A cautionary dark satire about the fragility of democracy and how fascism can take hold even in the land of liberty, It Can't Happen Here follows the ascent of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to return the country to greatness. Witnessing the new president’s tyranny from the sidelines is

Stuart Dybek is the author of five books of fiction--Ecstatic Cahoots, Paper Lantern, I Sailed with Magellan, The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods–as well as two collections of poetry, Brass Knuckles and Streets in Their Own Ink. Dybek is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including the PEN/Malamud Award, an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground (1864), his first consequential post-Siberian imprisonment publication, explores the tragicomedy of humanity’s entrapment in the confines soul-sapping modernity and serves as the foundation of the existential and metaphysical concepts he addresses in the Great Five: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, The Adolescent, and Brothers Karamazov. In commemoration of the

BRUNA DANTAS LOBATO is a writer and translator. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, A Public Space, and The Common. She was awarded the 2023 National Book Award in Translation for The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel. Dantas Lobato was born and raised in Natal, Brazil, and lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Blue Light Hours is her debut novel.

This screening is part of a larger program that celebrates the 160th anniversary of the publication of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground." Martin Scorsese's 1976 film is the novel’s most famous US adaptation. University of Iowa Adjunct Assistant Professor Anna Barker will lead a post-screening discussion immediately following, where she will discuss the way the film explores

Yeehaw! Join us at Daydreams Comics, where Austin Allen Hamblin and John Ira Thomas, 2/3 of the creative team behind indie comics sensation Big Guns Stupid Rednecks, will be on hand! Take a break from fish’n and mud’n and come enjoy some old fashion comic book fun!

Iowa Bibliophiles is a group for book lovers and enthusiasts of all kinds hosted by the University of Iowa Libraries' Special Collections and Archives. All are welcome at this special event. Hear a talk by special guest Megan Rosenbloom, author of Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin.

Nancy Miller Gomez grew up in Kansas, but currently lives in Santa Cruz, California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, The Adroit Journal, Shenandoah, New Ohio Review, Rattle, Massachusetts Review, River Styx, American Life in Poetry, Verse Daily, The Hopkins Review, and elsewhere. She received a special mention in the 2023 Pushcart Prize Anthology and her chapbook, Punishment, was published as part of

  Featuring IWP Residents: Lisa ALLEN-AGOSTINI (fiction writer, poet, editor; Trinidad and Tobago) is the author of the historical noir novella Death in the Dry River (2024), the young adult novel Home Home (2020), and the domestic noir novel The Bread the Devil Knead (2021), which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in

Typedancing is a collaborative interdisciplinary performance featuring musicians, poets, dancers and visual artists making music with and dancing to obsolete office equipment. With audience participation, it also includes live-produced zines from the artifacts of the performance.

Join the Eisner-nominated comic and tv creator--and Sioux City native--as he reads a selection of short comics, including We Are Not Alone (now a short film, with its Iowa premiere at the Refocus Film Festival). Followed by a Q&A and signing. Presented in partnership with Daydreams Comics and Refocus Film Festival

Christopher Merrill has published eight collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets, and On the Road to Lviv; many edited volumes and translations; and six books of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars, Things of the Hidden God: Journey

Ari Berman is the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones and a reporting fellow at Type Media Center. He will read from Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It,. He is also the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (finalist,

After performing his score for Yakov Protazanov’s pioneering sci-fi film Aelita: Queen of Mars as part of FilmScene's Refocus Film Festival, Ribot joins the Iowa City Book Festival where he will read from his book Unstrung: Rants & Stories of a Noise Guitarist.  “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985's Rain Dogs, and since then he's

Join us for an insightful panel discussion on 'Publishing for Beginners,' where seasoned professionals share essential tips and strategies for navigating the publishing world. Whether you're aspiring to publish your first book or curious about the process, this session will provide you with practical advice and valuable insider knowledge. Panelists: Sarah Elgatian, Midwest Writing Center;

NOTE: This event is sold out. Natalie Goldberg has influenced generations of aspiring creative writers with books like Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind. Her books offer  down-to-earth guidance for developing a meaningful writing practice in the real world, however different that is for each of us. In her new book, Writing on Empty,

Students from Iowa City, fluent in 15 different languages, will present passages from Anne Frank’s diary. This event provides an opportunity for attendees to engage in meaningful dialogue, reflect on the Holocaust and other tragic global events, and foster a sense of community as the 95th anniversary of Frank’s diary is commemorated. The event will