Join the Stanley to celebrate the publication of its groundbreaking catalog, In a Time of Witness. The event will be accompanied by light refreshments and live music from Ramin Roshandel and Jean-Francois Charles.

Beyond a traditional museum exhibition catalog, this unprecedented interdisciplinary project features 31 writers—alumni of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, International Writing Program, and Literary Translation Program—who contributed original literary responses to artworks they chose from the Stanley’s permanent collection. These writers are among the most celebrated of our time, including former U.S. poet laureates Rita Dove (1977MFA, 2022LHD), Joy Harjo (1978MFA), and Juan Felipe Herrera (1990MFA); and groundbreaking fiction writers like Adam Haslett (1999MFA), Carmen Maria Machado (2012MFA), and Yiyun Li (2000MS, 2005MFA). Iowa Writers’ Workshop professor emerita Marilynne Robinson (2017LHD) writes the foreword. In a Time of Witness will be distributed by University of Iowa Press. Pre-order your copy now.

PROGRAM

FRIDAY, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. The weekend’s festivities will kick off with a launch party at the Stanley Museum of Art to celebrate the publication of the catalog. The event will be accompanied by live music from Ramin Roshandel & Jean-François Charles along with light appetizers and refreshments.

SATURDAY, Sept. 23 at 1 p.m. Contributors will engage in a reading followed by a gallery walk focused on the artworks featured in the catalog. The event will be accompanied by music and light refreshments.

SUNDAY, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. Jeff Martin will be in conversation with a panel of guest speakers to discuss the catalog. The live podcast will be conducted in the museum lobby, followed by a Q&A.