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Book Matters: Jamel Brinkley in conversation with Stephen Lovely promotional image
Book Matters: Jamel Brinkley in conversation with Stephen Lovely
Wednesday, December 10, 2025 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Prairie Lights Books

Join us for a special Book Matters celebrating acclaimed author Jamel Brinkley, recipient of a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2022–2023 Rome Prize in Literature.

Provost Kevin Kregel will recognize Brinkley for his external awards. Brinkley will read a selection from his work and then join Stephen Lovely, novelist and director of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, for conversation and audience Q&A.

“Jamel Brinkley is one of the best story writers we have…Read everything this man writes, and know...

Art & Write Night promotional image
Art & Write Night
Friday, December 5, 2025 6:00pm to 8:00pm
University of Iowa Museum of Natural History

Join the long, rich, historical tradition of artists creating in our spaces.

Professional, aspiring, and amateur artists alike, make our museum your muse. The return of this popular program series welcomes guests into the Museum of Natural History's magical gallery spaces after-hours to work on sketching or writing projects with other campus and community artists.

Tell a friend, grab a notebook, and join us on the first Friday of each month. We'll provide a new inspo prompt for each session and...

Live from Prairie Lights | Kevin Moffett in conversation with Matthew Vollmer - 'Only Son' promotional image
Live from Prairie Lights | Kevin Moffett in conversation with Matthew Vollmer - 'Only Son'
Thursday, December 4, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books

Kevin Moffett will read from his longlisted National Book Award debut novel, Only Son, and will be joined in conversation with Matthew Vollmer. Starting in early 1980s Florida with a 9-year-old boy who loses his father and traveling through time 25 years later to witness the boy as a man with a son of his own (and lingering questions about the father he barely knew), Only Son is, according to NPR, "[A] suburban Buddha of a book, […] composed of a series of short vignettes that are so simple...

Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop promotional image
Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop
Sunday, November 23, 2025 2:30pm to 4:15pm
Stanley Museum of Art

Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop is back for the Fall Semester!

Join us monthly to generate new creative writing inspired by works in the Stanley collection. Each session will be led by a different talented writer from our area, who will be offering a new prompt and a new approach to ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by visual art). Bring your own notebook and pencil or computer and leave with the beginning of a newly written piece.

Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry. Teen and...