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.

Kevin Brockmeier speaks with James Alan McPherson in 1994

Upcoming Events

Events

Iowa City Book Festival | Tree Tour: Literary Grove at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop promotional image

Iowa City Book Festival | Tree Tour: Literary Grove at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

Monday, October 14, 2024 12:00pm
Dey House
Join University of Iowa Arborist Andy Dahl for a tour of the Literary Grove at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, featuring trees with connections to famous authors.

Iowa City Book Festival | Stuart Dybek

Monday, October 14, 2024 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
The Iowa City Book Festival presents Stuart Dybek, who will read from his work. “Masterful . . . Like Proust, Dybek has a deserved reputation as a superb cartographer of memory.” ―Trevor Quirk, The Los Angeles Review of Books Dybek is the author of five books of fiction — Ecstatic CahootsPaper LanternI Sailed with MagellanThe Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods — as well as two collections of poetry, Brass Knuckles and Streets in Their Own Ink. Dybek is the recipient...

Literary Legends With Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Tracy Kidder

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 7:30pm
Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)
Sit in on a one-of-a-kind evening with writer and Iowa graduate Tracy Kidder, “a master of the nonfiction narrative” (Baltimore Sun), as he reflects on his lengthy literary career and reads from some of his bestselling work. The event will feature a conversation about the power of long-form investigative writing between Kidder and renowned author Stuart Dybek (73MFA), as well as a Q&A session and book signing. Register here: https://foriowa.info/3yUJ2h8 The author of nonfiction classics such...