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Upcoming Events

Live from Prairie Lights | Lewis Robinson & Aaron McCollough

Thursday, February 27, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Authors, Lewis Robinson and Aaron McCollough will read from their newest books. Lewis Robinson is the author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories and Water Dogs. His newest book, The Islanders was published by Islandport Press in 2023. He is a Writers' Workshop alum and winner of a Whiting Award, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Book Review, and on the National...
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Art & Write Night

Friday, March 7, 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...

Live from Prairie Lights | Alyssa Perry & Daisy Atterbury

Friday, March 7, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Authors, Alyssa Perry and Daisy Atterbury will read from their newest work. Alyssa Perry is a writer, editor, and teacher from Iowa. She is the author of Oily Doily (Bench Editions, 2024). Her writing appears with Annulet, The Canary, Coma, Fence, Mercury Firs, River Styx, the Experimental Sound Studio, and other venues. Perry is poetry editor at the Cleveland Review of Books and an editor at the small press publisher Rescue Press. She is an alum of the Writers' Workshop and lives in Ohio...

Live from Prairie Lights | Curtis Sittenfeld

Monday, March 10, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Writers' Workshop alum, Curtis Sittenfeld will read from her latest book, Show Don't Tell A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep “[Sittenfeld’s] perfectly contained stories are a joy.”—Booklist, starred review Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of seven novels: Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, Eli...

Live from Prairie Lights | GC Waldrep & Karen An-Hwei Lee

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Authors, GC Waldrep & Karen An-Hwei Lee will read from their latest work. G.C. Waldrep was born and raised in the South. He earned his BA from Harvard University, a PhD in history from Duke University, and an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa. His collections of poetry include Goldbeater’s Skin (2003), which won the Colorado Prize for Poetry; Disclamor (2007); Archicembalo (2009), winner of the Dorset Prize; Your Father on the Train of Ghosts (2011), a collaborative book of poems with...
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Write at the Stanley

Sunday, March 23, 2025 2:00pm to 4:15pm
Stanley Museum of Art
Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop is back for the Spring 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...

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48-Hour Flash Writing Contest | Write Now promotional image

48-Hour Flash Writing Contest | Write Now

Friday, January 17 4:00pm to Sunday, January 19, 2025 4:00pm
Virtual
Mark your calendars for our UI Alumni and Friends Flash Writing Contest—a free, online short story competition for a variety of age groups. You don’t have be an Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate or an accomplished author to join in the fun. The contest begins on Friday, Jan. 17, 2024, at 4 p.m. CST, and runs through Sunday, Jan. 19, 2024, at 4 p.m. CST. At the contest's start, we'll provide a genre, character, and specific object to incorporate into your story. The rest is up to you! Submissions...
Washington Writers Workshop: Adiah Siler at the Washington, IA Public Library promotional image

Washington Writers Workshop: Adiah Siler at the Washington, IA Public Library

Saturday, January 11, 2025 10:00am
Washington Public Library
The Washington Public Library will be holding its next Washington Writers Workshop this Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. This workshop will feature a presentation on craft by visiting writer, Adiah Siler, during the first hour. We will workshop submissions of participants during the second hour. Free and open to adults and teens. Adiah Siler is an MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she’s utilizing her work to explore themes of identity and marginalization through speculative...
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marilynne robinson in front of audience
Mark Levine reading at Prairie Lights Bookstore
Arinze Ifeakandu holding microphone
Nikky Finney reading from her book
Okwudili Nebeolisa at podium in front of an audience
audience in Frank Conroy Reading Room
Tom Drury at a podium

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