Upcoming Events › Literature

John Domini will read from his new novel from Dzanc books, The Color Inside a Melon. “John Domini enters the world of African immigrants in Naples living on the edge of the law, in a gripping, noir-ish thriller written in prose that somehow manages to be both elegant and hard-boiled. An absorbing read."—Salman Rushdie John Domini is the author of numerous works of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism, including his most recent novel, Movieola. He has published fiction in Paris Review and…

New Yorker writer Casey Cep will read from her book, Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. An instant New York Times Bestseller that stayed on the list for four weeks, Furious Hours tells the stunning true story of Alabama serial killer Reverend Willie Maxwell, and the true-crime book about him that Harper Lee spent decades working on in the years after she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. "A triumph on every level. One of the losses to literature is that Harper…

Writers’ Workshop graduate in poetry Anthony McCann will read from his new work of nonfiction, Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff.  "A momentous and important non-fiction debut . . . The core subject is nothing less than the nature of American identity and the concept of freedom. Admirably, McCann's ethos is not that of a neutral bystander but of a truth seeker. He thinks through viewpoints with depth and empathy, but he also takes stands and calls out the problematic…

Local debut novelist Craig N.Willis will read from The Deadly Mondaine.  In The Deadly Mondaine, the life of Hattie Rosales is tracked from her origin in Post-World War II, working-class, southside Chicago, through her early career at Marshall Fields’, through her business partnership with  Ludmilla “Milly” Netsurov, and continuing with her rapid relocation from the Chicago area to Gethsemane Illinois. The central mystery in the book is the shotgun slaying of a local mogul at his faux-French Chateau in suburban Gethsemane. Hattie…

Local author Lori Lacina will read from Mama Said There’d be Days Like This.  “...This is a charming collection of reflections on life in Iowa. Informative, funny and delightful, Lacina’s stories are like a slice of warm apple pie and should be savored as such.” —Beth Howard These 365 daily essays include reflections, lists, recipes, and ponderings. This book will inspire you, make you laugh and make you think. Some of the topics include: circles of women, lost socks, second chances, heartaches, goat yoga, cow…

Iowa native Lucas Hunt will read from his poetry collection, Iowa. The first of five linen-cased, hardcover books in an autobiographical collection of cinematic poetry, Iowa commences the Homeric journey of poet Lucas Hunt from a childhood engulfed by the humidity and sun on a pig farm, to the Society shores of Southampton, the jagged glass and steel canyons of New York City, and the sublimity of Rome and Paris. In Iowa, Hunt brings his literary camera closer to the fire within the belly of a…