon books by celebrated local children’s book stars: Gondra’s Treasure, a picture book illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt, and Dragonfell, a middle grade novel by Sarah Prineas! Come meet this wonderful illustrator and author, learn how they create their work, and get a signed copy. For the love of dragons, you won’t want to miss it!  All ages are welcome. Jennifer Black Reinhardt has illustrated many acclaimed picture books and chapter...

Leslie Carol Roberts will read from her new essay collection, Here is Where I Walk: Episodes From a Life in the Forest. “A series of absorbing, funny, tragic, and deeply present ruminations…Packed with a scientist’s curiosity and an artist’s imagination, she uses her walks the way Thoreau encouraged us to treat every journey into nature: as a lesson in how to accept, relish, and even seek out change.”—John D’Agata Leslie Carol Roberts is also the author of The Entire Earth and Sky: Views on...

Leslie Carol Roberts will read from her new essay collection, Here is Where I Walk: Episodes From a Life in the Forest. “A series of absorbing, funny, tragic, and deeply present ruminations…Packed with a scientist’s curiosity and an artist’s imagination, she uses her walks the way Thoreau encouraged us to treat every journey into nature: as a lesson in how to accept, relish, and even seek out change.” —John D’Agata Leslie Carol Roberts is also the author of The Entire Earth and Sky: Views on...

Iowa City poets Chad Abushanab and Kam Hilliard will read from their recent poetry collections. Chad Abushanab is the author of The Last Visit, winner of the 2018 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Jericho Brown praised “the speaker’s search for self and struggles with drink after surviving a childhood laden with domestic violence … I really do believe in this book and find it extraordinary as an early twenty-first century debut. ” Abushanab’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Believer, B...

Iowa City poets Chad Abushanab and Kam Hilliard will read from their recent poetry collections. Chad Abushanab is the author of The Last Visit, winner of the 2018 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Jericho Brown praised “the speaker’s search for self and struggles with drink after surviving a childhood laden with domestic violence… I really do believe in this book and find it extraordinary as an early twenty-first century debut. ” Abushanab’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Believer, Be...

Ed Pavlić will read from Another Kind of Madness. "Ed Pavlić's Another Kind of Madness is a full-bodied literary achievement bustling with sweat, regret, and sound. ... Pavlić's narrative audacity and descriptive skill make every sentence and scene in Another Kind of Madness equal parts sorrow song, blues, funk, and of course jazz.. [A] new kind of novel that is as at once wholly innovative and in deep conversation with so many Black American literary traditions."―Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy...

New York Times Notable Book author Louis Bayard will read from Courting Mr. Lincoln. “This glorious novel, big-hearted and clear-eyed, features the most uncanny incarnation of our sixteenth president since Daniel Day-Lewis strode onscreen in Lincoln. If you love Jane Austen, or Hamilton, or fiction--of any era--that transports and transforms in equal measure, look no further...as good as storytelling gets." —A.J. Finn Bayard has been shortlisted for both the Edgar and Dagger awards for his...

UI assistant professor of history and African American studies Simon Balto will read from and talk about his new book from UNC Press, Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power. “Simon Balto's study of twentieth-century black Chicago provides new insights into the historical roots of police abuse in black communities while challenging scholarship that posits the mid-twentieth century as a turning point for deteriorating relationships between the police and black...

Iowa author Heather Gudenkauf will read from her new novel, Before She Was Found. "Heather Gudenkauf has done it again. She manages to merge engaging characters and terrifying topics resulting in unputdownable suspense set in a small Iowa town. In Before She Was Found, Gudenkauf takes us into the lives of three young girlfriends as a sleepover turns into tragedy. Examining today's realities of social media and the added pressure our connected culture creates, Gudenkauf has crafted a gripping...

Ice Cube Press presents Thomas Dean and Cindy Crosby, who will present their new book, Tallgrass Conversations: In Search of the Prairie Spirit. Through short writings and photographs, Cindy Crosby and Thomas Dean enter a conversation to inspire in readers new understandings of the Midwestern tallgrass prairie through word and image. Tallgrass Conversations encourages looking and listening to the prairie through the heart and mind as well as eyes, ears, and other senses, advancing both...

The Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program presents Pico Iyer, who will read from Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells. "From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief. For years, Pico Iyer has split his time between California and Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife Hiroko have a small home. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan...

Poets Kimberly Burwick and Kevin Goodan will read from their work. Kimberly Burwick is the author of five collections of poetry: Brightword (forthcoming in fall 2019 from Carnegie Mellon), Custody of the Eyes, Good Night Brother, Horses in the Cathedral, and Has No Kinsmen. Burwick earned her BA in literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her MFA in poetry from Antioch University Los Angeles. She teaches at Washington State University. In writing about Custody of the Eyes...

Rachelle Chase, author of Lost Buxton, will return to Prairie Lights to talk about her continued research that has culminated in her new book, Creating the Black Utopia of Buxton, Iowa. In the town of five thousand residents, established in 1900, African Americans and Caucasians lived, worked and attended school together. It was a thriving, one-of-a-kind coal-mining town created by the Consolidation Coal Company. This inclusive approach provided opportunity for its residents. Dr. E.A. Carter...

Poet GennaRose Nethercott will read from The Lumberjack's Dove, selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series for 2017. The reading/performace will feature an  intricate shadow-puppetry crankie box, animating segments of the text through 60 feet of scrolling, panoramic hand-cut paper images. Nethercott will be joined for a short interview conducted by novelist and current Iowa Writers' Workshop student Kiley Reid. Nethercott is also the lyricist behind the narrative song...

Prairie Lights and the Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing are pleased to present a reading to celebrate the launch of the 39th issue of earthwords: the undergraduate literary review. The reading will feature contributors to this year’s issue of the magazine. After the reading, a reception will be held in Prairie Lights Café. Copies of earthwords will be free to the public!