Slither, Stick, and Scribble: Writing with Reptiles
2026-02-21 10:30 - 11:30 (America/Chicago) | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to chase your dinner up a wall? Or see heat? Or smell with your tongue? Join us to interact with live reptiles, learn how they experience the world, then explore your ideas through the very human act of creative writing. Prepare to slither and scribble with a bearded dragon, a black and white tegu, a Russian tortoise, some crested geckos, and a couple of snakes!
Recommended for grades 1-6. Please register ahead if your child plans to attend so we can get a sense of numbers. Walk-ins are always welcome! Only children who will participate need to register—parents or caregivers attending do not need to register.
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Brought to you by Extant Relatives and Iowa City Poetry in partnership with the One Book Two Book Festival.

Sing-Along
2026-02-21 11:00 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
The Iowa Children’s Museum Sing Along will feature creature sounds, animal songs and dancing for the whole family!

The Big Picture show presents: ICE AGE
2026-02-21 11:00 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Free for Kids! Adult Admission $5!
Twenty-thousand years ago, Earth is a wondrous, prehistoric world filled with great danger, not the least of which is the beginning of the Ice Age. To avoid really bad frostbite, the planet’s majestic creatures—and a few small, slothful ones—begin migrating south as we follow our sub-zero heroes: a woolly mammoth (Ray Romano), a saber-toothed tiger (Dennis Leary) , a sloth (John Leguizamo) and a prehistoric combination of a squirrel and rat that is known as Scrat (Chris Wedge).
About the Series

The Picture Show family and children’s series is an ongoing series featuring the best in all ages programming, selected from the past century of cinema. Parents can revel in beloved classics and kids make new discoveries. On weekends, each film is preceded by a media literacy lesson to help children understand the images and sounds they encounter every day. Kids can pick up their Picture Show Passport to collect stickers at every show and redeem them for concessions treats or a free t-shirt!

Local Children’s Book Author Fair
2026-02-21 11:00 - 15:00 | MERGE, 136 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Join us as local children’s book authors share their newest stories, answer questions, and sign books. Explore each author’s table, where a variety of books for young readers will be available for purchase.
Sandra Rhea | Allison Ward | Michelle Gillitzer | Ashlyn Solinsky | Breanna Ferry | Nalina Siva

Book Character Meet & Greet
2026-02-21 12:00 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Bring your camera and snap a picture with Clifford and Frog & Toad

Toadally Awesome Pets Presents An Amphibian Open House
2026-02-21 12:30 - 15:00 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Hop on over to meet some of the coolest frogs, toads, and salamanders around! Join Toadally Awesome Pets’ Mobile Amphibian Education Center for a hands-on open house where kids and families can explore the amazing world of amphibians up close. You’ll get to see and touch a variety of live amphibians on display, learn fun facts about what makes each species special, and discover why these creatures are so important to our ecosystems.

Storytime
2026-02-21 13:00 - 13:30 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Join your favorite librarians for a very special storytime!

Lunar New Year Storytime
2026-02-21 13:30 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Join Midwest Chinese Academy for a festive Lunar New Year storytime! Enjoy a heartwarming Chinese New Year story about family reunion and learn how to say “Happy New Year” in Mandarin. Perfect for curious young learners and families!

Book Character Meet & Greet
2026-02-21 14:00 - 14:30 | FilmScene at The Chauncey, 404 E College St, Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Bring your camera and snap a picture with Clifford and Frog & Toad!

Write Out Loud Student Award Ceremony
2026-02-22 13:00 - 14:00 | Macbride Auditorium, 17 N. Clinton St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Students in grades 1 through 8 in Corridor area districts have been invited to submit writing to One Book Two Book! Those submissions are evaluated by a team at ACT in Iowa City. Grade-level winners will be selected in two categories:

The Write Stuff, which is judged based on language, clarity, structure, and emotional impact.
From the Heart, judged based on creativity, passion, and expressiveness.

Recognized students will read their winning submissions at “Write Out Loud,” a special award ceremony Sunday, February 22, at 1 p.m. in Macbride Auditorium, on the campus of the University of Iowa. In addition, a percentage of all students whose submissions were deemed to be of outstanding quality also will be honored with a “certificate of distinction.” All recognized students will receive certificates and prizes at the event. The grade-level prize winners will have their work published in a booklet available at the festival.

MusicIC Presents: THE BLACK ANGEL: Music, Myth, and Memory
2026-04-30 - 2026-05-02 | Downtown Iowa City
MusicIC, Iowa City’s premiere chamber music festival exploring the connections between music and literature, presents THE BLACK ANGEL: Music, Myth, and Memory, a three-day festival examining how composers across centuries have engaged with themes of mortality, symbolism, and the unseen, while also drawing inspiration from Iowa City’s own Black Angel legend. Now entering its 16th season, MusicIC continues its long-standing mission of innovative, text-driven programming rooted in Iowa City’s identity as a UNESCO City of Literature.
At the heart of this year’s festival is George Crumb’s Black Angels, “Thirteen Images from the Dark Land,” (1971), a landmark work for amplified string quartet, marking the 55th anniversary of its publication in 2026. Crumb has called his seminal work “a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world.” The piece incorporates poetic epigraphs, symbolic numerology, and images of darkness and transformation. Crumb’s score also directly quotes Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, forging a powerful musical and philosophical link between Romantic-era meditations on death and a 20th-century response shaped by war and rupture.
The festival further connects this repertoire to Iowa City’s Black Angel statue in Oakland Cemetery, a landmark that has inspired generations of local storytelling and provides a powerful, place-based lens for this exploration of music, literature, and memory.
Festival Events All events are free and open to the public
Thursday, April 30, 2026 – 7:30 p.m.
Preview Event “Looking at the Black Angel”
Location: The Black Angel Restaurant, 630 Iowa Ave., Iowa City
Selections and written responses to Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and George Crumb’s Black Angels.
Friday, May 1, 2026 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: Masonic Building, 312 E College St, Iowa City
Concert Program will include:

Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, Death and the Maiden
George Crumb: Black Angels for amplified string quartet

Saturday, May 2, 2026 – 10:30 AM
Family Concert
Iowa City Public Library
A 40-minute family concert introducing young audiences to chamber music as storytelling through sound, symbol, and place.
The festival is made possible by support from sponsors including the University of Iowa, Dunn Investment Co, the Iowa City Public Library, and Iowa Public Radio.
Performers include MusicIC Founding Artistic Director Tricia Park, violin and Kenny Lee, cello, (University of Iowa School of Music, Director of Orchestral Studies) alongside guest artists and University of Iowa faculty.

Page Against the Machine
2026-05-23 14:00 - 15:30 | Pentacrest, (at Clinton St and Washington St), Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature & the Iowa City Public Library co-present:
Page Against the Machine is a global reading event that encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to take a break from screens, pick up a book, and enjoy a well-deserved reading detox in a beautiful spot in their city.
This annual event was founded in Norwich, England in 2019 and spread to other Cities of Literature over the years. 2026 marks the first time Iowa City will participate, and we’ll be joining thousands of others across the globe who stop to read a book in public on this day.
We hope to gather a crowd of book lovers on the Pentacrest to read silently and explore the world of ideas in resistance to our culture of doomscrolling and disengagement. Bring a blanket or chair and any book you like, but bonus points go to novels and nonfiction that explore things like politics, human rights, and contemporary culture.
Rain location: Old Capitol Museum Senate Chamber (no food or drink inside, please)
Registration is optional to receive an email reminder. You’re welcome to drop in and out anytime during the scheduled event. See you there!

Open to the public

If you need disability-related accommodations in order to participate in this event, please contact the Library.

Reading and Signing with Author Frances Mei Hardin
2026-06-18 15:30 | Sidekick Coffee & Books, 1310 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
Hosted by Sidekick Coffee and Books
Join Sidekick for an afternoon with Frances Mei Hardin, MD, as she reads from and signs her debut memoir, Surgeon on the Edge.
Part reckoning, part reinvention, the book pulls back the curtain on medical training: the burnout, the unwritten rules, and what it means to reclaim your own voice inside one of the most demanding professions in the world.

Prairie Lights Reading: Karen Parkman – The Jills
2026-06-22 19:00 | Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Karen Parkman will read from her new novel, The Jills. Listed by both PEOPLE Magazine and CrimeReads as a “best book of February,” The Jills is praised by Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists, as “a nuanced, incisive exploration of the world of NFL cheerleading—and the complex power of sisterhood, both familial and chosen,” while Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Ferry Out and We Were Never Here, says: “Parkman’s character-driven mystery comes roaring out of the gate with all the poise and power of an NFL athlete. With its nuanced character work, propulsive prose, and intricate web of secrets and lies, The Jills is an unforgettable debut. I couldn’t put it down.”
Karen Parkman holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has been supported by MacDowell, Yaddo, the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Karen’s stories have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Joyland, and elsewhere. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa, the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, and Kirkwood Community College. The Jills is her debut novel.

Rooftop Music & Reading Series
2026-06-26 19:00 | Market House, 202 N. Linn St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Join the Porchlight Literary Arts Center on the deck of Market House for an evening of music, poetry, and prose. The Rooftoop Music & Reading Series brings together some of Iowa’s most exciting artists for a one-of-a-kind collaborative program. Bring a buddy, date, or come alone. Stay for the gorgeous views, drinks and good company.
Visit Porchlight Literary Arts Center for tickets and more information.

PorchLight: Season Pass to the Rooftop Music & Reading Series
2026-06-26 19:00 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
A Magical Melange of Music, Words, and Views

Join PorchLight Literary Arts Center on the deck of MarketHouse for an evening of music, poetry, and prose. The Rooftop Music & Reading Series brings together some of Iowa’s most exciting artists for a one-of-a-kind collaborative program.
Bring a buddy, date, or go alone. Stay for the gorgeous views, drinks, and good company.
Tickets available for purchase on their website: https://www.porchlightliterary.org/event-details/season-pass-to-the-rooftop-music-reading-series-2026-06-26-19-00

Prairie Lights Reading: Susan McCarty – 2008
2026-07-09 19:00 | Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Susan McCarty will read from her new novel, 2008. The University of Chicago Press offers this summary of 2008:
“It’s 2008: the age of the blog, the dawn of social media, and the birth of the smartphone. Obama is running for president on a slogan of hope, while in the shadows, an opioid crisis emerges, and the housing market teeters. Stevie and Sam, two old high school flames who have grown up and grown apart, are brought back together in the aftermath of a tragedy that throws them off the tracks of their lives. Sam, a struggling realtor, is determined to solve a mystery at any cost. Stevie hits on a plan for a “redo” that involves abandoning her adult life to relive her teenage glory days. As both struggle inside the mediocrity of their early adulthoods, the disenchanted world begins to reveal itself, and secrets threaten to overwhelm them. On the cusp of a new era of uncertainty, these old friends must find ways to reconcile their past and find their way home” (press.uchicago.edu).
Foreward Reviews praises 2008 as “a layered novel in which teenage friendship leads to chain reactions that continue years into the future,” while Aaron Burch, author of Year of the Buffalo, says: “2008 pulled me in from its very first pages and then never let me go.”
Susan McCarty is the author of the story collection Anatomies. Her essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Ecotone, Lit Hub, Juked, Zone 3, and other journals. She is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Oakland University in the metro Detroit area.

PorchLight: Poetry Exchange
2026-07-11 10:30 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
This writer guided critique group offers poets the chance to receive carefully considered feedback, and find writerly community.
Writers share drafts of work in advance so readers have enough time to provide considered feedback. Feedback is mostly positive, and descriptive, but writers can ask for proscriptive feedback if they wish. This workshop model centers the writer, and gives them control over the amount and type of feedback they receive.
For more information on how to join, visit their website!

PorchLight: Queer Writers’ Check In
2026-07-11 13:00 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
Similar to their Long Project Check In, this group is for queer writers looking to build literary community together. Each session will include free writing, discussion of works in progress, and general literary support. Occasionally, there will be guests and opportunities for trading work.
Visit their website to RSVP!

PorchLight: The Prose Exchange
2026-07-11 15:00 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
Are you ready to get some eyes on your work? This group from PorchLight Literary Arts Center provides careful readings, and positive, descriptive feedback on works-in-progress. They meet twice a month and workshop two submissions of up to 20 pgs. at each meeting.
Our critique process centers the writer. This means that, as a writer, you get to ask questions and determine the type of feedback you receive.
They advise sitting in on a session to determine if this is the workshop for you!

Self Published Book Fair
2026-07-12 14:30 | Sidekick Coffee & Books, 1310 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
Hosted by Sidekick Coffee and Books
This fun-filled event highlights local authors and features several genres, from childrens to adult fiction and non-fiction. This event is a great way to support local authors and maybe even find a new favorite writer!

Prairie Lights Reading: Will Swain – Certainly Uncertain
2026-07-17 19:00 | Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Will Swain will read from his new book, Certainly Uncertain: The Limitations of Knowledge and the Uncertainty of Belief. Renee Zukin, Educator, Entrepreneur, & Author of Every Day, I’m Brave, praises Certainly Uncertain as “down to earth and subtly radical,” while Sean Strain, editor and former vice president of Entrepreneur Press, says: “The book was as thought-provoking and clever as it was charming. Swain’s ideas and arguments are intellectual, inclusive, and refreshingly insightful . . . and I learned more about Bigfoot than I ever expected!”
Will Swain is a science educator with over 30 years of experience teaching students across a wide range of ages and settings. He taught undergraduate courses such as Human Biology, Evolutionary Biology, and Principles of Animal Biology at The University of Iowa, where he also administered research programs for undergraduate students, precollege students, and science teachers. At the high school level, he taught Physics, Geology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, and Human Biology. He also served as the regional director of the Iowa Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and as a member of the National JSHS Regional Director’s Executive Council. His interest in the relationship between science and religion began early in life and has followed him ever since. Growing up surrounded by family and friends with differing views on faith and science sparked a lifelong curiosity about belief formation. These questions ultimately led him to write Certainly Uncertain, a research-informed and personal exploration of how beliefs, and knowledge itself, take shape—and how understanding their limits and tentative nature can lead to more thoughtful and compassionate conversations (waggledancebooks.com/about-the-author/).

PorchLight: Writing Grief
2026-07-19 10:00 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
Grief Writing – A monthly exploration of loss and heartbreak
Jennifer New leads this monthly group that uses writing as a reflective tool to explore loss. Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Grief provides a backbone to consider grief from multiple angles, e.g., death of loved ones, loss of health or ability, grief for the world. This is an ongoing group; you’re welcome to attend once or each time. No writing experience is needed.

Sidekick: Conversation+Book Signing LT Thompson & Tatiana Scholate-Bonne
2026-07-19 15:00 | Sidekick Coffee & Books, 1310 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
Join Sidekick Coffee & Books for a free to attend reading by LT Thompson and Tatiana Schlote-Bonne as they discuss their new releases on Sunday, July 19th at 2 pm.
Devils We Know is the anxiously awaited sequel to Young Adult Fantasy Devils Like Us! Cas, Remy, and Finn are on the run from the Order of Lazarus, a secret society that wants to use Cas’s prophetic powers to capture Death and ensure that only the “unworthy” and “immoral” meet their ends
The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is Midsommer meets The Final Girl Support Group in this horror novel about a woman who survived cult killings as a child and is striving to be “normal,” but a spontaneous trip into the woods and the voices in her head keep pulling her to the dark side.

Free Generative Writing Workshop for July: Leslie Pyo
2026-07-19 17:30 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry and PorchLight Literary Arts Center
The Free Generative Writing Workshops provide a space for career writers, curious beginners, writers of all levels and stages of life. Their goal is to make it easy to meet and learn from some of the most talented writer/teachers living in or passing through Iowa City. Every month a new writer leads a generative workshop, presenting a prompt inspired by their own preoccupations, passions, or interests.
LESLIE PYO received a Fulbright for Creative Writing in Korea in 2023-24. She is currently completing that project, a surreal, bilingual (Korean and English) picture book about the emotional dimensions of heritage language loss and reacquisition.
For more information visit the websites of Iowa City Poetry and/or PorchLight Literary Arts Center!

PorchLight: Write Now – Community Supported Writing Group
2026-07-20 10:30 | PorchLight Literary Arts Center, 1019 E Washington St, Iowa City, 52240, United States
PorchLight’s Write Now Writer’s Group provides community, and learning opportunities for beginning to intermediate writers. At their monthly meetings, share short craft lessons, generate writing from prompts, and, on occasion, provide responses to participants’ work in progress. Writers working in any genre are welcome.
This is a great group for writers who have not had the time or opportunity to pursue a traditional MFA.
RSVP one week in advance on their website!

Prairie Lights: Meg Richardson in conv with Claire Lombardo – Paradise Pawn
2026-07-20 19:00 | Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Meg Richardson will read from her debut novel, Paradise Pawn, and will be joined in conversation with Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate and summer Writers’ Workshop visiting lecturer, Claire Lombardo. Tin House/Zando describes Paradise Pawn as a “dazzling debut novel about best friends, adolescent longing, and the Florida pawn shop that promises to make their dreams come true—if it doesn’t break them apart first.” It’s praised by Gary Shteyngart, author of Vera, or Faith, as “A lovely book that captures the rhythms and travails of working-class life,” while Charlee Dyroff, author of Loneliness & Company, says: “Brilliant and bighearted, Paradise Pawn transported me back to the electrifying intensity of young friendship. It beautifully captures the feeling of slowly waking up from childhood and emerging into the adult world only to realize it’s often not what we thought it would be. A total gem of a debut!”
Meg Richardson is a writer, translator, and cartoonist from Iowa. She currently lives in Vermont. She holds a BA from Williams College and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University. Her debut novel, Paradise Pawn (Tin House/Zando), is based on her experiences working behind the counter of a pawn shop.
Claire Lombardo is the author of the nationally-bestselling novel Same As It Ever Was. Her debut, The Most Fun We Ever Had, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick. Her novels have been translated or are forthcoming in over a dozen languages. Claire is a graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Prior to publishing The Most Fun We Ever Had, Claire spent several years working with homeless children and families in Chicago. She has taught fiction writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Grinnell College and worked as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books. She lives in Minneapolis. ​

Prairie Lights: Sarah Minor in conv with Melissa Febos – Carousel: An Essay on Seeing
2026-07-21 19:00 | Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Sarah Minor will read from her new book Carousel: An Essay on Seeing, and will be joined in conversation with fellow Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program professor and award-winning author Melissa Febos. Yale University Press gives this description of Carousel :
“Across short, immersive sections masterfully fusing the slide lecture and the lyric essay, Minor invites us to see across time as a professor-narrator tying the Bayeux Tapestry to surrealist paintings, Instagram reels, and drone warfare. Blending art history with memoir, close looking with confession, Carousel considers how the pursuit of panoramic vision frames power, distorts reality, and implicates contemporary viewers and subjects. In language that captures the disorientation of the whirling ride, Minor shows us how the more we strive to see, the more we ultimately reveal ourselves” (sarahceniaminor.com/carousel).
Barbara Browning, author of The Miniaturists, praises Carousel as “A dizzying ride past images stabbed into time,” while fellow Iowa NWP professor Tisa Bryant, author of recently published Residual, says: “Carousel invites us into the interior horizons of war, media, confinement, and creative impulse, (un)framed, artfully rendered in taut, resonant prose. A gaze-changer.”
Sarah Minor is a writer and interdisciplinary artist.​ She’s the author of Carousel: An Essay on Seeing from Yale University Press (2026), Slim Confessions: The Universe as a Spider or Spit (Noemi Press, 2021), Bright Archive (Rescue Press, 2020), and the chapbook The Persistence of The Bonyleg: Annotated (Essay Press, 2016). Minor’s prose and visual poems have been collected in places like Best American Experimental Writing, A Harp in the Stars, and Welcome to the Neighborhood. She is the recipient of a Research Fellowship to Iceland from the American Scandinavian Foundation, a 2019 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her essay “Something Clear” was awarded the 2018 Barthelme Prize in Short Prose. Minor serves as the Video Essay and Cinepoetry Editor at Brink Magazine and on the Nonfiction editorial team at TriQuarterly Review. She holds a PhD from Ohio University, an MFA from the University of Arizona, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction MFA Program. In addition to her writing practice, Sarah is one half of the collaborative duo Haag Cykell—an ongoing performance series with the artist Johanna Winters that explores modes of storytelling through shadow theater and language (sarahceniaminor.com/about).
Melissa Febos is the national bestselling author of five books, including Girlhood—winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, and a new memoir, The Dry Season. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, LAMBDA Literary, the Black Mountain Institute, the British Library, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Best American Essays, Vogue, and The New York Times Magazine. She is a Professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in The Nonfiction Writing Program (melissafebos.com).

Rogue Workshops Faculty Reading
2026-07-22 18:30 | Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Join Prairie Lights Books for a special faculty reading of the inaugural “Authors at Large” Iowa City Rogue Workshops! (You can learn more about this program and the faculty here.)
Xu Xi will read from her new collection of short stories, Horizon Hong Kong.
Kelly Dwyer will read from her recent novel, Ghost Mother.
Robin Hemley will read from his latest essay collection, How to Change History.
Mary Allen and Hugh Ferrer will read from works in progress.
Note: To accommodate these writers and their readings, this event will start a bit earlier than usual, at 6:30 PM instead of seven.

PorchLight: Rooftop Music & Reading for July
2026-07-31 19:00 | Market House, 202 N. Linn St., Iowa City, IA, 52240, United States
Join PorchLight on the deck of MarketHouse in IC’s North Side for an evening of music, poetry, and prose. The Rooftoop Music & Reading Series brings together some of Iowa’s most exciting artists for a one-of-a-kind collaborative program. Bring a buddy, date, or come alone. Stay for the lovely views, and good company. Purchase tickets for the event on the PorchLight website!

The July session features:

Lauren Haldeman is the author of Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry), Calenday, and The Eccentricity is Zero. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Tin House, The Colorado Review, Fence, Tupelo Quarterly, among others. A graphic novelist and poet, she’s received an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Scott Russell Morris is a writer and enthusiast. He is the author of Points of Tangency: Essays (Cornerstone Press, Sept 2024) and is the editor and creator of Magpie Zines, a zine about tarot, magpies, and found meaning. He is the Poet Laureate of Mt Vernon, IA, and an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Cornell College.

Deb Talan grew up in the small town of Pelham, Massachusetts. She later attended Brown University, where she was a member of the Chattertocks, Brown’s oldest all-female a cappella group, before moving to Oregon, where she was a member of Hummingfish, a Portland band, for six years. Talan’s recurring lyrical motifs include celestial objects, birds, nature, and various historical figures (e.g., Marc Chagall in “Painting By Chagall,” Amelia Earhart in “Thinking Amelia,” and Vincent van Gogh in “Vincent”). Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn inspired Talan to write “Tell Your Story Walking”. This song appears on the 2002 album Songs Inspired by Literature (Chapter One), a benefit of the organization Artists for Literacy. “Tell Your Story Walking” was the winner of Artists for Literacy’s 2002 songwriting contest. In addition to the Weepies’ albums, (Steve Tannen is the other half of the duo), Talan and Tannen collaborated with singer/actress Mandy Moore on her 2007 album Wild Hope. Together, they wrote and recorded five songs with Mandy — the single “Extraordinary,” the title track “Wild Hope,” “All Good Things,” “Few Days Down” and “Looking Forward to Looking Back.”[1] “Forgiven” played over the closing credits of the 2001 film Lovely & Amazing.

Keith Pilapil Lesmeister is the author of the story collections Ask Me About the Money and We Could’ve Been Happy Here. A graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, his work has received support from the Anderson Center, Iowa Arts Council, and Springboard for the Arts. His fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, december magazine, Gettysburg Review, New Stories from the Midwest, North American Review, Redivider, Terrain, and elsewhere. He’s a founding editor of Cutleaf and teaches at Northeast Iowa Community College.
