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.

About the Writers' Workshop

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Upcoming Events

Stop/Time Festival promotional image

Stop/Time Festival

Saturday, April 4, 2026 (all day)
Hancher Auditorium
Stop/Time Festival is a two-day, multi-venue, multi-artist spring festival produced by Hancher Auditorium and devoted to innovation and independence in contemporary music and the arts. This is a festival of discovery—opening our ears and minds to new sounds, ideas, and possibilities.
Book Club at the Museum promotional image

Book Club at the Museum

Monday, April 6, 2026 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Old Capitol Museum

Students, join the book club that meets monthly inside the iconic Old Capitol Museum, with books of all genres, chosen by you. Come read, wonder, and connect as we transform this timeless building into a cozy retreat for shared stories and spirited discussion in the Pentacrest Museums first ever student book club.

For the Spring 2026 semester, Book Club @ the Museum will meet on the following Mondays from 7 to 8 p.m. at Old Cap:

Feb. 2 (Please note: for February's book club meeting, we'll get to...

CLAS Postgraduate Visiting Writers Reading featuring Josh Balicki, Eli Campbell, Spencer Jones, & Brian Orozco promotional image

CLAS Postgraduate Visiting Writers Reading featuring Josh Balicki, Eli Campbell, Spencer Jones, & Brian Orozco

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 7:00pm to 8:30pm
English-Philosophy Building
CLAS Postgraduate Visiting Writers Josh Balicki (fiction), Eli Campbell (playwriting), Spencer Jones (nonfiction), & Brian Orozco (poetry) will present their writing.
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Program News

Sad Me of the Past header with crumpled paper and paper airplane on black background with yellow geometric shapes - Iowa

Iowa Writers Revisit Their Origin Stories in Sad Me of the Past Podcast

Friday, October 17, 2025
Megan Magee
Iowa Magazine
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
Office of Strategic Communication
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