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...
Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Victor Luckerson will read from his sweeping and intimate portrait of racial violence, empowerment, and social action (Kirkus), Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street. He will be joined in conversation by UIowa Assistant Professor Ashley Howard. This event is co-sponsored by...
Please join us for the IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Priya Hein, Daryl Li, and an MFA Candidate from the Iowa Writers' Workshop (TBA) Priya Hein (fiction and nonfiction writer; Mauritius) debuted in 2023 with the novel Riambel, which won the Prix Athéna and was recognized as a notable African book...
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...
Merrilee Beckman - The Cave of the Dark Moon- Reading and Reception Please join us for a reading and reception with Iowa City author Merrilee Beckman, who will read from her latest book, The Cave of the Dark Moon! This incomparable science fiction/fantasy book series asks: Would you embrace your true animal nature if it meant...
Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program alum Amy Kolen will read from her new book published by Ice Cube Press, Inside Voices: A Prison Choir, My Mother, and Me. “In this powerful, moving, masterfully written memoir, Amy Kolen, a volunteer singer, enters the gates of a prison, slowly liberating herself and finding emotional relief from her old...
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...
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...
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...
Please join us for the IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series with Yassin Adnan (Morocco) and Lisa Allen-Agostini (Trinidad and Tobago). Yassin Adnan is a poet, fiction writer, editor, and television presenter. He is the author of six poetry collections, three short story collections, one novel, and one book about travel. The novel, Hot Maroc, was published in...
Iowa City poet Susan Aizenberg will read from A Walk With Frank O’Hara: Poems, published by the University of New Mexico Press Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series, edited by Hilda Raz. "Susan Aizenberg is a poet with a wonderfully distinct voice--the poems in A Walk With Frank O'Hara have that difficult-to-achieve illusion of effortlessness I deeply admire, with...
Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program graduate Tatatiana Schlote-Bonne will read from her YA horror debut, Such Lovely Skin. She will be joined in conversation by fellow NWP alum Jessie Kraemer. Booklist says, “Schlote-Bonne's debut novel moves fast and doesn't slow down. Fans of Five Nights at Freddy's and other horror games will undoubtedly binge this jump scare-filled story.” "In mixing demonic...
