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DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260720T190000
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SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Meg Richardson in conv with Claire Lombardo – Paradise Pawn
DESCRIPTION: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!” \nMeg 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. \nClaire 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. ​
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-meg-richardson-in-conv-with-claire-lombardo-paradise-pawn/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260721T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260721T190000
DTSTAMP:20260619T174657
CREATED:20260618T173903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260618T173903Z
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SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Sarah Minor in conv with Melissa Febos – Carousel: An Essay on Seeing
DESCRIPTION: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 : \n“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). \nBarbara 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.” \nSarah 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). \nMelissa 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).
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-sarah-minor-in-conv-with-melissa-febos-carousel-an-essay-on-seeing/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260722T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260722T183000
DTSTAMP:20260619T174657
CREATED:20260617T154207Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260617T154207Z
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SUMMARY:Rogue Workshops Faculty Reading
DESCRIPTION: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.) \nXu Xi will read from her new collection of short stories\, Horizon Hong Kong. \nKelly Dwyer will read from her recent novel\, Ghost Mother. \nRobin Hemley will read from his latest essay collection\, How to Change History. \nMary Allen and Hugh Ferrer will read from works in progress. \nNote: To accommodate these writers and their readings\, this event will start a bit earlier than usual\, at 6:30 PM instead of seven.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/rogue-workshops-faculty-reading/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261019
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261026
DTSTAMP:20260619T174657
CREATED:20260507T150646Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260507T150646Z
UID:5537-1792368000-1792972799@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Iowa City Book Festival
DESCRIPTION: The Iowa City Book Festival is happening October 19–25\, 2026! Join us for a week of literary events\, author talks\, readings\, and more at various locations throughout downtown Iowa City. Mark your calendars. More information coming soon.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/iowa-city-book-festival-2/
LOCATION:Downtown Iowa City
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261023T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261023T193000
DTSTAMP:20260619T174657
CREATED:20260601T162606Z
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SUMMARY:An Evening with Pulitzer Prize Winner Yiyun Li
DESCRIPTION:Internationally acclaimed author Yiyun Li won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for her resonant memoir\, Things in Nature Merely Grow\, a deeply moving account of losing her younger son to suicide a little more than six years after her older son died in the same manner. \nThe Princeton University professor is the author of 12 books—and was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. In addition\, she is the recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award\, a PEN/Malamud Award\, a PEN/Hemingway Award\, a PEN/Jean Stein Book Award\, a MacArthur Fellowship\, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. Time Magazine also included Li on its list of 100 Most Influential People for 2026. \nMelissa Febos\, director of the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program\, will join Li in conversation. Febos is the national bestselling author of five books and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship\, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship\, and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. \nThis event is possible due to generous support from Linda Maxson\, professor emerita and former dean of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences\, and her husband\, Rick. It is being held in conjunction with the Iowa City Book Festival. \nLiterary Legends represents a special collaboration among the UI Nonfiction Writing Program\, Iowa Writers’ Workshop\, UI Lecture Committee\, University of Iowa Center for Advancement\, and Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/an-evening-with-pulitzer-prize-winner-yiyun-li/
LOCATION:TBD
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
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