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The Writing University Podcast Network

At the Writing University, we're devoted to delivering the most enlightening, educational and entertaining podcasts from the University of Iowa's creative writing programs. We gather all our offerings together here for you to peruse and enjoy!

Upcoming Events

Live from Prairie Lights | Curtis Sittenfeld in conversation with Lan Samantha Chang

Monday, March 10, 2025 7:00pm

Prairie Lights Books

Bestselling author and Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Curtis Sittenfeld will read from her newest book and second story collection, Show, Don’t Tell. Publishers’ Weekly describes Show, Don’t Tell as “Witty . . . In one sparkling comedy of manners after another, [Curtis Sittenfeld] documents with a clear and affectionate eye how tiny prejudices and blind spots lead her protagonists astray,” while Kirkus Reviews says, “Sittenfeld’s candor and matter-of-factness make for compellingly intimate and at...

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

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 7:00pm

Prairie Lights Books

Poets GC Waldrep and Karen An-Hwei Lee will read from their newest collections, The Beautiful Immunity and The Opening Ritual. GC Waldrep’s The Opening Ritual is described by bestselling author and novelist Kaveh Akbar as “the kind of furiously curious, unabashedly ambitious poetry book I want to show everyone, to prove such books can still be written.” 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...

Application Deadline: Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat

Friday, March 14, 2025 5:00pm

Have you been waiting all school year to make serious progress on your book manuscript, article, or grant application? Jump-start your summer writing project at the Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat May 12–16, 2025! Fifteen participants will enjoy a week of quiet productivity apart from the distractions of campus at the beautiful North Ridge Pavilion in Coralville. Daily catered lunches will provide an opportunity for exchange and discussion with other writers across campus. Each day will...

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Latest Articles

5Q Interview: Laura Jaramillo, instructor at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival

Friday, March 7, 2025

5Q Interview: Kat O'Brien, instructor at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Sad Me of the Past // Episode 12: Josh Parkinson

Friday, February 14, 2025

5Q Interview: Spencer Lane Jones, an MFA candidate in the Nonfiction Writing Program

Monday, February 10, 2025

Sad Me of the Past // Episode 11: Gina Welch

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

5Q Interview: UI Press Author Erika Morillo

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Sad Me of the Past // Episode 10: Ada Zhang

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

5Q Interview: Grace Westergaard, editor of Venus Magazine

Friday, November 22, 2024

5Q Interview: Solenn Vincent, editor of The Broken Clock Magazine

Friday, November 22, 2024

5Q Interview: Margo Keller, editor of Cave Writing Magazine

Monday, November 18, 2024

All News

News Highlights

UI Playwright brings Iowa historical figure to life

⮑ https://stories.uiowa.edu

UI Professor Travis Vogan's stunning book on the artist LeRoy Neiman reviewed in The Wall Street Journal

⮑ The Wall Street Journal

CAMILLE DUNGY NAMED 2024 PAUL ENGLE PRIZE WINNER

⮑ UNESCO City of Literature

‘Sad Me of the Past’ podcast connects Iowa writers to their younger selves

⮑ The Daily Iowan

Two Workshop alumni awarded National Medals in the Humanities: Joy Harjo and Juan Filipe Herrera

⮑ The White House

5Q Interview: Anna Davtyan Աննա Դավթյան, IWP Resident

⮑ International Writing Program

UI Professor Kaveh Akbar's Novel "Martyr!" on Obama's Summer Reading List

⮑ X.com

UI Translation Program Alum in the New York Times

⮑ The New York Times

Ethan Hawke joined Stephen Colbert on The Late Show & took a moment to celebrate the excellence of The Iowa Writers' Workshop, where Flannery O'Connor studied in the 1940s.

Two UI faculty members, Kaveh Akbar (English) and Jamel Brinkley (Iowa Writers' Workshop) received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

More News

Share Your News!

Are you connected to the University of Iowa's writing programs and have news to share? We want to hear about it! If you have a book coming out, or are teaching a class, or doing a talk or lecture, or anything else -- we want to know and share in your success. Send us an update!

Featured Writer

Rita Dove

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1977.

Program Highlight

BA in Screenwriting

Students are instructed on practical skills and knowledge needed to become successful members of the screenwriting industry!

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Featured Archive

Jo Ann Beard + Melissa Febos reading

Live from Prairie Lights, 03/26/2021

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"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 (1992)

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