Kathleen Renk will read from her new historical novel, The Rossetti Diaries. She will be joined in conversation by Mary Helen Stefaniak. "Poet Christina Rossetti and artist/enigma Elizabeth Siddal step right out of the mid-19th century and into the 21st as Maggie, a historian with artistic longings of her own, finds and reads their diaries, which...
Writers' Workshop alum Kevin Clouther will read from his latest short story collection, Maximum Speed. Booklist enthuses, "These wonderfully evocative, interconnected stories are about growing up, growing apart, and how modern communications technology enables distant figures from the past to suddenly be brought into the present." Author Frances de Pontes Peebles writes, "With meticulous craft and profound...
Please join us for a special early launch of award-winning poet Kaveh Akbar’s first novel, Martyr! One of the most eagerly anticipated books of 2024, Martyr! has received praise from writers including John Green, Raven Leilani and Mary Karr. Tommy Orange calls Martyr! “An absolute jewel of a novel. A diamond. I haven’t loved a book this much in years....
Ted Anton will read from and talk about his grand tour through synthetic biology, Programmable Planet. “If you’ve ever wondered about the promise―and the peril―of synthetic biology and its power to transform life, then Programmable Planet is the book for you. Ted Anton’s exploration of both the history and the future of the ways we engineer...
Join us with the University of Iowa’s 2024 launch of Wilder Things Magazine volume 6. The event will feature readings (both zoom and in-person) and free copies of the magazine for attendees. Wilder Things Magazine is an undergraduate literary magazine at the University of Iowa. “Our goal is to uplift and provide space for unconventional works as we believe...
Prairie Lights Iowa City author Andy Douglas will read from Songs of the New Dawn: Selected song-poems of Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. The poems are in the vein of Rumi or Hafiz, speaking of the divine energy flowing through all creation. The book also features twenty full-page illustrations by artist Kindle Corwell, depicting subtle aspects of the poems,...
Prairie Lights Please join us from 11-1pm for Claudia McGehee's Iowa River Frost Fair (an event in name inspired by medieval artisan fairs held on the frozen river Thames in London, home to Claudia’s ancestors!). Iowa City based Illustrator/Author Claudia will sign her new 2024 Engagement Calendars, copies of her beloved illustrated books, and we...
Prairie Lights PEN-Faulkner Award-winning author and Writers' Workshop visiting faculty Kate Christensen will read from her new masterwork of fiction, Welcome Home, Stranger ! “Kate Christensen’s new novel, Welcome Home, Stranger is a revelation, offering characters as real as your family and friends, a rich, vividly drawn setting, grab-you-by-the-throat drama and always, lurking in the shadows, a fierce authorial intelligence. What...
Prairie Lights Cleo Qian will read from her short story collection, LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO, longlisted for The Story Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction. These 11 short stories explore the alienated and technology-mediated lives of young Asian and Asian-American women today. "Cleo Qian's LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO is an...
Prairie Lights Ted Wheeler will read from his new novel, The War Begins in Paris, and be joined in conversation by Mary Helen Stefaniak. "Paris was home for the foreign correspondents who covered events in Europe for British and American media outlets during the interwar period. With the fall of France in 1940, a few of...
Prairie Lights Award-winning author of A Questionable Shape and White Dialogues Bennett Sims will read from his new collection Other Minds and Other Stories, published by Two Dollar Radio. " draws on academia, art, and technology for a superb collection about identity and memory.... Throughout, Sims boldly plays with form, such as in 'Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,' which consists...
Prairie Lights Translator Wendy Call will read from How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems, by Mexican-Zoque poet Mikeas Sánchez. "In a fiercely personal yet authoritative voice, prolific contemporary poet Mikeas Sánchez articulates the worldview of the Zoque people of southern Mexico. Her paced, steely lyrics fuse cosmology, lineage, feminism, and environmental activism into a...
