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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261011T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261011T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T023206Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T023206Z
UID:6090-1791734400-1791734400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Join them for their annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Radu Vancu (Sibiu\, Romania)\, Harumi Kawaguchi 川口晴美 (Japan)\, and Amber Esau (New Zealand). They will be joined by recent Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate\, Lizzie Cusick. \nRadu Vancu (Sibiu\, Romania\, 1978) is a Romanian poet\, scholar\, and translator. A professor in the Faculty of Letters and Arts at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu\, he is the editor-in-chief of Transilvania magazine and an editor of Poiesis Internațional. He previously served as as the national editor of the Romanian section of the Poetry International website\, and was president of PEN Romania between 2019–2023. Since 2013\, he has also been president of Sibiu’s international writing festival Poets in Transylvania. Vancu has published nine volumes of poems\, which have been translated into more than 20 languages in anthologies\, magazines\, and books. He has also published two novels\, Transparenta (2018) and Paradis (2025)\, and his first two books of poetry in English translation will be published in the U.S. in October 2026—Kaddish (tr. Sean Cotter\, Zephyr Press) and The Rope in Bloom (tr. Paula Console-Soican and Cyrus Console-Soican\, Phoenix Poets). \nHarumi Kawaguchi 川口晴美 is a poet based in Tokyo. Her latest poetry collection\, やがて魔女の森になる (To the Witches’ Forest\, Shicho-sha\, 2021) received the 30th Hagiwara Sakutarō Prize in 2022\, and her 13th collection\, Tiger is here. (Tiger is here.\, Shicho-sha\, 2015) won the 46th Takami Jun Prize in 2016. Her poetry explores women’s experiences and memory\, while also bridging literature and popular culture\, particularly manga and anime. Her poems have been translated into English\, German\, Italian\, and Korean\, and included in the anthologies such as Poet to Poet: Contemporary Women Poets from Japan (Recent Work Press\, 2017). She is increasingly interested in collaborative poetry translation\, which she started while she was a guest for Poetry on the Move Festival in Canberra in 2017. Her collaborative translations from English to Japanese have been published in the anthologies\, I am Ireland (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade\, Ireland\, 2025) and pleasant troubles (Recent Work Press\, 2018). She has edited several poetry anthologies and has been teaching creative writing over three decades. \nAmber Esau is the author of Hungus\, her debut poetry collection published earlier this year\, and co-editor of a queer poetry anthology\, Spoiled Fruit (2023). She has performed her poetry extensively\, and her work has been published in various journals and anthologies in Aotearoa-New Zealand. She is working on a mixed media speculative fantasy novel set in the South Pacific. \nLizzie Cusick is a poet and dermatologist who recently received her MFA in from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She teaches medical residents and fellows at the University and is interested in writing as a means of attending to both the body and natural world with deep care and close observation. She is currently working on completing her first book of poems for publication.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series-6/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261009T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261009T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T022938Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T022938Z
UID:6087-1791572400-1791572400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Elizabeth Metzger\, Andrew Zawacki\, and Devin Johnston – The Going Is Forever\, These Late Eclipses\, Bright Thorn
DESCRIPTION:Elizabeth Metzger and Iowa Writers’ Worshop graduates\, Andrew Zawacki and Devin Johnston\, will read from their new poetry collections: The Going Is Forever\, These Late Eclipses\, and Bright Thorn\, respectively. \nElizabeth Metzger is the author of The Going Is Forever and Lying In\, as well as The Spirit Papers\, winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. She has published two chapbooks\, Bed and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Her poems have recently appeared in The New Yorker\, The Paris Review\, The New York Review\, TLS\, and Poetry. She is a poetry editor at The Los Angeles Review of Books and teaches poetry at 92NY and Columbia University. \nAndrew Zawacki is the author of five poetry books\, including Unsun : f/11 (Coach House\, 2019)\, Videotape (Counterpath\, 2013)\, and Petals of Zero Petals of One (Talisman House\, 2009). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker\, The New Republic\, The Nation\, and elsewhere. An editor and translator\, he is Distinguished Research Professor of English at the University of Georgia. \nDevin Johnston was born in 1970 and spent his childhood in North Carolina. He is the author of seven previous books of poetry and two books of prose\, including Creaturely and Other Essays. He works for Flood Editions\, an independent publishing house\, and teaches at Saint Louis University\, in Missouri\, where he lives.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-elizabeth-metzger-andrew-zawacki-and-devin-johnston-the-going-is-forever-these-late-eclipses-bright-thorn/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261008T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261008T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T022741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T022741Z
UID:6084-1791486000-1791486000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Meghan O’Gieblyn in conv with Dr. Alison Lynch – Will and Attention
DESCRIPTION:Meghan O’Gieblyn will read from her new memoir\, Will and Attention\, and will be joined in conversation with Dr. Alison Lynch. Described as a “luminous memoir of secret drinking\, fragile recovery\, and the deep pull of religion\,” Will and Attention is praised by bestselling author Jia Tolentino as “one of the best memoirs of the decade\,” while University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program professor and bestselling author Melissa Febos says: “An elegant and philosophical memoir about addiction whose stakes are no less than what comprises one’s will to live\, what it means to be good\, and the worth of devotion. I savored equally O’Gieblyn’s sentences and the turns of her thought—at once precise as the cut of a razor and as pleasurably discursive as Montaigne.” \nMeghan O’Gieblyn is a writer and the author of God\, Human\, Animal\, Machine\, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science & Technology. Her first book\, Interior States\, won the 2018 Believer Book Award for nonfiction.  Her criticism and essays have appeared in Harper’s Magazine\, The New Yorker\, n+1\, The Point\, The Baffler\, Wired\, The New York Review of Books\, The Guardian\, The New York Times\, and other publications. \nAlison Lynch\, MD\, MS\, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-meghan-ogieblyn-in-conv-with-dr-alison-lynch-will-and-attention/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261004T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261004T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T022515Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T022515Z
UID:6082-1791129600-1791129600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Join them for their annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Sang Young Park (South Korea) and Yaiza Berrocal Guevara (Spain). They will be joined by Iowa Writers’ Workshop Fiction candidate\, Toye Oladinni\, and Associate Director of Writing Education for the Office of Writing and Communication at the University of Iowa\, Danielle Wheeler. \nSangyoung Park is a prominent South Korean novelist and screenwriter\, internationally recognized for his sharp emotional insight\, wit\, and nuanced exploration of urban life\, intimacy\, and identity. His bestselling novel\, Love in the Big City\, has been translated into more than twenty languages and was longlisted for the International Booker Prize\, the Dublin Literary Award\, and the Prix Médicis étranger. Beyond the page\, Park has established himself as a versatile creator\, serving as the writer and creator for the global television adaptation of his own work. \nYaiza Berrocal Guevara (playwright\, fiction writer\, screenwriter; Spain) is the author of a novel\, several plays and a screenplay. Her literary work includes Curling (2022)\, published in the UK in 2025 and forthcoming in Greek in 2026. She is currently working on her second novel\, Las promesas. As a playwright\, she received Spain’s Calderón de la Barca National Prize for La cadena del frío\, later staged in Sala Beckett\, Barcelona. Her other plays include Intenta viure sense mi\, Ni temeré les feres\, Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nunca antes representadas (documentary theatre) and Flesh Market. She is also the screenwriter of the animated feature Black Butterflies\, winner of the Goya Award for Best Animated Film\, as well as the Gaudí\, Forqué\, Quirino\, and Platino awards\, and has written for prime-time television series. \nToye Oladinni is a British Nigerian writer and filmmaker from London. His work has appeared in Granta\, The Paris Review Daily\, and The Relegation Reader\, among other places\, and is forthcoming in the London Review of Books. He is currently studying for an MFA in Fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. \nDanielle Wheeler was born in a small town in the Midwest and was the 2010-2011 Rona Jaffe Fellow in Poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop\, an instructor of Creative Writing Studio Workshop for undergraduates\, and a volunteer writing instructor with the Iowa Youth Writing Project. She is currently an instructor of writing and Associate Director\, Writing Education for the Office of Writing and Communication at the University of Iowa. Her first book\, Men of Northern Constellations\, is forthcoming in 2027.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series-5/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261002T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261002T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T022233Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T022233Z
UID:6079-1790967600-1790967600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Nicholas Russell in conv with Tony Tulathimutte – Observer
DESCRIPTION:Nicholas Russell will read from his new novel\, Observer\, and will be joined in conversation with 2026 Iowa Writers’ Workshop Visiting Associate Professor (and Writers’ Workshop graduate) Tony Tulathimutte. Publisher Ecco Press describes Observer as “A disquieting\, atmospheric debut horror novel about a young woman investigating her mother’s disappearance at an abandoned Nevada observatory\, for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Mariana Enriquez\,” and it’s praised by Danzy Senna\, author of New People and Colored Television\, as “coiled\, restrained\, beautiful\, and haunting…The result is deeply unsettling\, urgent\, dark\, and wry.” \nNicholas Russell is a writer and editor from Las Vegas. His work has been featured in The Believer\, McSweeney’s\, The Yale Review\, Reverse Shot\,The Point\, The Baffler\, The Nation\, and Dirt\, among other publications. He’s attended Short Fiction workshops at VQR and Tin House\, as well as the Critics Academy for the New York Film Festival and the Press Inclusion Initiative at the Sundance Film Festival. He’s also received support from MacDowell and the Nes Artist Residency (adapted from nicholasrussell.me/about). \nTony Tulathimutte’s novel Private Citizens was called “the first great millennial novel” by New York Magazine. A graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop\, he has written for The New York Times\, VICE\, WIRED\, The New Yorker\, The Atlantic\, The New Republic\, N+1\, Playboy\, The Paris Review\, and many others. He has received a 2017 Whiting Award\, an O. Henry Award\, and a MacDowell Fellowship\, and appeared as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers (writersworkshop.uiowa.edu).
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-nicholas-russell-in-conv-with-tony-tulathimutte-observer/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260927T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260927T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T021511Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T021511Z
UID:6074-1790524800-1790524800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Join them for their annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Monique Malcher (Brazil)\, Wame M. Molefhe (Botswana)\, and Lien Ming-wei (Taiwan). They will be joined by Iowa Writers’ Workshop Poetry candidate\, Aditya Menon. \nMonique Malcher is a writer\, journalist\, and visual artist born in Santarém\, in western Pará\, Brazil. She holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology (UFPA) and an Interdisciplinary PhD in Human Sciences with a focus on gender studies (UFSC). She currently resides in São Paulo. Her first book\, Flor de Gume (Moinhos Publishing)\, won the Jabuti Literature Prize in 2021 in the short story category. Malcher is the second woman from northern Brazil to win a Jabuti in the literature category. Flor de Gume was also published under the title Flor de Filo by Fondo de Cultura Económica in Mexico (2025). Her first novel\, Degola (2025)\, was released by Companhia das Letras (1st edition) and is already in its second reprint. \nWame M. Molefhe is a Botswana-born writer based in Gaborone. She writes across fiction\, film\, and television. Her published works include two short story collections and a debut novel shortlisted for the Island Prize for a Debut Novel (2025). She is a Civitella Ranieri fellow (2016). She is the founder of AgaMotse\, a Centre for the Arts. \nLien Ming-wei (fiction writer\, nonfiction writer; Taiwan) is the author of one work of reportage and four novels. His writing primarily focuses on fiction and has earned him several literary awards. He has published books such as Tomato Avenue and Other Coming-of-Age Stories (番茄街游擊戰)\, Son of the Green Cicadidae (青蚨子)\, The Confession of Blueberry Nights (藍莓夜的告白)\, Duty Officers of the Mountain and Sea: A Record of Toucheng Professionals (山與海的職日生：頭城職人誌)\, and Gunner\, Snatcher\, Robber\, and Provoker (槍強搶嗆). \nAditya Menon is from Kodaikanal\, India. His work has appeared in Peripheries\, Colorado Review\, Dialogist and elsewhere.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series-4/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260923T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260923T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T021126Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T021126Z
UID:6072-1790190000-1790190000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Book Matters Event: Kathy Lavezzo & William Rhodes in conv with Sarah Bond – Bad Medievalism & Work of Reform
DESCRIPTION:Join them for a special University of Iowa Book Matters event! University of Iowa Professor Kathy Lavezzo will read from her new book\, Bad Medievalism and the Modernity Problem\, and Iowa Assistant Professor William Rhodes will read from his newest book\, The Work of Reform: Literature and Political Ecology from Langland to Spenser. They will be joined in conversation with Associate Professor\, Sarah E. Bond. \nKathy Lavezzo regularly teaches the English Department’s large introductory lecture course\, Foundations of the English Major\, with an eye toward the centrality of narrative to the human experience and the capacity of literary texts to move readers and solicit passionate attachment. She was trained as a medievalist and offers courses on medieval romance\, Arthurian lore\, the author known alternately as the Pearl-poet or the Gawain-poet\, The Book of Margery Kempe (the first autobiography in English)\, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece\, the Canterbury Tales.  Of late\, her research has moved into more contemporary eras\, a shift that has inspired her to teach classes about authors including Paule Marshall\, Stuart Hall\, W.E.B. Du Bois\, and Kazuo Ishiguro. \nWilliam Rhodes’ work focuses on the connections among medieval/Renaissance poetry\, economics\, and the environment. His book\, The Work of Reform: Literature and Political Ecology from Langland to Spenser (Cornell 2025)\, considers how medieval poetry about agrarian work informed early colonial ideologies in the sixteenth century. His current research project is on apocalypticism\, literary form\, and economic crisis in late medieval and early modern literature. He teaches classes on medieval and early modern poetry and drama\, as well as courses on critical theory and environmental literature. \nSarah E. Bond is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Iowa. She is interested in late Roman history\, epigraphy\, late antique law\, Roman topography and GIS\, Digital Humanities\, and the socio-legal experience of ancient marginal peoples. She earned a PhD in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011) and obtained a BA in Classics and History with a minor in Classical Archaeology from the University of Virginia (2005). Her book\, Trade and Taboo: Disreputable Professionals in the Roman Mediterranean\, was published with the University of Michigan Press in 2016.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-book-matters-event-kathy-lavezzo-william-rhodes-in-conv-with-sarah-bond-bad-medievalism-work-of-reform/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260922T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260922T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260811T162715Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T162715Z
UID:5855-1790103600-1790103600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Katie Bennett in conversation with Nina Lohman & Alisha Jeddeloh
DESCRIPTION:Katie Bennett will read from her new book\, She Was Wild Grass\, and will be joined in conversation with BRINK publisher and author Nina Lohman & BRINK editor Alisha Jeddeloh. \nBennett’s website offers this introduction: “She Was Wild Grass intertwines Bennett’s artistic coming-of-age with the story of Joan Vollmer\, the remarkable yet overlooked figure of the Beat Generation whose life was cut short when her husband\, William S. Burroughs\, shot her in 1951. Braiding past and present\, Bennett explores art\, ambition\, gender\, and freedom\, asking what it means to create in a world where women’s stories are so often silenced and forgotten” (katiepbennett.com/book). Sarah Manguso\, author of Liars\, praises She Was Wild Grass as “so dense with narrative\, and it goes down like spring water\,” while Rachel Yoder\, bestselling author of Nightbitch and University of Iowa professor\, says: “Highly recommend this new book by Katie Bennett which dignifies the life and death of Joan Vollmer\, the fascinating & flawed woman who was (sort of) married to William Burroughs and was ultimately murdered by him. The book also dignifies Katie’s own story of becoming. It feels amazing to read women give other women\, and themselves\, their due.” \nKatie Bennett is a writer based in Philadelphia. Her first book\, She Was Wild Grass\, will be released by BRINK Books September 2026. She’s published work in Lit Hub\, swamp pink\, and The Rumpus and received fellowships from Yaddo\, Hedgebrook\, and Monson Arts. She runs the reading series Personal Velocity. She also spent a decade touring North America and Europe with various bands and her songwriting has been featured in Pitchfork\, SPIN\, Rolling Stone\, and NPR. \nNina Lohman writes hybrid nonfiction that seeks to understand pain through the lenses of medicine\, theology\, and philosophy. Her memoir The Body Alone: A Lyrical Articulation of Chronic Pain\, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2024. She is the Literary Programming Director for the Mission Creek Festival and the Nonfiction Editor of PromptPress\, an interdisciplinary book-arts journal that pairs writers and visual artists to create and publish new work. Her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post\, Paste Magazine\, The Rumpus\, Essay Daily\, The Other Journal\, Earth Island Journal\, and elsewhere. \nAlisha Jeddeloh is a writer and editor based in Iowa City. As a writer\, she explores community\, belonging\, and the fault lines in the stories we tell each other and ourselves. As an editor\, she enjoys being surprised by characters and prose.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-katie-bennett-in-conversation-with-nina-lohman-alisha-jeddeloh/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260921T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260921T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T020836Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T020836Z
UID:6069-1790017200-1790017200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Peter Bognanni in conv with Daniel Khalastchi – How to Lose Yourself Completely
DESCRIPTION:Writers’ Workshop graduate Peter Bognanni will read from his new novel\, How to Lose Yourself Completely\, and will be joined in conversation with Daniel Khalastchi. Bognanni’s publisher offers this description of How to Lose Yourself Completely: “A teen grappling with grief and anxiety is sent to wilderness “adventure therapy\,” where he meets a group of friends—and a girl from his past—who will change his life forever. This captivating novel is perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and John Green.” It’s praised by Kirkus as “a gripping adventure and a deeply affecting exploration of grief and mental health\,” while Abdi Nazemian\, Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment\, says: “Peter Bognanni’s How to Lose Yourself Completely is a book to lose yourself in\, completely. Through stunning prose\, this novel of uncommon depth and astounding empathy will take you on a powerful and hopeful adventure into the human heart that will leave you breathless.” \nPeter Bognanni’s first novel\, The House of Tomorrow\, won the L.A. Times Book Award for First Fiction and was adapted into a feature film starring Ellen Burstyn and Nick Offerman. His second novel\, Things I’m Seeing Without You\, was published in four countries and is currently in development for television. Peter teaches Creative Writing at Macalester College. \nDaniel Khalastchi is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the author of four acclaimed books of poetry. His most recent collection\, The Story of Your Obstinate Survival\, received the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry and was longlisted for the PEN/Volecker Award for Poetry. A former visiting faculty member at UT Austin’s Michener Center for Writers\, Daniel currently lives in Iowa City where he is the executive director of the University of Iowa’s Office of Writing and Communication and the cofounder and managing editor of Rescue Press. His fifth book\, And the Tribulation Cometh Upon You\, is forthcoming from Tupelo Press.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-peter-bognanni-in-conv-with-daniel-khalastchi-how-to-lose-yourself-completely/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260920T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260920T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T020516Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T020516Z
UID:6067-1789920000-1789920000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Please join for their annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Nir Ratzkovsky (Israel) and Juan Carlos Reyes Vázquez (Mexico). They will be accompanied by University of Iowa Executive Director of the Office of Writing and Communication\, Daniel Khalastchi\, and Robert P. Dana Director of the Center for the Literary Arts at Cornell College\, Rebecca Entel. \nNir Ratzkovsky is an Israeli writer\, translator from French and English into Hebrew\, and scholar of translation and cultural studies. He is the author of the novel Beloved\, Daughter and the nonfiction book Adventures of Molière in the Holy Tongue. He has translated major writers including Marcel Proust\, Michel Houellebecq\, Emmanuel Carrère\, Albert Camus\, Simone de Beauvoir and Jonathan Littell. Nir teaches at the University of Haifa and Tel Aviv University. He is currently working on a new novel. \nJuan Carlos Reyes Vázquez (fiction writer\, screenwriter\, filmmaker; Mexico) is the author of five books of short fiction\, including Impala (2021)\, Para subir y caer (2015)\, Iktumbe (2014)\, Circo de pulgas (2010)\, and Imagínate lejos (2002). His fiction often explores memory\, loss\, violence\, childhood\, altered bodies\, and the fragile border between the intimate and the strange. His work has appeared in the literary journals Crítica and Blanco Móvil\, as well as in the anthologies Cuentistas de Tierra Adentro 2007–2017 and Cuerpos Rotos. He has also written and directed twelve short films\, including Silla eléctrica para moscas\, winner of Best Animated Short Film at the San Diego Latino Film Festival\, and Absoluto vacío ensordecedor\, winner of Best Experimental Short Film at the Dubai International Shortfilm Festival. He holds a PhD in Creation and Cultural Theories and is a Senior Research Professor at Universidad de las Américas Puebla\, where he has taught literature\, film\, narrative\, and screenwriting for more than fifteen years. He is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers. \nDaniel Khalastchi is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the author of four acclaimed books of poetry. His most recent collection\, The Story of Your Obstinate Survival\, received the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry and was longlisted for the PEN/Volecker Award for Poetry. A former visiting faculty member at UT Austin’s Michener Center for Writers\, Daniel currently lives in Iowa City where he is the executive director of the University of Iowa’s Office of Writing and Communication and the cofounder and managing editor of Rescue Press. His fifth book\, And the Tribulation Cometh Upon You\, is forthcoming from Tupelo Press. \nRebecca Entel is the author of two novels\, Fingerprints of Previous Owners and Boats Drawn by Children\, which is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster. Her stories and essays have appeared in such journals as Guernica and Literary Hub; and her flash in Hobart\, Copper Nickel\, and elsewhere. At Cornell College\, she is Professor of English and Creative Writing\, teaching creative writing\, U.S. and Caribbean literature\, and the literature of social justice; as Robert P. Dana Director of Cornell’s Center for the Literary Arts\, she oversees a visiting writers series\, workshops and events\, a literature and art magazine\, and an internship program. She also mentors in the PEN America Prison and Justice Writing program.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series-3/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260918T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260918T183000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T173204Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T173204Z
UID:5745-1789756200-1789756200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – [Virtual Event] Nancy Sowell in conv. with Melissa Febos – Internal Family Systems Health Therapy: Treating Trauma-Related Physical Illness & Toxic Stress
DESCRIPTION:[Virtual Event] Find the link on PrairieLights website  \nNancy Sowell\, LICSW\, will read from her new book co-authored with Martha Sweezy\, PhD\, and Richard C. Schwartz\, PhD: IFS (Internal Family Systems) Health Therapy: Treating Trauma-Related Physical Illness & Toxic Stress. She will be joined in conversation by bestselling author and daughter\, Melissa Febos. (Note: This will be a virtual event on Zoom and will start at 6:30 PM CDT.) \nThe publisher\, PESI Publishing\, offers this introduction for IFS Health Therapy: \nMany chronic health conditions–from inflammation and digestive disorders to metabolic syndrome and autoimmune     diseases–are increasingly linked to the lasting effects of chronic stress and trauma. But how do these experiences become embedded in the body\, and how can we help? \nIn IFS (Internal Family Systems) Health Therapy\, Nancy Sowell\, in collaboration with Martha Sweezy and IFS founder Richard Schwartz\, draws upon thirty years of clinical practice and behavioral medicine experience to present a groundbreaking mind-body approach that views protective and vulnerable inner “parts” as key drivers of physical health concerns. From this perspective\, relief emerges as clients support these internal parts and release trauma-related burdens. \nThrough vivid case examples\, experiential exercises\, and practical tools\, clinicians will learn how to use a clear three-phase framework to: \n\nUnderstand how trauma and chronic stress contribute to illness\nConduct an IFS-informed health therapy assessment\nIdentify and befriend protective parts that affect physical symptoms\nHelp vulnerable parts release trauma-related burdens\nCollaborate with other health professionals to support whole-person care\n\nAdversity can alter a person’s mind and body\, but it does not extinguish the Self’s capacity to heal. This book equips you with the tools to support that capacity. \nNancy Sowell\, LICSW\, is an IFS senior trainer\, consultant\, and speaker who teaches internationally and in the US and maintains an IFS health therapy practice. She is a Harvard Medical School teaching associate at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at the Cambridge Health Alliance\, where she has served for many years as a clinical consultant and IFS trainer. Her work integrates personal history\, mindful awareness of the body\, emotions\, thoughts\, and deeply held beliefs that influence our mood\, behavior\, relationships\, and health. As the Behavioral Medicine program manager in the Division of Rheumatology\, Immunology\, and Allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston\, she co-created an IFS program that demonstrated positive outcomes for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. She knows both personally and professionally the power of the Self in healing and restoring health. Visit her website: www.nancysowell.com. \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/prairielights-virtual-event-nancy-sowell-in-conv-with-melissa-febos-internal-family-systems-health-therapy-treating-trauma-related-physical-illness-toxic-stress/
CATEGORIES:General
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260917T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260917T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T172731Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T172731Z
UID:5742-1789671600-1789671600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – A reading with Camille T. Dungy\, America\, A Love Story
DESCRIPTION:The 2024 Paul Engle Prize winner and celebrated poet Camille T. Dungy will read from her newest poetry collection\, America\, a Love Story. Described by publisher Wesleyan University Press as a “powerful testament to living and loving as a Black woman and mother in today’s America\, and her first book of poetry in almost a decade\,” America\, a Love Story is praised by Charley Burlock of Oprah Daily as an “electrifying new collection [that] arrives just on time\, offering a version of patriotism capable of meeting the present moment and carrying us through to a brighter future\,” while award-winning poet and novelist Kaveh Akbar says: “What a great fan I am of Camille Dungy’s work. I’ve spent so much time sitting at the foot of her language\, just sort of learning what I can in slack-jawed wonder.” \nCamille T. Dungy is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (2023). She has also written Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race\, Motherhood\, and History (2017)\, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award\, and four collections of poetry\, including Trophic Cascade (2017)\, winner of the Colorado Book Award. Dungy edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009)\, and her work has appeared in Best American Poetry\, 100 Best African American Poems\, Best American Essays\, The 1619 Project\, plus dozens of venues including The New Yorker\, Poetry\, Literary Hub\, The Paris Review\, and Poets.org. A University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University\, Dungy’s honors include the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship\, a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship\, an American Book Award\, an Honorary Doctorate from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry\, and fellowships from the NEA in both prose and poetry (weslpress.org).
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-a-reading-with-camille-t-dungy-america-a-love-story/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T172534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T172534Z
UID:5739-1789585200-1789585200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – Luis Muñoz\, Garth Greenwell\, & Idra Novey – One Moment: Poems
DESCRIPTION:Renowned Spanish poet Luis Muñoz will read from his debut North American poetry collection\, One Moment\, and will be joined by his English translators\, his husband Garth Greenwell and Idra Novey. Described as “Sweet\, surreal\, and haunting\,” the poems in One Moment “examine both the frictions and elusiveness that can occur between self and others…the gentle observation of sunlight like ‘golden cookies on the bedspread’ as you lie next to a lover. The feeling of solitude rendering you as small and still as a garbanzo bean\, yearning as much for water and light as to continue being left alone” (simonandschuster.com). Bestselling poet and novelist Kaveh Akbar praises One Moment by saying\, “It’s thrilling to encounter poetry this fresh\, this undeniable\,” and adds\, “No one today sounds like this.” \nLuis Muñoz is the author of seven books of poetry\, including Vecindad. He has received the Ciudad de Córdoba\, Generación del 27\, and Ojo Crítico prizes\, among others. He divides his time between Madrid and Iowa City\, where he directs the Spanish-language creative writing MFA program at the University of Iowa. \nGarth Greenwell is the author of three books of fiction\, most recently Small Rain\, which won the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award\, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His first novel\, What Belongs to You\, won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year\, was longlisted for the National Book Award\, and was a finalist for six other awards\, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second book\, Cleanness\, was a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for several awards\, including the Joyce Carol Oates Prize\, the Gordon Burn Prize\, and France’s Prix Sade. \nIdra Novey is a novelist\, poet\, and translator. Her most recent novel Take What You Need was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023\, a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize\, longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award\, and chosen as a Barnes & Noble Fiction Pick. Her first novel Ways to Disappear was a finalist for the L.A. Times First Fiction Prize and a winner of the 2016 Brooklyn Public Library Prize and the Sami Rohr Prize. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she’s written for The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, The Washington Post\, and The Guardian.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-luis-munoz-garth-greenwell-idra-novey-one-moment-poems/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260915T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260915T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T020118Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T020118Z
UID:6064-1789498800-1789498800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Sara Levine – The Hitch
DESCRIPTION:Sara Levine will read from her new novel\, The Hitch. Describes as “a delightfully unhinged comedy following a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world” (sara-levine.com)\, The Hitch is praised by bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert as “one of the most wildly comedic and unhinged novels I have ever encountered\, while at the same time also being deeply relatable and strangely emotionally accurate.” It’s also praised by Nathan Hill\, who says: “A hilarious\, madcap novel about our human obsession with getting life “right\,” and how the best laid plans can go astray\, especially when the dark haunted soul of a corgi gets involved. This is the book I’ll recommend to people as a test of their sense of humor: if they laugh at the corgi\, the yogurt crisis\, the hero who cannot recognize the obvious even when it’s chewing on her pant leg\, then I’ll know we’re destined to be friends.” \nSara Levine is the author of the novels The Hitch and Treasure Island!!!  and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She earned a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Brown University and was awarded a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities. She teaches creative writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is on Substack at Delusions of Grammar.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-sara-levine-the-hitch/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T015840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T015840Z
UID:6062-1789315200-1789315200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for our annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Zodwa Nyoni (Zimbabwe\, United Kingdom)\, Jun Li (Hong Kong)\, and Ingeborg von Zadow (Germany). They will be accompanied by Iowa Playwrights Workshop MFA candidate Darrin Terpstra. \nZodwa Nyoni is a Zimbabwean-born writer and director whose multidisciplinary work spans theatre\, film\, radio\, and opera. She first rose to prominence with her debut play\, Boi Boi is Dead\, which won the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Since\, her plays have been staged across Europe\, Africa\, and North America. In 2025\, she premiered three projects: \n\nLiberation:  Manchester International Festival production exploring the 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress\, nominated for Best Playwright at the Black British Theatre Awards and Alfred Fagon Award finalist.\nTears Are Not Meant to Stay Inside: An opera focused on ancestral healing for Buxton International Festival.\nCastlevania: Nocturne:  Series 2 of Netflix’s spin off animated series set during the French Revolution.\n\nZodwa has directed three short films\, including the award-winning short The Ancestors. It won Jurors’ Choice for Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking at Women of African Descent Film Festival (Brooklyn\, NY); and Best Film at Sacramento Pan African International Film Festival. She is a BAFTA Connect member and former Oxbelly International Fellow (Greece). Zodwa supports multidisciplinary artists and writers as a Lecturer in Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University and freelance dramaturg and script editor. \nJun Li is a Hong Kong writer director. His film works include Tracey (2018)\, Drifting (2021)\, and Queerpanorama (2025). He won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director at the 58th and 62nd Golden Horse Film Awards for the latter two. His theatre works include Song of Grief (2018-2019) and In a Perfect World (2025). He won Best Play and Best Script for the later at the 34th Hong Kong Drama Awards. \nIngeborg von Zadow is an internationally renowned playwright based in the UNESCO City of Literature Heidelberg\, Germany. Born in Berlin and educated bilingually in Germany\, the USA and Belgium\, she holds an M.A. in Theater from State University of New York at Binghamton\, USA. The Agent/Publisher Verlag der Autoren in Frankfurt a.M.\, Germany started representing her professionally at the age of 22\, after she had spent her youth writing and performing. Her plays\, often written for young audiences\, have themes such as friendship\, the actions of human beings and the way of the world. They focus on core emotional experiences and capture moments of growth and self-awareness through humor\, rhythm and theatrical imagination. The plays have been staged in more than 150 professional national and international productions and translated into 12 languages.\nShe won the Brothers-Grimm-Prize of the State of Berlin and was nominated for the German Children’s Theater Prize and the Mülheimer Children’s Plays Prize. Ingeborg von Zadow is spokesperson of the Heidelberg Authors\, and director of the youth program Heidelberger Literaturscouts. \nA Korean-American playwright from Des Moines\, Iowa\, Darrin Terpstra is a third-year MFA candidate in the Iowa Playwrights Workshop\, a recipient of the Hansberry-Lilly Fellowship\, and a two-times O’Neill semifinalist. Their work has a primary focus in queer narratives\, deconstructions of Christianity\, and immigrant metaphors.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series-2/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260911T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260911T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T172155Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T172155Z
UID:5736-1789153200-1789153200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – Lizzie Buehler in conv with Julia Conrad\, The Obsessed
DESCRIPTION:Iowa graduate Lizzie Buehler will read from her debut novel\, The Obsessed\, and will be joined in conversation by Julia Conrad. Described as “A bighearted portrait of the anxieties of desire [that] explores the trials of modern dating\, the strange ennui of academia\, and the question of how to create a world for yourself within and without the confines of your influences\,” The Obsessed is praised by Forbes.com as “[A] delectable novel about obsession and dating in the modern age\,” while Debutiful says: “You will obsess over The Obsessed…It’s sad. It’s weird. It’s horny. You’ll yearn while reading Buehler’s brilliant writing.” \nLizzie Buehler is the translator of The Disaster Tourist (winner of the CWA Dagger for crime fiction in translation)\, Art on Fire\, and Table for One by Yun Ko-eun\, and Korean Teachers by Seo Su-jin. She holds an MFA in literary translation from the University of Iowa and has studied comparative literature at Harvard and Princeton. The Obsessed is her debut novel. \nJulia Conrad is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of Iowa and is a writer and Italian translator. Her work has been published in The Massachusetts Review\, The Offing\, Revista Nexos\, Asymptote\, and the anthology Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (Haymarket Books 2020)\, among others\, and she’s a contributor to VAN Magazine and The Millions. Her first book\, a hidden history of women in classical music\, is forthcoming from Scribner Books. She holds two MFAs from the University of Iowa\, in Nonfiction and in Literary Translation.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-lizzie-buehler-in-conv-with-julia-conrad-the-obsessed/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260910T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260910T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T171938Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T171938Z
UID:5733-1789066800-1789066800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – Patricia Albers in conv with Garth Greenwell\, Everything Is Photograph: A Life of André Kertész
DESCRIPTION:Patricia Albers will read from her new biography\, Everything Is Photograph: A Life of André Kertész\, and will be joined in conversation with Garth Greenwell. Described as “The first full biography of the innovative ‘father of modern photography’ [which] vividly depicts his life and works\, from Hungary to France and America\, across the 20th century\,” Everything Is Photograph is praised by the New York Times\, which says: “Everything Is Photograph is filled with [Albers’s] gorgeous descriptions of Kertész’s pictures\, tempting you to interrupt your reading to Google every photo she writes about with such acuity and care. But the life she recounts is fascinating\, too.” \nPatricia Albers is a San Francisco Bay Area–based writer\, editor\, and art historian (not to be confused with the anthropologist Patricia C. Albers). She is the author of Joan Mitchell\, Lady Painter: A Life\, the acclaimed first biography of the abstract painter. Her previous books were Shadows\, Fire\, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti and Tina Modotti and the Mexican Renaissance. Using photographs discovered during her research about Modotti\, Albers co-organized the exhibition “Tina Modotti and the Mexican Renaissance\,” shown at European museums and at the Rencontres d’Arles and garnering wide coverage in the European media\, including a front-page story in Le Monde hailing it as “the first great [Modotti] exhibition in France.” Albers’s essays\, art reviews\, and features have appeared in numerous museum catalogs and publications\, including San Francisco Magazine\, the San Jose Mercury News\, and the New York Times. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities and a juror for Biographers International Plutarch Award. She is also an instructor emerita of art history at San Jose State University. Her research and writing of Everything Is Photograph: A Life of André Kertész was supported by a grant from the Robert B. Silvers Foundation (https://patriciaalbers.net/about). \nGarth Greenwell is the author of three books of fiction\, most recently Small Rain\, which won the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award\, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His first novel\, What Belongs to You\, won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year\, was longlisted for the National Book Award\, and was a finalist for six other awards\, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second book\, Cleanness\, was a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for several awards\, including the Joyce Carol Oates Prize\, the Gordon Burn Prize\, and France’s Prix Sade. It was named a Best Book of 2020 by The New Yorker\, Time\, The Washington Post\, and over thirty other publications. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-patricia-albers-in-conv-with-garth-greenwell-everything-is-photograph-a-life-of-andre-kertesz/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260909T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260909T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260811T161949Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T161949Z
UID:5852-1788980400-1788980400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Tabatha Leggett in conv with Jan Steyn – Enchantment
DESCRIPTION:University of Iowa Literary Translation MFA candidate Tabatha Leggett will read from her translation of Riikka Pulkkinen’s novel\, Enchantment\, and will be joined in conversation with Jan Steyn. Described as “a spellbinding literary mystery that explores the uneasy terrain of girlhood\, where one is always being watched\, shaped\, and judged by others” (scribepublications.com)\, Enchantment is praised by Shelf Awareness as “a striking novel about girlhood\, perception\, and death\,” while Catherine Airey\, author of Confessions\, says: “An intricate tapestry of a novel by a masterful writer. Enchantment’s real triumph is its investigation into what we mean to one another as imperfect people.” \nTabatha Leggett is a writer and literary translator from North Wales. She is a current Iowa Arts Fellow at the University of Iowa’s Literary Translation MFA program and a graduate of New York University’s Fiction MFA programme\, where she was an Axinn Fellow. Enchantment is her debut translation. \nJan Steyn is a writer\, scholar\, and translator working from Afrikaans\, French\, and Dutch. His forthcoming translations include Wilma Stockenström’s Abjater’s Laughter and two books by Ronelda Kamfer\, the novel Compound and the poetry volume soil/Santekraam. He is the author of Jig (Sylph Editions\, 2026) and editor of Translation: Crafts\, Contexts\, Consequences (Cambridge\, 2022). He teaches at the University of Iowa\, where he directs the MFA in Literary Translation.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-tabatha-leggett-in-conv-with-jan-steyn-enchantment/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Enchantment_US_FRONT.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260908T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260908T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T171700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T171700Z
UID:5730-1788894000-1788894000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – A reading with Chris Vinsonhaler\, Beowulf: An Epic Enigma
DESCRIPTION:University of Iowa PhD graduate Chris Vinsonhaler will read from her translation of Beowulf: An Epic Enigma. Descibred as a “radical reappraisal of the Old English epic” (beowulf.live)\, Beowulf: An Epic Enigma (Book I) is praised by Robert E. Bjork\, Editor of Klaeber’s Beowulf  and A Beowulf Handbook as “a riddling maze never seen before\, a murder mystery of smoke and mirrors that will intrigue and entertain new readers and aficionados alike\,” while Ophelia Eryn Hostetter\, Professor of Old English\, Rutgers University\, Camden and Editor of Teaching Beowulf: Practical Approaches\, says: “Chris Vinsonhaler leverages her work in performance and scholarship to reveal major elements obscured in Beowulf’s long critical history: how repetition sparks subtle yet essential impacts; how the poem’s riddling design leaves insinuation hanging; how the sonic landscape of each line draws us into the folds of enigma; and most intriguing of all\, how the poem mobilizes irony to flesh out its shockingly honest invocation of heroic criminality. This is absolutely not a Beowulf of epic praise but a scathing exposé of avarice\, cultural nostalgia\, and the perennial allure of violence.” \nChris Vinsonhaler bridges the worlds of scholarship and performance. A translator\, storyteller\, and medievalist\, she brings Beowulf to life as both text and event — recovering the poem’s riddling structure\, its irony\, and its power to move audiences through voice and embodiment. Her approach draws deeply on the work of her mentor and dissertation director\, Professor Jonathan Wilcox\, whose scholarship on humor and riddling shaped her reading of the poem’s enigmatic design. Her work fuses historical insight with the immediacy of live performance\, revealing Beowulf not as a relic of the past but as a living act of imagination (beowulf.live).
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-a-reading-with-chris-vinsonhaler-beowulf-an-epic-enigma/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/9798991469326.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260906T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260906T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260904T015334Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260904T015334Z
UID:6060-1788710400-1788710400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for our annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Nisrine Mbarki Ben Ayad (Netherlands)\, Nina Dragičević (Slovenia)\, and Hidayat Nordin (Singapore). They will be accompanied by Iowa Literary Translation MFA candidate  Zubair Ibrahim Siddiqui. \nNisrine Mbarki Ben Ayad (she/her)\, the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands (2026–2027)\, is an Amsterdam based Dutch Moroccan versatile multilingual writer\, poet\, literary translator\, and programmer. Her work spans poetry\, fiction\, theatre\, and literary translation. Rooted in Dutch\, Arabic\, and Tamazight\, and fluent in English and French\, she operates across multiple literary contexts. As a literary translator\, she primarily translates female voices from Arabic and English into Dutch. In January 2022\, she debuted with her poetry collection Oeverloos (Shoreless). The collection was nominated for the C. Buddingh’ Prize for best poetry debut and the prestigious Herman de Coninck Prize. Her debut novel Kookpunt (Boiling Point) was published in 2025. In addition to her literary practice\, Mbarki collaborates with various international literature festivals as curator and serves as an active member of several literary organizations\, juries\, and boards. \nNina Dragičević is a poet\, writer\, sound artist\, and sociologist\, the author of nine volumes of poetry\, essays\, and theory\, as well as numerous sound-poetry compositions and installations. Known for a distinct formal and stylistic hybridity\, linguistic precision\, and an articulated queer and feminist stance\, her work has been characterized by critics as “striking\,” “pioneering\,” and “majestic\,” as “strong\, powerful poetry that deserves a lot of attention.” Dragičević is the recipient of the Cankar Award 2026\, the 2025 Lastovka Award\, the 2023 Werner Düttmann Fellowship (Akademie der Künste\, Berlin)\, the 2023 Dr Ana Mayer Kansky Award (University of Ljubljana)\, the 2021 Jenko Award\, the 2020 Župančič Award\, two 2018 Knight of Poetry Awards\, and was a 2018 Palma Ars Acustica finalist. She was nominated by Ljubljana City of Literature. \nHidayat Nordin is a Singaporean writer\, theatre director\, and cultural practitioner working across fiction\, poetry\, performance\, and film in Malay and English. In 2025\, he won the Golden Point Award — Singapore’s most prestigious literary prize — taking both First Prize and Honourable Mention in short fiction in the same year. He was appointed Duta Bahasa (Malay Language Ambassador) by MBMS in 2025\, in recognition of his sustained contribution to the Malay language and literary arts in Singapore.  His poetry has appeared in publications across Singapore\, Malaysia\, and Australia\, including a solo collection\, Optimis (2020)\, supported by the National Arts Council. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Aras Theatre and co-founder of Meja Conteng\, a writers’ collective that has produced three publications and a nationwide poetry competition since its founding in 2024. A practitioner of dikir barat — a Malay oral performance tradition of call and response — he has also represented Singapore internationally at literary festivals in Jakarta\, Kuala Lumpur\, and Perak. \nZubair Ibrahim Siddiqui is a poet and translator from Karachi\, Pakistan. They received an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa. Their poems have appeared in Quarterly West\, Diode\, and Frozen Sea among others.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260904T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260904T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T171319Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T171425Z
UID:5726-1788548400-1788548400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – A Reading with Giano Cromley\, American Mythology
DESCRIPTION:Giano Cromley will read from his debut novel\, American Mythology. Described as a “charming and comic debut novel about a quirky ensemble embarking on an epic quest to find Bigfoot\,” American Mythology is praised by Erin A. Craig\, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Child\, as a book that has ” has completely stolen my heart\,” and Ron Rash\, author of The Caretaker\, says: “American Mythology is a riveting\, big-hearted novel about a group of pilgrims who encounter both the mysteries of nature and ultimately those of the human heart. Giano Cromley has given us a much-needed reminder that\, if sought\, wonder may yet be found in our world.” \nBorn and raised in Montana\, Giano Cromley is the author of two young adult novels and a collection of short stories. He is a recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council and was a BookEnds Fellow with Stony Brook University. He is an amateur woodworker\, a certified wildlife tracker\, and an English professor at Kennedy-King College\, where he is chair of the Communications Department. He lives on the Southside of Chicago with his wife and two dogs.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-giano-cromley-american-mythology/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/American-Mythology-cover-.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260903T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260903T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260811T161305Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T161305Z
UID:5849-1788462000-1788462000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Will Boast – The Submerged
DESCRIPTION:Will Boast will read from his new short story collection\, The Submerged\, which was named the 2026 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction by the University of Georgia Press. \nThe University of Georgia Press offers this introduction to The Submerged\, which is praised by Molly Antopol\, author of The UnAmericans\, as “Bursting with compassion and wit and intelligence:” \n“In ten surprising and subtly devastating stories\, Will Boast explores the complex ways in which we long for a home\, for connection and purpose. A Sicilian barber takes on a refugee as an apprentice and upends his own quiet village life. A lonely New York architect starts an ill-advised relationship with an aspiring congressman. The comic mayhem of teenage locals in a tourist town suddenly turns deadly serious. A shooting in northern Wisconsin involving an immigrant sets a community against itself. The Submerged draws unforgettable portraits of those forced into exile and those who choose it themselves. Boast asks just what we’ll do when the time comes to leave everything behind.” \nWill Boast is the author of a story collection\, Power Ballads; a memoir\, Epilogue; and a novel\, Daphne. His second  collection\, The Submerged\, won the 2026 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and is forthcoming this September. His short fiction\, reporting\, and essays have appeared in  The New York Times Magazine\, The New Republic\, The Guardian\, The American Scholar\, Granta\, and  the Virginia Quarterly Review\, among other publications. He’s held fellowships from Stanford University\, the American Academy in Rome\, the University of East Anglia\, Yaddo\, and MacDowell\, and he’s taught at Stanford\, the University of Chicago\, Royal Holloway\, University of London\, and the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center in Rome. He resides in Chicago and London.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-will-boast-the-submerged/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SubmergedcoverfromAmazon.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260830T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260830T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260811T155503Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T155503Z
UID:5847-1788105600-1788105600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Join Prairie Lights for their annual IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series! This week’s event features IWP Residents Sarah Gilmartin (Ireland) and Iván Hochman (Argentina). They will be accompanied by local author and IWP Senior Editor Lauren Haldeman and a current Iowa Writers’ Workshop student (to be announced soon). \nSarah Gilmartin’s short stories have been published in The Dublin Review\, The Tangerine and The Stinging Fly. She won the Máirtín Crawford Short Story Award in 2020. Her novels Dinner Party: A Tragedy (2021)\, Service (2023) and Little Vanities (2026) are published by Pushkin Press. They have been shortlisted for the Irish Books Awards\, the Kate O’Brien Award\, and translated into Italian\, German and (forthcoming) French. She was the 2025 Arts Council Writer-in-Residence at Dublin City University. \nIván Hochman (b. 1994\, Buenos Aires\, Argentina) is an actor\, writer\, screenwriter\, director\, and teacher. His play Decir te amo es un atentado received a National Playwriting Award from the Teatro Nacional Cervantes and was presented at the Bienal de Arte Joven. He was selected for the Cannes Writers Club at Canneseries (2024) for his work as a screenwriter. His first novel\, Por qué te vas (Milena Caserola\, 2020; Alfaguara\, 2023)\, was included in the Mapa de las Lenguas collection (2024). His second novel\, Años luz que no brillamos\, is forthcoming from Alfaguara. He starred in the Netflix series Love After Music\, for which he received several acting awards. He is currently working on a science fiction short story collection and two feature films. He teaches creative writing and mentors long-form literary projects. \nLauren Haldeman is the author/illustrator of the graphic novels Wild That We’re Alive and Team Photograph\, and the poetry collections Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry\, Center for Literary Publishing\, 2017)\, Calenday and the chapbook The Eccentricity is Zero. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry\, Tin House\, The Colorado Review\, Fence\, The Iowa Review\, Gulf Coast and The Rumpus. A poet\, web designer and comic book artist\, she has been a recipient of the Sustainable Arts Foundation Award\, a Vermont Studio Center residency\, the Colorado Prize for Poetry and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-iwp-sunday-afternoon-reading-series/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260826T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260826T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260722T171045Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T171045Z
UID:5723-1787770800-1787770800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights – A Reading with Matthew Neill Null\, Floodgate
DESCRIPTION:Writers’ Workshop graduate Matthew Neill Hull will read from his new novel\, Floodgate. Described by publisher Blair as a story about “a former West Virginia coal miner [who] encounters corruption and cultural upheaval working on a dam project that will submerge his town\,” Floodgate is praised by Jayne Anne Phillips\, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Night Watch\, as ” a masterpiece and a saga\,” while Rita Bullwinkel\, author of Headshot\, says: “A lushly rendered\, politically radical novel that illuminates not only the American past\, but also our present.” \nA writer from West Virginia\, Matthew Neill Null is author of the novel Honey from the Lion\, the story collection Allegheny Front\, and\, most recently\, the novel Floodgate. He is recipient of the O. Henry Award\, the Pushcart Prize\, the Mary McCarthy Prize\, and the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize Fellowship in Literature from the American Academy of Arts & Letters\, and his short fiction has appeared in Electric Literature\, Oxford American\, The Kenyon Review\, American Short Fiction\, Ecotone\, and the Missouri Review\, among other journals. He has been a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center\, the University of Iowa\, and the American Academy in Rome\, as well as a resident at Yaddo and the Jentel Foundation\, and his books have been published in translation in France and Italy. National Book Award-winner Jaimy Gordon writes\, “Matthew Neill Null is bound to become one of the most admired and influential fiction writers of his generation.” Booklist said about Null’s debut novel\, “Beautifully written in fresh\, lyrical prose\, Honey from the Lion brilliantly creates a land and a people experiencing tremendous change. Null successfully and engagingly presents the consequences of this change for both humans and the environment\, leaving readers feeling like witnesses to it all.” He currently is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Susquehanna University and a member of the Writing Committee at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-a-reading-with-matthew-neill-null-floodgate/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Floodgate_frontcover.webp
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260817T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260817T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260811T155027Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T155027Z
UID:5844-1786993200-1786993200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PrairieLights: Reading – Asha Leena Bhandary – Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World
DESCRIPTION:University of Iowa professor Asha Leena Bhandary will read from her new book\, Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World. Described as a “a care-responsive theory of liberalism to address intersectionality and racism\,” Being at Home is praised by José Medina\, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University\, as “an ambitious and brilliant rethinking of the notion of autonomy from a relational and intersectional perspective\, bringing together liberalism and critical philosophy of race and gender in original ways.” It’s also praised by Ashwini Vasanthakumar\, author of The Ethics of Exile\, who says: “An artful synthesis of memoir\, philosophy\, law\, and literature\, this is a beautifully written meditation on home-making in an unjust world\, and the practices of buoyancy and community that enable those who live ‘counterfactually’ to nevertheless be ‘at home.” \nAsha Bhandary is a social and political philosopher working at the intersection of the ethics of care\, philosophy of race\, reproductive justice\, and political theory. Her work focuses on the structural and distributive requirements for caregiving arrangements in society\, developing critical care theory that illuminates racialized and non-western practices of care. In her first monograph\, Freedom to Care: Liberalism\, Dependency Care\, and Culture (2020)\, she argues that society’s caregiving arrangements must be improved if women\, and\, women of color\, are to have the freedom to care. In her second monograph\, Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World (2026)\, she defends the theory of intersectional liberalism\, which proceeds from the subject position of the least advantaged\, or what she defines as the “grafted subject” (ashabhandary.com).
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairielights-reading-asha-leena-bhandary-being-at-home-living-autonomously-in-an-unjust-world/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260722T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260722T183000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260617T154207Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260617T154207Z
UID:5580-1784745000-1784745000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260721T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260721T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260618T173903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260630T172033Z
UID:5607-1784660400-1784660400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
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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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260720T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260720T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260618T173614Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260630T172125Z
UID:5604-1784574000-1784574000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Book-PL-2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260717T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260717T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260618T173146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260630T172213Z
UID:5601-1784314800-1784314800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights Reading: Will Swain – Certainly Uncertain
DESCRIPTION: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!” \nWill 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/).
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-reading-will-swain-certainly-uncertain/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Book-PL-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260709T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260709T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T174540
CREATED:20260618T172536Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260630T172307Z
UID:5596-1783623600-1783623600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights Reading: Susan McCarty – 2008
DESCRIPTION:Susan McCarty will read from her new novel\, 2008. The University of Chicago Press offers this summary of 2008: \n“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). \nForeward 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.” \nSusan 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.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-reading-susan-mccarty-2008/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Book-pl-.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR