Writers’ Workshop graduate and co-founder of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio Cara Wall will read from and talk about her new novel, The Dearly Beloved.  "God and literary fiction don't always get along; perhaps that's why Cara Wall's The Dearly Beloved, a thoughtful debut that follows the lives of two ministers and their wives, feels so galvanizing. Its four characters get equal voice--Charles, son of a rigid academic; Lily, orphaned as a child; James, born into family hardship; Nan, a well...

Christopher Kondrich and Lauren Haldeman will read from their collections of poetry.

Christopher Kondrich will read from Valuing, which was selected by Jericho Brown as a winner of the National Poetry Series. “In Valuing Christopher Kondrich fashions startling, arresting images and fabulous metaphors that are all the more startling, arresting, and fabulous because they're so functional to the overflowing reality and profundity of his poems. He has an excellent mind accompanied by an exuberant...

Writers’ Workshop graduate Lila Savage will read from her new novel, Say Say Say.

"An emotional masterpiece . . . Bryn, a retired carpenter, hires Ella, an artist in her late 20s, to take care of his wife. In their house, Ella witnesses a level of love and passion she's been bereft of in her day-to-day life. Say Say Say is a heartbreaking book [told in] bracingly honest, unflinching prose . . . it meditates on empathy and finding human connection even in the worst of circumstances." --Liz Moody...

Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Claire Lombardo will read from The Most Fun We Ever Had, a multi-generational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple match wits, harbor grudges, and recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built. "Everything about this brilliant debut cuts deep: the humor, the wisdom, the pathos. Claire Lombardo writes like she's been doing it for a hundred years, and like she's been alive for a...