Kerry Howley will read from her forthcoming book about the American surveillance state, Bottom’s Up and The Devil Laughs. The reading will be followed by a Q&A and conversation with Howley.

Kerry Howley is the author of Thrown, a New York Times Notable Book, New York Times Editor’s Choice, and pick for best-of-the-year lists in Time, Salon, Slate, and many other venues. A Contributing Writer at New York Magazine, her work has also appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, New York Times Magazine...

David Hamilton, University of Iowa professor emeritus and former editor of the Iowa Review, will read from A Certain Arc: Essays of Finding My Way. 

“As one would expect from such a distinguished educator and editor, the prose in this collection is beautifully turned, the intelligence luminous, and the experience and wisdom of a lifetime generously shared: this book is a gift to all literature lovers. But what seems even more striking and rare, in this age of self–absorbed memoir, is the...

Writers’ Workshop graduate Shaun Hamill will read from A Cosmology of Monsters. 

"A monster stalks a family across generations; a hidden city beckons from beyond perception; trauma and human frailty and loss bear their terrible fangs. . . . A Cosmology of Monsters is as weird and compelling and ambitious a horror novel as you could possibly want." —Carmen Maria Machado

A native of Arlington, Texas, Shaun Hamill lives in the dark woods of Alabama with his wife, his in-laws, and his dog. 

Prairie Lights and the Iowa City Public Library present Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief and The Messenger, to read from his recent novel, Bridge of Clay. 

An unforgettable and sweeping family saga, Bridge of Clay is the breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance. At the center of the Dunbar...