In A Marriage in Startled Air, Patricia Foster shares the dramatic story of how the diagnosis of her husband’s rare cancer changed the dynamics of their marriage and opened the door to the hidden world of his childhood, revealing the seeds of trauma and childhood PTSD. In vivid, often poetic prose, Foster reflects on how the
Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken
In the aftermath of her mother’s death, Tisa Bryant’s Residual retrieves and catalogs what remains of her home, her psyche, and her creative practice. She filters through the remnants of her mother’s everyday life, asking what becomes an archive—a bookshelf, a dresser, a relationship, a secret? Drawing on personal memories as well as archives of renowned
Carousel opens as a professor begins delivering a lecture to a hot room. Her students have the internet in their pockets, screens on their wrists, seeing in more directions than students ever could before. But what, in fact, are they looking at? In the spirit of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Sarah Minor’s Carousel explores how the pursuit of
Suzanna Klein was a baby when her mother got up early one morning to rob a bank with a group of fellow radicals. Now, every Saturday, Suzanna lines up at the prison gates among the other children, each dressed as if for celebration. Inside there is a nursery and a cemetery; there are watchful guards
Witness the Darker Side of the Hawkeye State The farmlands and rural areas of Iowa are no stranger to the weird, dark and mysterious. Learn about a terrestrial sighting from 1903, a creepy cryptid that terrorized the town of Van Meter. Find out about Bigfoot sightings in Calhoun County. Peer under the waters of Lake
As graduates of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program gather to celebrate the program’s 50th anniversary, we will hear from three about their most recent work and their time writing in Iowa City: Helen Betya Rubenstein (Feels Like Trouble), Stephanie Krzywonos (The Blue Hours), and Angela Pelster (The Evolution of Fire)
Local Author Book Fair! Join us as local authors present their latest works, answer questions, and sign books. Browse each author's table where various books will be available for purchase. The Local Author Book Fair is sponsored by Greater Iowa City.
Poetry in Public celebrates our community’s rich literary tradition and local writing talent by displaying poems by writers of all ages. Hear from some of the 2026 Selected Poets. This event is live and in-person, and will be streamed live at: https://www.youtube.com/thelibrarychannel Featuring special guest, Josie Nabhan-Warren, the 2026–27 Iowa Student Poet Ambassador. If your
Daniel Umemezie is a Nigerian-American poet whose work explores cultural inheritance and displacement, using bodily transformation as both metaphor and form. His poetry develops a realm between interior experience and external reality. His work has appeared in the North American Review, Scholastic, Magpie Journal and many more. He is forthcoming in Polyphony Lit, and has been recognized as the Iowa
John Ira Thomas returns to Daydreams Comics for another helping of TIRE! He’ll be reading from THE BEST OF TIRE CLASSIFIEDS, a collection of TIRE Magazine’s most brazen attempts to get your money, and maybe your soul. Hear about Twinkie groves, UFO abduction resorts, and the New Dolphin Order! Chase the unapproved Stevenson dimes! Find
