Sundays this fall: The International Writing Program (IWP) and UI MFA writing programs take over the 2nd floor of Prairie Lights – grab a glass of wine or a fancy soda and settle in for an hour of highlights from their best work!
Reading Sept. 23: 
Siyanda Mohutsiwa (Botswana) is an internationally recognized satirist and speaker. Her satirical hashtag #IfAfricaWasABar went viral in the summer of 2015, leading to her 2015 TedTalk titled "Is Africa's Future Online?" and another in 2016 titled...

Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Kim Brooks will talk about her new book, Small Animals: Parenthood in an Age of Fear, in conversation with Kevin Clouther. This thought provoking examination of the current culture of competitive, anxious, and judgmental parenting is a mixture of essay, memoir, and social commentary. "A disturbing, ultimately affirming look at why parenting in the contemporary United States is defined by fear." ―Publishers Weekly

Kim Brooks is the author of the novel The...

*Location Change* - due to high interest, this event has been moved to the Frank Conroy Reading Room at the Writers’ Workshop Dey House, 507 N. Clinton St., Iowa City.
The culmination of Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Chris Abani’s four-day campus visit. Abani, an award-winning Nigerian and American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright, is an international voice on humanitarianism, art, ethics, and our shared political responsibility.

Harryette Mullen’s poetry has been hailed by critics as unique, powerful, and challenging. Elisabeth A. Frost wrote in Contemporary Literature: "Crossing the lines between often isolated aesthetic camps, Harryette Mullen has pioneered her own form of bluesy, disjunctive lyric poetry, combining a concern for the political issues raised by identity politics with a poststructualist emphasis on language."

Her books include Urban Tumbleweed (Graywolf Press, 2013), Muse & Drudge (Singing Horse Press...