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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260912T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260912T103000
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UID:5659-1789209000-1789209000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PorchLight: Poetry Exchange
DESCRIPTION:This writer guided critique group offers poets the chance to receive carefully considered feedback\, and find writerly community.  \nWriters share drafts of work in advance so readers have enough time to provide considered feedback. Feedback is mostly positive\, and descriptive\, but writers can ask for proscriptive feedback if they wish. This workshop model centers the writer\, and gives them control over the amount and type of feedback they receive. \nFor more information on how to join\, visit their website!
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/porchlight-poetry-exchange/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:PorchLight Literary Arts Center\, 1019 E Washington St\, Iowa City\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260912T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260912T130000
DTSTAMP:20260922T075826
CREATED:20260708T153803Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T153803Z
UID:5664-1789218000-1789218000@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PorchLight: Queer Writers' Check In
DESCRIPTION:Similar to their Long Project Check In\, this group is for queer writers looking to build literary community together. Each session will include free writing\, discussion of works in progress\, and general literary support. Occasionally\, there will be guests and opportunities for trading work. \nVisit their website to RSVP!
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/porchlight-queer-writers-check-in/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:PorchLight Literary Arts Center\, 1019 E Washington St\, Iowa City\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260913T153000
DTSTAMP:20260922T075826
CREATED:20260811T152941Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T152941Z
UID:5824-1789313400-1789313400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PorchLight: The Prose Exchange
DESCRIPTION:Ready to get some eyes on your work? This group provides careful readings and positive\, descriptive feedback on works-in-progress. They meet twice a month and workshop two submissions of up to 20 pages at each meeting.  \nThey are currently open to adding one or two more members.  \nThey advise sitting in on a session to determine if this is the workshop for you.  \nFor more information on how to join\, visit their website!
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/porchlight-the-prose-exchange-2/2026-09-13/
LOCATION:PorchLight Literary Arts Center\, 1019 E Washington St\, Iowa City\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260919T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260919T190000
DTSTAMP:20260922T075826
CREATED:20260913T221307Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260913T221307Z
UID:6123-1789844400-1789844400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PorchLight: International Lights Salon Series
DESCRIPTION:Enjoy conversation\, connection\, and community over light snacks and wine. A collaboration with the International Writing Program\, the International Lights Salon provides a space for visiting International writers\, local artists\, university students\, and community members to engage in dialogue. \n \nJoin online or in person. For a zoom link email Jennifer at jennifer@porchlightliterary.org \n \nSeptember 19th’s topic will revolve around queer aesthetics in writing and creating queer writing communities. The conversationalists will be: \n \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. \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. \nHis 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. \nLionel Ruffel is a French literary scholar\, publisher\, and writer. He is the author of three essays on contemporary literature and culture:  Le Dénouement (Verdier\, 2005)\, Volodine post-exotique (Cécile Defaut\, 2007) Brouhaha\, les mondes du contemporain (Verdier\, 2016\, Minnesota Press\, 2017)\, and three hybrid books that combine memoir\, literary essay\, and political fable: Trompe-la-mort (Verdier\, 2019)\, I Can’t Sleep (Sternberg Press\, 2021)\, and Trois éveils (Corti\, 2024). His next book\, Auto-évaluations\, will be published in January 2027. Since 2005\, he runs the chaoïd series (which focuses on new voices and emerging literature) at Verdier publishing house where he’s also an associate publisher. He is a professor of comparative literature and creative writing at Paris 8 University\, where he co-founded the master’s program in creative writing in 2013 and has been co-director ever since. \nJohanna Kasimow is an Iowa City-based director\, writer\, and performer in the field of theater and performance. Her recent creative research focuses on the interplay of clown and affect in performance in a new play titled The Grüb\, which probes the sensations of hiding\, trans-generational inheritance\, and the rhythms of survival in an underground pit. \nJohanna has worked with artists and companies across the US\, including: Pig Iron Theatre Company\, The Eva Steinmetz Project\, Antigravity Performance Project\, Tiny Circus\, New Paradise Laboratories\, Nell Bang-Jensen\, Talya Chalef\, Lily Kind\, and Alex Tatarsky. In 2023\, Johanna was a participant in the NEH Summer Institute for Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Devised Theatre hosted by the Pig Iron Theatre Company. Recently\, Johanna premiered City In Heat\, a site-specific live cinema performance piece\, as part of the Open Air Media Festival at Public Space One in Iowa City. \nJohanna’s teaching and research has focused on clown and mask; civic and social practice art; community-based theatre; theatre of the climate crisis; and contemporary performance. Johanna received an MFA in Devised Performance from the University of the Arts/Pig Iron School in Philadelphia and is an Assistant Professor of Directing in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/porchlight-international-lights-salon-series-2/
LOCATION:PorchLight Literary Arts Center\, 1019 E Washington St\, Iowa City\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260920T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260920T173000
DTSTAMP:20260922T075826
CREATED:20260831T001439Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260831T001439Z
UID:6030-1789925400-1789925400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PorchLight: The Free Gen: Iowa City’s Original Generative Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Co-sponsored by PorchLight and Iowa City Poetry\, the Free Generative Writing Workshops provide a space for career writers\, curious beginners\, writers of all income levels and stages of life. Their goal is to make it easy to meet and learn from some of the most talented writer/teachers living in or passing through Iowa City. Every month a new writer leads a generative workshop\, presenting a prompt inspired by their own preoccupations\, passions\, or interests. The Free Generative Writing Workshops are offered in a hybrid format. \nRen Arcamone is an Australian writer living in Iowa City. She attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop\, and she’s a recipient of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her fiction has appeared in Gulf Coast\, the Washington Square Review\, Electric Literature\, and elsewhere. She’s at work on a short story collection and a novel.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/porchlight-the-free-gen-iowa-citys-original-generative-workshop/
LOCATION:PorchLight Literary Arts Center\, 1019 E Washington St\, Iowa City\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260921T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260921T103000
DTSTAMP:20260922T075826
CREATED:20260714T160440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260714T160440Z
UID:5685-1789986600-1789986600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:PorchLight: Write Now - Community Supported Writing Group
DESCRIPTION:PorchLight’s Write Now Writer’s Group provides community\, and learning opportunities for beginning to intermediate writers. At their monthly meetings\, share short craft lessons\, generate writing from prompts\, and\, on occasion\, provide responses to participants’ work in progress. Writers working in any genre are welcome. \nThis is a great group for writers who have not had the time or opportunity to pursue a traditional MFA. \nRSVP one week in advance on their website!
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/porchlight-write-now-community-supported-writing-group/2026-09-21/
LOCATION:PorchLight Literary Arts Center\, 1019 E Washington St\, Iowa City\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:General
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