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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20260722T172534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T172534Z
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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:20261012T184757
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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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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:20261012T184757
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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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260910T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260910T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260909T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260909T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260908T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260908T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260906T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260906T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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:20261012T184757
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
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260903T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260903T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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:20261012T184757
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:20261012T184757
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260817T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260817T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/9780197811245.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260722T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260722T183000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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:20261012T184757
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Book-PL-3.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260720T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260720T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260717T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260717T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
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:20261012T184757
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
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260622T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260622T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20260618T172140Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260630T172338Z
UID:5593-1782154800-1782154800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights Reading: Karen Parkman – The Jills
DESCRIPTION:Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Karen Parkman will read from her new novel\, The Jills. Listed by both PEOPLE Magazine and CrimeReads as a “best book of February\,” The Jills is praised by Chloe Benjamin\, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists\, as “a nuanced\, incisive exploration of the world of NFL cheerleading—and the complex power of sisterhood\, both familial and chosen\,” while Andrea Bartz\, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Ferry Out and We Were Never Here\, says: “Parkman’s character-driven mystery comes roaring out of the gate with all the poise and power of an NFL athlete. With its nuanced character work\, propulsive prose\, and intricate web of secrets and lies\, The Jills is an unforgettable debut. I couldn’t put it down.” \nKaren Parkman holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has been supported by MacDowell\, Yaddo\, the Sozopol Fiction Seminars\, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts\, and the Vermont Studio Center. Karen’s stories have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review\, Joyland\, and elsewhere. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa\, the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio\, and Kirkwood Community College. The Jills is her debut novel.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/karen-parkman-the-jills/
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
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20231010T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20231010T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20230823T153514Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230823T153624Z
UID:3006-1696964400-1696964400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Sarah Cypher: The Skin and Its Girl
DESCRIPTION:A young\, queer Palestinian American woman pieces together her great aunt’s secrets in this sweeping debut\, a family saga confronting questions of sexual identity\, exile\, and lineage. \nIn a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family’s ancestral home in Palestine\, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns a vibrant\, permanent cobalt blue. On the same day\, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of all Rummani lore\, Aunt Nuha\, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history\, harkening to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love. \nDecades later\, Betty returns to her Aunt Nuha’s gravestone\, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she’s every known or should she follow her heart for the woman she loves\, perpetuating her family’s cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt’s complex life and struggle with her own sexuality\, which Nuha hid to help the family emigrate to the U.S. But as Betty soon discovers\, her aunt hid much more than that. \nThe Skin and Its Girl is a searing\, poetic tale about desire and identity and a provocative exploration of how we let stories divide\, unite\, and define us–and even wield the power to restore a broken family. Sarah Cypher is that rare debut novelist who writes with the mastery and flair of a seasoned storyteller.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/sarah-cypher-the-skin-and-its-girl/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Skin-and-Its-Girl.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221203T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221203T150000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T190042Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T190042Z
UID:1674-1670072400-1670079600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Sidekick Coffee & Books: SANTA AT SIDEKICK
DESCRIPTION:Visit Santa at Sidekick! Santa will be available from 1pm-3pm. Please feel free to take your own photos!
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/sidekick-coffee-books-santa-at-sidekick/
LOCATION:Sidekick Coffee & Books\, 1310 1/2 Melrose Avenue\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52242\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221113T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221113T140000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20221104T162424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221104T162424Z
UID:2229-1668348000-1668348000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:RAINBOW ROWELL
DESCRIPTION:Join Prairie Lights Books for a reading and signing with New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell!   Seating is limited\, so if you pre-pay a pre-order a copy of her new book\, Scattered Showers\, we will be happy to save you a seat! \nRowell’s new book\, Scattered Showers (YA ages 14- 17)\, contains nine beautifully crafted love stories. Girl meets boy camping outside a movie theater. Best friends debate the merits of high school dances. A prince romances a troll. A girl romances an imaginary boy. And Simon Snow himself returns for a holiday adventure. It’s a feast of irresistible characters\, hilarious dialogue\, and masterful storytelling—in short\, everything you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell book! \nRainbow Rowell lives in Omaha\, Nebraska\, with her family. She’s the author of Eleanor & Park\,  Fangirl\,  Attachments\,  Landline\,  Pumpkinheads\, and the Simon Snow trilogy. \nPlease place pre-orders prior to Nov 11th. Books can be ordered here\, or you may call (319)337-2681(during store hours). Rowell will be happy to sign one book from home with any purchased for/at the event from Prairie Lights. \nMasks required!
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/rainbow-rowell/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221110T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221110T193000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20221104T163007Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221104T163007Z
UID:2234-1668108600-1668108600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:AN EVENING WITH ANNE LAMOTT
DESCRIPTION:Co-Presented by: True Endeavors & Prairie Lights Books\nAnne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism\, Motherhood\, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor – she is laugh-out-loud funny – and ruthless honesty\, Lamott converts her subjects into enchantment. Actually\, she writes about what most of us don’t like to think about. She wrote her first novel for her father\, the writer Kenneth Lamott\, when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. She has said that the book was “a present to someone I loved who was going to die.” In all her novels\, she writes about loss – loss of loved ones and loss of personal control. She doesn’t try to sugar-coat the sadness\, frustration and disappointment\, but tells her stories with honesty\, compassion and a pureness of voice. As she says\, “I have a lot of hope and a lot of faith and I struggle to communicate that.” Anne Lamott does communicate her faith; in her books and in person\, she lifts\, comforts\, and inspires\, all the while keeping us laughing.\n\nAnne Lamott is the author of seven novels\, Hard Laughter\, Rosie\, Joe Jones\, Blue Shoe\, All New People\, Crooked Little Heart\, and Imperfect Birds. She has also written several bestselling books of nonfiction\, including\, Operating Instructions\, an account of life as a single mother during her son’s first year; Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son; and the classic book on writing; Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. She has also authored several collections of autobiographical essays on faith; Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith\, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith\, and Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. In addition\, she has written\, Help\, Thanks\, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers\, Stitches; A Handbook on Meaning\, Hope and Repair\, Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace\, Hallelujah Anyway; Rediscovering Mercy and Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. Her most recent book is Dusk\, Night\, Dawn: On Revival and Courage.\n\nLamott has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship\, and has taught at UC Davis\, as well as at writing conferences across the country. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Mock has made a documentary on Lamott\, entitled “Bird by Bird with Annie” (1999). Anne Lamott has also been inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/an-evening-with-anne-lamott/
LOCATION:Englert Theatre\, 221 E. Washington St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221109T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221109T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20221104T161945Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221104T161945Z
UID:2223-1668020400-1668020400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:LAUREN HALDEMAN AND KAVEH AKBAR
DESCRIPTION:Please join with Lauren Haldeman who will talk about and show images from her book Team Photograph. She will be joined in conversation by Kaveh Akbar. In her extraordinary graphic novel–which masterfully incorporates poetry and elements of memoir–Lauren Haldeman layers the warfare of soccer over the battlefields now called Bull Run Regional Park\, where\, growing up\, her soccer team would practice and compete. The narrator turns to poetry and history to make sense of the town and its bloodshed\, of its forever attachment to injustice and its inability to restore erased identities. \nLauren Haldeman is the author of the graphic novel Team Photograph\, and the collections Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry)\, Calenday\, and The Eccentricity is Zero. Her work has appeared in Poetry\, Tin House\, The Colorado Review\, The Iowa Review\, Fence and others. A graphic novelist and poet\, she’s received an Iowa Arts Fellowship\, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award and visiting fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop\, Carnegie Mellon University\, Massachusetts College of Art and Design\, and University of Cape Town. \nKaveh Akbar is the author of the poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf\, the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic\, and he is the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine. In 2020 Kaveh was named Poetry Editor of The Nation. His honors include multiple Pushcart Prizes\, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship\, and the Levis Reading Prize. He teaches at the University of Iowa and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/lauren-haldeman-and-kaveh-akbar/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221023T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221023T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T185325Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T185325Z
UID:1656-1666540800-1666540800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: International Writing Program Sunday Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Hear some of this years’ International Writing Program residents read from their work. Readers TBA.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-international-writing-program-sunday-reading-series-9/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221022T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221022T140000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T185225Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T185225Z
UID:1654-1666447200-1666447200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Margo Price
DESCRIPTION:Country singer Margo Price will read from and talk about her new memoir\, Maybe We’ll Make It.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-margo-price/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221017T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221017T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T185133Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T191136Z
UID:1652-1666033200-1666033200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: Rebecca Rukeyser in conversation with Rachel Yoder
DESCRIPTION:A reading and conversation with Rebecca Rukeyser in celebration of the release of her book The Seaplane on Final Approach. She will be joined in conversation by Rachel Yoder.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-rebecca-rukeyser-in-conversation-with-rachel-yoder/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221016T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221016T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T185049Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T185049Z
UID:1650-1665936000-1665936000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: International Writing Program Sunday Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Hear some of this years’ International Writing Program residents read from their work. Readers TBA.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-international-writing-program-sunday-reading-series-8/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221014T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221014T190000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T184956Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T184956Z
UID:1648-1665774000-1665774000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: All Iowa Reads: Rachel Mans McKenny
DESCRIPTION:Established in 2003\, the purpose of All Iowa Reads is to foster a sense of unity through reading. Iowans are encouraged to come together in their communities to read and talk about a single book title in the same calendar year. The 2022 All Reads selection is Rachel Mans McKenny‘s The Butterfly Effect.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-all-iowa-reads-rachel-mans-mckenny/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221009T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221009T160000
DTSTAMP:20261012T184757
CREATED:20220817T184905Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T184905Z
UID:1646-1665331200-1665331200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Prairie Lights: International Writing Program Sunday Reading Series
DESCRIPTION:Hear some of this years’ International Writing Program residents read from their work. Readers TBA.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/prairie-lights-international-writing-program-sunday-reading-series-7/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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END:VCALENDAR