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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260826T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260826T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
CREATED:20260722T171045Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T171045Z
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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:20260830T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260830T160000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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:20260903T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260903T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260904T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260904T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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:20260908T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260908T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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:20260909T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260909T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260910T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260910T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/9781590515099.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260911T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260911T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/9798217044184.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260916T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/9781668222386.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260917T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260917T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/9780819502261.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260922T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260922T190000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
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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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261020T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261020T180000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
CREATED:20260813T160527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260813T164525Z
UID:5879-1792519200-1792519200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Bonnie Jo Campbell: The Spirits
DESCRIPTION:Bonnie Jo Campbell\, a master of rural American fiction\, brings us a hair-raising winter tale to warm us by the fireside. In this contemporary Christmas Carol\, Campbell has created a gritty\, spooky\, and ultimately heartening holiday story that unfolds in an isolated farmhouse. It is the night before Christmas in a small town in Michigan\, and a young woman is haunted by her father’s death. She has been silently penitent for nine years\, but her guilt and grief have estranged her from her community and her family. She has taken refuge in the natural world of the plants and trees she tends\, but on this anniversary of the tragedy\, the supernatural landscape is rattling its chains. \nWhen a surprise guest appears at the (dreaded) Christmas Eve dinner\, the family begins to open up and reveal dangerous secrets and crimes nobody is willing to face. Within this darkest chaos\, a sliver of light appears\, showing a way to reclaim communion and even a sense of humor. While redemption is never easy or wholesale\, the story that a family creates together can heal wounds.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/bonnie-jo-campbell-the-spirits/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261024T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261024T113000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
CREATED:20260821T185920Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260821T185920Z
UID:5996-1792841400-1792841400@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Patricia Foster: A Marriage in Startled Air
DESCRIPTION:In A Marriage in Startled Air\, Patricia Foster shares the dramatic story of how the diagnosis of her husband’s rare cancer changed the dynamics of their marriage and opened the door to the hidden world of his childhood\, revealing the seeds of trauma and childhood PTSD. In vivid\, often poetic prose\, Foster reflects on how the journey of recovery—and discovery—between two artists in a relatively happy marriage leads to difficult conversations about family\, memory\, identity\, and aging. Within this unburdening\, Patricia and David discover a new map of intimacy: Once the illusion of normalcy is broken\, what emerges is something sweeter and deeper\, as if the broken thing becomes\, ironically\, the healing thing.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/patricia-foster-a-marriage-in-startled-air/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261024T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261024T130000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
CREATED:20260821T190146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260821T190146Z
UID:5998-1792846800-1792846800@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Ron Rindo: Life\, and Death\, and Giants
DESCRIPTION:Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan\, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota\, Wisconsin\, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months\, communicates with animals\, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies\, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world. \nBut it’s hard to hide forever when you’re nearly eight feet tall. At seventeen\, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens next transforms not only Gabriel’s life but the lives of everyone he meets. \nLife\, and Death\, and Giants is a moving story of faith\, family\, buried secrets\, and everyday miracles.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/ron-rindo-life-and-death-and-giants/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261024T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261024T143000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
CREATED:20260821T190331Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260821T190355Z
UID:6000-1792852200-1792852200@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Harriet Clark: The Hill
DESCRIPTION:Suzanna Klein was a baby when her mother got up early one morning to rob a bank with a group of fellow radicals. Now\, every Saturday\, Suzanna lines up at the prison gates among the other children\, each dressed as if for celebration. Inside there is a nursery and a cemetery; there are watchful guards and distractable nuns; there are women counting down to release and women like Suzanna’s mother\, who will never be released. \nAt home\, Suzanna is raised by her grandmother\, who is entirely unforgiving of her daughter’s crime and refuses to visit the prison. Surrounding Suzanna are her grandmother’s friends\, who know one another from their years in the Communist Party and still spend extended cocktail hours debating the Hitler-Stalin pact. Though these women once insisted on changing the world\, they are torn between teaching Suzanna how the world works and shielding her from it. \nSuzanna vows to return to the prison forever but her mother wants her to be free. Harriet Clark’s The Hill is an incandescent novel of a child growing up between worlds\, the last of three generations whose fates have been tied to punishment. It is the tale of a family broken apart by the desire for change\, told with irreverent wisdom and visionary force.
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/harriet-clark-the-hill/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261025T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261025T143000
DTSTAMP:20260826T104657
CREATED:20260819T153744Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260819T153744Z
UID:5943-1792938600-1792938600@www.iowacityofliterature.org
SUMMARY:Michael McCarty: Eerie Iowa
DESCRIPTION:Witness the Darker Side of the Hawkeye State \nThe farmlands and rural areas of Iowa are no stranger to the weird\, dark and mysterious. Learn about a terrestrial sighting from 1903\, a creepy cryptid that terrorized the town of Van Meter. Find out about Bigfoot sightings in Calhoun County. Peer under the waters of Lake Okoboji to find a huge lake monster. Read the history of a frightening sculpture based on a story by Franz Kafka and hear a premonition that predicted a devastating fire. Five-time Bram Stoker Finalist author Michael McCarty and Professor Emeritus Bruce Walters forge a twisted path through shadowy\, Gothic Iowa. Do you dare follow?
URL:https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/event/michael-mccarty-eerie-iowa/
LOCATION:Prairie Lights Books\, 15 S. Dubuque St.\, Iowa City\, IA\, 52240\, United States
CATEGORIES:Iowa City Book Festival
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