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News, Publications, and Awards
Garth Greenwell wins 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Jenny George, Daniel Khalastchi and Jerald Walker are finalists for 2025 PEN Literary Awards Jamel Brinkley and Charles D'Ambrosio awarded Academy of Arts and Letters awards Jamel Brinkley wins 2024 Maya Angelou Book Award Juan Felipe Herrera awarded 2024 MacArthur Genius Grant Ruthvika Rao shortlisted for the Center For Fiction First Novel Prize Elizabeth Willis and m.s. RedCherries longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in Poetry Tony Tulathimutte longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in Fiction
The Latest Alumni Updates
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Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Wednesday! April 1st at 7 p.m. in Prairie Lights bookstore, Lauren Haldeman will read from her new graphic novel, 'Wild That We're Alive', joined in conversation by Carmen Maria Machado events.uiowa.edu/event/37042
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Monday, March 30, 2026
Tonight! 3/30 at 7 p.m. in Prairie Lights bookstore, Jeff Boyd will read from his new novel 'Hard Times', joined in conversation by Workshop visiting faculty member, James F. Thomas https://events.uiowa.edu/event/36570/63749
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Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Thursday! Mar. 26, 8 pm in the Frank Conroy Reading Room at Glenn Schaeffer Library/Dey House, Kevin Brockmeier will read. His latest, 'The Ghost Variations,' features 100 funny, poignant, scary, & thought-provoking ghost stories that explore all aspects of the afterlife events.uiowa.edu/event/36073
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Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author who expanded nonfiction's reach, dies at 80 | 'The Boston Globe' https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/25/metro/tracy-kidder-obituary-nonfiction-writer/
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Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Tracy Kidder, Author of 'The Soul of a New Machine', Dies at 80 | 'The New York Times' https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/books/tracy-kidder-dead.html
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Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Today is the University of Iowa's annual fundraising day, and this year we are also celebrating Sam Chang's 20th year as Workshop director! Every donation you make to the Writers’ Workshop Gift Fund through this link on March 25th will be matched up to $10,000
https://donate.givetoiowa.org/s/1773/1day/19/form.aspx?sid=1773&gid=2&pgid=1260&cid=3284&dids=103.1441.&appealcode=GD015WGDAC
Alumni News
Iowa Writers Revisit Their Origin Stories in Sad Me of the Past Podcast
Friday, October 17, 2025
Iowa Writers’ Workshop student, alumna receive grants from James Patterson to finish books
Thursday, September 11, 2025
We love hearing from alumni! If you have news to share, reach out to us!