Writers’ Workshop graduate Kiley Reid will read from and talk about her new novel, Such a Fun Age.  This debut novel dives head first into matters of race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both. Generating extraordinary pre-publication excitement, film and TV rights have already been acquired, and the book has received praise from writers such as Chloe Benjamin and Paul Harding. Such a Fun Age was selected…

Native Iowan Chris Liddell-Westefeld will read from his new book, They Said This Day Would Never Come: Chasing the Dream on Obama's Improbable Campaign.  Liddell-Westefeld joined the Obama for America campaign in 2007 and went on to spend five years on the Obama White House staff. Since 2014, Liddell-Westefeld has documented the story of the Obama presidency through oral history interviews. He remains active in political campaigns and currently works as an oral historian in Washington D.C. "The Obama campaign of…

Garth Greenwell will read from and discuss his second book of fiction, Cleanness, which is a January Indie Next Selection and has been named a most anticipated book of 2020 by the New York Times, Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and Oprah Magazine, among others. His first novel, What Belongs to You, was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for six other awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award and the LA Times Book Prize. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, it was named a…

In a special event co-sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Society’s Secular Humanist Group  and the Secular Students at Iowa, Andrew Seidel will read from and talk about The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American.  In today’s contentious political climate, understanding religion’s role in American government is more important than ever. Christian nationalists assert that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and advocate an agenda based on this popular historical claim. But is this belief true? The Founding Myth answers the…