Shane McCrae is the author of several books of poetry, including In the Language of My Captor, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award; Sometimes I Never Suffered, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; and his most recent collection, The Many Hundreds of the Scent. McCrae is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim...

Anthony Swofford is the author of the memoirs Jarhead and Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails and the novel Exit A. The 2005 Sam Mendes film Jarhead was adapted from his first book, detailing his service in the United States Marine Corps and his combat deployment for the 1990-91 Gulf War.

His essays, reportage, and opinion pieces have appeared in Harper’s, The Guardian, Slate, and The New York Times, among other places. He has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is currently Special Faculty in the...

The following is copied from https://iowacitypoetry.com/events/mic-check-poetry-fest-2025/spoken-word-academy:

For the first event of Mic Check Poetry Fest, we invite everyone to join this moderated discussion between three poetry performance artists as they present their work and share insights into the world of slam poetry. With Tracie Morris, Professor at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Warren C. Longmire, MFA candidate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Caleb "The Negro Artist"...