Local author J.A. Joe Gasperetti will read from his fast-paced historical fiction tale, The Seal’s Lair. From LaJolla California to Perth Australia, The Seal’s Lair includes a cast of characters that range from a mis-identified body on the beach, a Manhattan widow of distinction, and a Nazi war criminal scientist, to a Navy Seal and a San Diego Homicide detective. Based in 1969, The Seal’s Lair has contemporary themes: identity theft, domestic terrorism, hate crime, fake news, and law...

Local author Andy Douglas will read from Redemption Songs: A Year in the Life of A Community Prison Choir. Dr André de Quadros, professor of Music and chair of the Department of Music Education at Boston University, notes, “More than an account of the choir’s work, the book is a deep insight into musical humanity under dehumanizing conditions. Douglas’s work is evocative and thoughtful, deeply compassionate and humble, and brings the reader close to the troubled lives, wounds and hopes of the...

Bestselling author J Ryan Stradal will read from his new novel, The Lager Queen of Minnesota. “Brilliant. . . a love letter to the Midwest . . . it’s hard to put down not only because the storytelling is so seamless and the characters so relatable, but because the author's delight in the written word is so contagious.” —Jen Sincero J. Ryan Stradal is a contributing editor at TASTE Magazine. His bestselling debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the 2016 American Booksellers Association Indie...

Bestselling author J Ryan Stradal will read from his new novel, The Lager Queen of Minnesota.  “Brilliant . . . a love letter to the Midwest . . . it’s hard to put down not only because the storytelling is so seamless and the characters so relatable, but because the author's delight in the written word is so contagious.” —Jen Sincero J. Ryan Stradal is a contributing editor at TASTE Magazine. His bestselling debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the 2016 American Booksellers Association...

Recent MFA Center for the Book graduate Kazumi Wilds, will talk about her new book, Kojiki: The Birth of Japan: The Japanese Creation Myth Illustrated. "What makes this book special is the author's own long familiarity with the actual physical locations where some of the events took place . . . Because of her intense personal connection with the Kojiki story, Kazumi Wilds was moved to design and print a very special limited-edition artist book on her own handmade paper that embodied the mystery...

Iowa City historians Timothy Walch and Ken Donnelly will talk about local history and Walch’s new book, Irish Iowa. Iowa offered freedom and prosperity to the Irish fleeing famine and poverty. They became the second-largest immigrant group to come to the state, and they acquired influence well beyond their numbers. Author Timothy Walch details these stories and more on the history and influence of the Irish in the Heartland. Walch is the director emeritus of the Herbert Hoover Presidential...

Iowa native Lucas Hunt will read from his poetry collection, Iowa. The first of five linen-cased, hardcover books in an autobiographical collection of cinematic poetry, Iowa commences the Homeric journey of poet Lucas Hunt from a childhood engulfed by the humidity and sun on a pig farm to the Society shores of Southampton, the jagged glass and steel canyons of New York City, and the sublimity of Rome and Paris. In Iowa, Hunt brings his literary camera closer to the fire within the belly of a...

Local author Lori Lacina will read from Mama Said There’d be Days Like This. “This is a charming collection of reflections on life in Iowa. Informative, funny and delightful, Lacina’s stories are like a slice of warm apple pie and should be savored as such.” —Beth Howard These 365 daily essays include reflections, lists, recipes, and ponderings. This book will inspire you, make you laugh and make you think. Some of the topics include: circles of women, lost socks, second chances, heartaches...

Local debut novelist Craig N. Willis will read from The Deadly Mondaine. In The Deadly Mondaine, the life of Hattie Rosales is tracked from her origin in post-World War II working-class Southside Chicago, through her early career at Marshall Fields’, through her business partnership with Ludmilla “Milly” Netsurov, and continuing with her rapid relocation from the Chicago area to Gethsemane, Illinois. The central mystery in the book is the shotgun slaying of a local mogul at his faux French...

The 2019 Blues and Soul Festival presents authors Dr. Venise Berry, Dr. Steven T. Berry, Caleb Rainey and Rachelle Chase in a special panel discussion led by Dr. Irenea Walker assistant professor at UNI. Venise Berry, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UI is the author of the book Driven. Steven T. Berry, former associate professor of journalism and film at Howard University, is the author of T.E.A.R.S. and The Honeyman’s Son. Rachelle Chase, senior...

Writers’ Workshop graduate in poetry Anthony McCann will read from his new work of nonfiction, Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff. "A momentous and important non-fiction debut . . . The core subject is nothing less than the nature of American identity and the concept of freedom. Admirably, McCann's ethos is not that of a neutral bystander but of a truth seeker. He thinks through viewpoints with depth and empathy, but he also takes stands and calls out the problematic for what...

New Yorker writer Casey Cep will read from her book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. An instant New York Times Bestseller that stayed on the list for four weeks, Furious Hours tells the stunning true story of Alabama serial killer Reverend Willie Maxwell, and the true-crime book about him that Harper Lee spent decades working on in the years after she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. "A triumph on every level. One of the losses to literature is that Harper Lee never...

Please join University of Iowa legend Willard L. "Sandy" Boyd to hear him read from and talk about his new book, A Life on the Middle West's Never-Ending Frontier, from University of Iowa Press. Sandy Boyd’s decades of service to the university began in 1954, when he arrived as a law professor. He served as president of the University of Iowa from 1969 to 1981. His memoir, interspersed with personal wisdom gleaned over more than six decades of service and leadership, encapsulates Boyd's shrewd...

John Domini will read from his new novel from Dzanc Books, The Color Inside a Melon. “John Domini enters the world of African immigrants in Naples living on the edge of the law, in a gripping, noir-ish thriller written in prose that somehow manages to be both elegant and hard-boiled. An absorbing read." — Salman Rushdie John Domini is the author of numerous works of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism, including his most recent novel, Movieola. He has published fiction in Paris Review...

John Domini will read from his new novel from Dzanc books, The Color Inside a Melon. “John Domini enters the world of African immigrants in Naples living on the edge of the law, in a gripping, noir-ish thriller written in prose that somehow manages to be both elegant and hard-boiled. An absorbing read." —Salman Rushdie John Domini is the author of numerous works of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism, including his most recent novel, Movieola. He has published fiction in The Paris Review a...

ISWF instructor and Writers’ Workshop graduate Sabrina Orah Mark will read from Wild Milk, published by Dorothy, a Publishing Project. “Sabrina Orah Mark is a writer of strangeness & tenderness & undeniable brilliance. I wanted to read this book aloud to everyone I’ve ever loved, & to fold it into a locket to keep close to my heart.” —Elizabeth McCracken Sabrina Orah Mark is the author of the poetry collections, The Babies and Tsim Tsum. For The Paris Review she writes a monthly column on...

ISWF instructors and Writers’ Workshop graduates Charles Holdefer and Anthony Varallo will read from their new fiction. Charles Holdefer will read from Magic Even You Can Do.  Holdefer is the author of the novels Dick Cheney in Shorts, The Contractor, Apology for Big Rod, and Back In The Game.  He is also the author of a work of Literary Criticism called George Saunders’ Pastoralia Bookmarked. His short fiction has appeared in magazines including the New England Review, Chicago Quarterly Review...

Iowa City author Caite Dolan-Leach will read from her new novel, We Went to the Woods.  “I adored so many things about We Went to the Woods--the brilliant premise, the narration, the writing, the suspense, the sly flashes of humor, the eco-Gothicism, the sexual longing, the way you're never quite sure if things are falling apart or turning into a love story. But most of all, it's incredibly compelling: The Secret History meets The Beach, with a generous dash of The Great Gatsby. Dark, gothic...

IWP Youth Program presents visiting instructors Asli Perker, Armen of Armenia, and Yuriy Serebryansky, who will read from their work.   Asli Perker is one of the most prominent writers of Turkey. She's written six novels, some of which have been translated into as many as 24 languages. Perker contributes to art magazines and has a weekly book review column. She is one of four members of the peace committee of PEN and currently lives in Istanbul. Armen of Armenia (Armen Ohanyan) is the author...

Queer fiction and essay writer Kristen Arnett will read from Mostly Dead Things, named a Most Anticipated Book of 2019 at Esquire, The Week, BuzzFeed, NYLON, Bustle, HuffPost, and The Boston Globe.  “Mostly Dead Things is one of the strangest and funniest and most surprising first novels I've ever read. A love letter to Florida and to family, to half-lit swamps and the 7/11, and to the beasts that only pretend to hold their poses inside us.” —Karen Russell Kristen Arnett has garnered a...

Former UI Director of the Center for New Performing Arts Martha Ann Letterman will read from Scarlet Cinders. The novel explores the 1950s and 60s in Washington, DC and Atlantic City, from the point of view of a young girl at a pivotal time of American cultural change. An historic family tourist house is torn down to make way for a modern apartment building,  a family beach resort is transformed into a gambling playground, and her parents go from a life of social involvement and high fashion to...

Iowa City native Daniel Blue Tyx will read from and talk about Angry Tias: Cruelty and Compassion on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Danie Blue Tyx grew up in Iowa City.  For the last ten years he has been living on the U.S.-Mexico border, where he works as a freelance writer. His new book gives readers an inside view of the child separation policy, and how "an eclectic group of fed-up border women and under-resourced lawyers transformed their initial shock and anger at the horrors taking place in...

Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Claire Lombardo will read from The Most Fun We Ever Had, a multi-generational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple match wits, harbor grudges, and recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built.   "Everything about this brilliant debut cuts deep: the humor, the wisdom, the pathos. Claire Lombardo writes like she's been doing it for a hundred years, and like she's been alive for a...

UI International Writing Program presents its author/mentors in an inaugural event for the Summer Institute! The Summer Institute is a new immersive two-week creative writing and cultural exchange program through the IWP, for participants age 18-22 from Pakistan, India, and the U.S. Rochelle Potkar, a fiction writer and poet from India, is the author of The Arithmetic of Breasts and Other Stories, Four Degrees of Separation, and Paper Asylum. Widely published online and in print, Rochelle is...

UI School of Journalism alum and former soldier Alicia Dill will read from her thriller, Squared Away.  One phone call in the middle of the night changes the life of a former soldier, Joelle McCoy. Her best friend and battle buddy, Concepcion Chapa, is dead and McCoy isn't taking the alleged car accident at face value. Determined to discover the truth, McCoy sets out on a mission to find her best friend and bring her home. Alicia Dill  joined the Army National Guard at the age of 17 and...