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

Events

Remembering the Life of Connie Brothers promotional image

Remembering the Life of Connie Brothers

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 4:30pm
Prairie Lights Books
Please join us at 4:30 p.m. to commemorate the life of Connie Brothers, Program Associate of the Writers' Workshop from 1974-2019 and friend of Prairie Lights bookstore.Speakers will include: Maggie Conroy, David Hamilton, Rachel McPherson, Jan Weissmiller, Pam Willard and Kevin Zou.To subscribe to a weekly emailing list of Writers' Workshop events, please fill in the linked form or email iww@uiowa.edu with “Events Mailing List Subscribe” in the subject line.
Live from Prairie Lights | Karla Kelsey and Rebecca Lehmann promotional image

Live from Prairie Lights | Karla Kelsey and Rebecca Lehmann

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Writers' Workshop alumni Karla Kelsey and Rebecca Lehmann will read from their latest books of poetry.Poet Karla Kelsey will read from her newest book, Transcendental Factory: For Mina Loy. Described as a "lyric-documentary rendezvous with iconoclastic writer and visual artist Mina Loy (1882–1966)" (karlakelsey.com), Transcendental Factory is praised by writer Danielle Dutton as "a brilliant novel from inside and outside Mina Loy—a novel that is also a poem, a dictionary, a historical compendium...
Simone White Reading promotional image

Simone White Reading

Thursday, April 24, 2025 6:00pm
Glenn Schaeffer Library
Simone White will read in the Frank Conroy Reading Room in Glenn Schaeffer Library.Simone White is the author of or, on being the other woman (Duke University Press, 2022), Dear Angel of Death (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018), Of Being Dispersed (Futurepoem, 2016), and House Envy of All the World (Factory School, 2010), the poetry chapbook, Unrest (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013), and the collaborative poem/painting chapbook, Dolly (with Kim Thomas) (Q Ave, 2008). Her poetry and prose have been featured...