PrairieLights: Reading – Asha Leena Bhandary – Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

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

Rogue Workshops Faculty Reading

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

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.) Xu Xi will read from her new collection of short stories, Horizon Hong Kong. Kelly Dwyer will read from her recent novel, Ghost Mother. Robin Hemley will

Prairie Lights: Sarah Minor in conv with Melissa Febos – Carousel: An Essay on Seeing

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

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 : "Across short, immersive sections masterfully fusing the slide lecture and the lyric essay, Minor invites us to see

Prairie Lights: Meg Richardson in conv with Claire Lombardo – Paradise Pawn

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

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

Prairie Lights Reading: Will Swain – Certainly Uncertain

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

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

Prairie Lights Reading: Susan McCarty – 2008

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

Susan McCarty will read from her new novel, 2008. The University of Chicago Press offers this summary of 2008: "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

Prairie Lights Reading: Karen Parkman – The Jills

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

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

Kazim Ali with Rajaa Alsanea and Yu Yuen Lan

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

Poet, novelist, and essayist Kazim Ali will read as a special guest of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. He is joined by IWP participants Rajaa Alsanea (Saudi Arabia) and Yu Yuen Lan (Hong Kong), who will also read from their work.

Patricia Lockwood: Will There Ever Be Another You

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

Amid a global pandemic, one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together – of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease. She’s afraid of her own floorboards, and “WHAT IS LOVE? BABY DON’T HURT ME” plays over and over in her

Tatiana Schlote-Bonne: The Mean Ones

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered. But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name

Jennifer Fawcett: Keep This For Me

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again. That woman was Fiona Green’s mother. When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave

Gregory Galloway: All We Trust and Scott Phillips: The Devil Raises His Own

Prairie Lights Books 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA

    In All We Trust, what starts out as a family squabble turns into an international battle between competing crime organizations, moving from small town New England to San Francisco to Mexico. Along the way the brothers encounter betrayal, double-dealing, kidnapping, and ultimately, revenge. The Devil Raises His Own, meanwhile, picks up the story of