Local Iowan Bill Douglas will read from his newest book, The People Are Kind: A Religious History of Iowa. Starting with Iowa's origins as an indigenous territory and tracking this land's religious trends throughout the path to statehood, The People are Kind addresses "many questions the reader never thought to ask" and "paints a tapestry that contributes...
Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program Professor and bestselling author Melissa Febos will read from her newest memoir, The Dry Season, and will be in conversation with fellow bestselling author and University of Iowa professor, Kaveh Akbar. Taking place after the challenging relationship Febos describes in her second book, Abandon Me, The Dry Season examines "the patterns that had produced her...
Monday, June 9, 2025 -6:30pm to 7:30pm + Digital Media Lab Register1 of 10 registered Using Adobe Illustrator, turn the phrase of your choice into a striking and legible sign that could be held at a rally or posted in a window of your home. Illustrator has text features that go beyond ordinary, flat lines of text....
Veteran journalists Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty will read from and talk about their new book, Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie. Described by its publisher, Penguin Random House, as a "vivid portrait of a miraculous ecosystem that makes clear why the future of this region is...
Authors Garry Klein and Sabrina Claman will read from their new book, What Happened on the Garden Street Bus, and will be joined in conversation by David Gould. What Happened on the Garden Street Bus is a "super cool graphic novel" on friendships and community. The Garden Street bus is mostly filled with strangers until...
Poet and philosopher John Koethe will read from his newest book, Cemeteries and Galaxies, a collection of poems that "unravels timeless questions of death, math, meaning, and much more" (macmillan.com), and Iowa Writers' Workshop alum Julie Hanson will read from her recent poetry collection, The Audible and the Evident, winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize. Heather...
Iowa Writers' Workshop alum and current Iowa Summer Writing Festival instructor Kelly Dwyer will read from her newest novel, Ghost Mother. Compared to stories written by Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, and Henry James, Ghost Mother follows a protagonist named Lilly who's wanting but struggling to have a baby with her husband Jack when they buy an old house...
Cleveland-based writer Hilary Plum will read from her newest novel, State Champ, and will be joined in conversation with author and Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program Assistant Professor Sarah Minor. Described by Bloomsbury, State Champ's publisher, as "Lucid, strange, and deeply metal," the novel follows protagonist Angela, a high-school state champion runner and college dropout, as she has...
Former director of the Creative Writing Program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and current Iowa Summer Writing Festival instructor Eric Goodman will read from his newest novel (which he co-wrote with Kaveh Zamanian), Mother of Bourbon. Mother of Bourbon is based on the actual life of Mary Dowling, an Irish woman who immigrated to the U.S. during...
Iowa Writers' Workshop alum Lee Cole will read from his newest novel, Fulfillment. Set in contemporary Kentucky and featuring both the successes and failures of two half brothers returning home, Fulfillment is praised by Publishers Weekly as "An evocative tale of ambition, lust, and sibling rivalry in western Kentucky," while Kirkus Reviews says, "Cole mixes the angst and...
Iowa Writers' Workshop alum and former visiting instructor Michelle Huneven will read from her newest novel, Bug Hollow. Featuring and examining the lives of a family rocked by the tragic death of their oldest child Ellis shortly after he graduated from high school, Bug Hollow is praised by Booklist as "a gift" and "a family...
Iowa Writers' Workshop alum Madeline McDonnell will read from her newest novel, Lonesome Ballroom, and will be joined in conversation with fellow Writers' Workshop alum and current director of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio, Stephen Lovely. Set in a bar in the early-aughts and featuring a far-ranging conversation between patron/protagonist Betty Block and bartender Lizzie about...
