For more than 80 years writers have come to Iowa City to work on their manuscripts and to exchange ideas about writing and reading with each other and with the faculty. Many of them have gone on to publish award-winning work after graduating. With the spirit of an arts colony and the benefits of the research University of which we are a part, the Writers' Workshop continues to foster and to celebrate American literature in all its varied forms.

Upcoming Events

Jennifer duBois: Reading promotional image

Jennifer duBois: Reading

Thursday, February 12, 2026 8:00pm to 9:00pm
Dey House

Jennifer duBois is the author of The Last Language. Her first novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and winner of the California Book Award for First Work of Fiction. Soon after its publication, duBois received a Whiting Award and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award. Her second novel, Cartwheel, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the winner of the Housatonic Book Award. And her third...

Jack Saebyok Jung and James F. Thomas: Reading promotional image

Jack Saebyok Jung and James F. Thomas: Reading

Friday, February 13, 2026 8:00pm to 9:00pm
Dey House

Jack Saebyok Jung is a poet, translator, and educator whose creative practice navigates the intersections of literature, technology, and identity. Known for his translations of Korean poetry, notably the cutting-edge works of Yi Sang, Jack explores how language moves between cultures, capturing nuance and existential depth through rhythmical precision.

Jung once planned on drawing vampire hunters and mech pilots — but then he stumbled into poetry and never left. A Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa...

Views presents: Hai-Dang Phan Reading and Q&A promotional image

Views presents: Hai-Dang Phan Reading and Q&A

Wednesday, February 18, 2026 7:00pm to 8:00pm
English-Philosophy Building

Poet, translator, and essayist Hai-Dang Phan is the author of the poetry collection Reenactments (Sarabande, 2019) and the translator of Phan Nhiên Hạo’s selected volume of poems, Paper Bells (The Song Cave, 2020). Phan has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is currently an Associate Professor of English at Grinnell College.

Program News

Andrea Brady seated; her book, Poetry and Bondage: A History and Theory of Lyric Constraint, with colorful concentric circle artwork

Andrea Brady receives 2025 Truman Capote Award

Wednesday, October 8, 2025
The prestigious prize is the largest annual cash award for English-language literary criticism and will be awarded to poet and Professor of Poetry at Queen Mary University of London, Andrea Brady.
Covers of: The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy, Only Son by Kevin Moffet, The Pelican Child by Joy Williams, Things in Nature Only Grow by Yiyun Li

4 Iowa alums longlisted for National Book Award

Wednesday, September 17, 2025