Alumni Updates

Steven Willis standing outside Prairie Lights

Writers' Workshop Alumni

Our alumni work as teachers and writers across many disciplines and publish books in every genre. 6 recent U.S. Poets Laureate have been graduates of the Writers' Workshop and some of the most distinctive, celebrated voices in contemporary poetry and fiction have come through our program and used their time here to develop their work and their voice.

"I do not in fact know what I would have done, or who I would have been as an adult, if I hadn’t lived in and around Iowa City"

- Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, MFA Writers' Workshop

News, Publications, and Awards

Jamel Brinkley wins 2024 Maya Angelou Book Award Juan Felipe Herrera awarded 2024 MacArthur Genius Grant Ruthvika Rao shortlisted for the Center For Fiction First Novel Prize Elizabeth Willis and m.s. RedCherries longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in Poetry Tony Tulathimutte longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in Fiction V. V. Ganeshananthan wins the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction Jayne Anne Phillips wins the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Jorie Graham, Yiyun Li, and Robyn Schiff are finalists for the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes in Fiction and Poetry

Before the Mango Ripens, by Afabwaje Kurian

Before the Mango Ripens
Afabwaje Kurian
_{September 24, 2024 | Fiction}

The Goner School
Jessica Laser
_{September 27, 2024 | Poetry}

Small Rain
Garth Greenwell
_{September 3, 2024 | Fiction}

Terminal Maladies
Okwudili Nebeolisa

Browse Publications

See Prizes & Awards

The Latest Alumni Updates

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Friday, February 7, 2025

Saturday! Amiya Moretta will lead a workshop at the Washington, IA Public Library on Feb 8th at 10:00 A.M. events.uiowa.edu/92090

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Thursday, February 6, 2025

A funeral service for Connie Brothers, program associate of the Writers' Workshop from 1974-2019, will be held this Friday, Feb. 7, 10:00 a.m. ET at Levine Chapels, 470 Harvard St., Brookline, MA. It will be viewable via livestream [link on the memorial page] https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/brookline-ma/constance-brothers-12233365

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Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Thursday! February 6th at 7 p.m., Caitlin Roach will read from her debut book of poems, 'Surveille', in conversation with Rachel Yoder at Prairie Lights bookstore events.uiowa.edu/91355

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Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Review of Shane McCrae's, 'New and Collected Hell' | 'The New Yorker' https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/02/10/new-and-collected-hell-shane-mccrae-book-review-in-the-language-of-my-captor-pulling-the-chariot-of-the-sun

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Tuesday, February 4, 2025

3 alums on the Longlist for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Congratulations to Ruben Reyes Jr., Garth Greenwell, and Ben Shattuck! https://www.penfaulkner.org/2025/02/03/announcing-the-longlist-for-the-2025-pen-faulkner-award-for-fiction/

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Friday, January 31, 2025

Sunday! February 2nd at 8 p.m., Margaret Ross will read in the Frank Conroy Reading Room at Dey House/Glenn Schaeffer Library events.uiowa.edu/92055 https://events.uiowa.edu/92055