Winner of the Iowa Prize in Literary Nonfiction Laura Esther Wolfson will read from her literary debut, For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors. “Set variously in America, France, and the former Soviet Union, these interlinked stories have a certain magic about them. They speak of loss and disappointment, of foiled ambitions and failed marriages. And yet there is something uplifting about them—owing no doubt to the author’s reserves of talent and wisdom.” —Daphne Merkin Laura Esther...

Writers’ Workshop graduate Anjali Sachdeva will read from her short story collection All the Names They Used for God.   “Each one provides a haiku-esque glimpse into the infinite mind of an individual while revealing how the seeming trivialities of life can reverberate with meaning. Throughout, characters grapple with predetermination as they experience the brutal clash between expectation and reality.” —Michael Valinsky Anjali Sachdeva's fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, Th...

Novelist Rupert Thomson will read from his new book, Never Anyone But You. "Rupert Thomson deftly weaves a story that spans several decades—the Paris Surrealists, Nazi-occupied Jersey, heroic acts of resistance, and intense and enduring (and forbidden) love—into one seamless whole. Nail-bitingly tense and incredibly moving." —Monica Ali Thomson is the author of nine novels and a memoir, including Secrecy, The Insult (which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and selected by David...

Writers’ Workshop graduates Ian Stansel and Sarah Strickley will read from their new fiction. Ian Stansel will read from The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo.  "Stansel confidently updates the American Western while honoring its most daring storytellers: Charles Portis and Larry McMurtry. In taut, cinematic prose, Stansel considers the romance of frontier justice, the seductive power of a good old-fashioned horse chase/manhunt and the heartbreaking costs of fraternal rivalry." —Amber Dermont...

Des Moines Psychiatrist Loren Olson will read from his powerful exploration of human sexuality, Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight. Finally Out explores the sexuality of mature men who, like Dr. Olson, lived a large part of their lives as married straight men. “Less a handbook for coming out late in life than one man's story of doing so, Olson's always-compassionate voice asserts the importance of being true to oneself.” —Publishers Weekly Loren Olson came out at forty. A father and...

Andrew Sean Greer will read from his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, Less. "I adore this book. It's funny, piquant, bittersweet and so achingly observant about the vanity of writers that it made me squirm in recognition. I'll probably read it again very soon." —Armistead Maupin A former instructor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop,  Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of six novels, including The Story of a Marriage and The Confessions of Max Tivoli.  He lives in San Francisco and in Tuscany...

Writers’ Workshop alum Nick Dybek will read from his novel of a lonely young man, a beautiful widow, and an amnesiac soldier, in The Verdun Affair. Set in Europe in the aftermath of World War I and Los Angeles in the 1950s, “From a still-smoldering battlefield, Nick Dybek conjures a sweeping saga of secrets, lies, mistaken identity, love and betrayal. This is the kind of book you can’t put down.” —Claire Vaye Watkins Nick Dybek is also the author of When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man. A...

Sands Hall will read from her new memoir, Flunk. Start.: Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology. "Novelist and actress Hall probes her descent into Scientology in this impassioned, wonderfully constructed memoir . . . Hall reflects with brutal honesty on her decisions throughout this meticulously crafted book, which explores her negative experiences with Scientology and how her desire to please led her to believe in the unbelievable." ―Publishers Weekly Sands Hall is the author of a novel, C...

Poet James P. Lenfestey will read from his new book of poetry, A Marriage Book: 50 Years of Poems from a Marriage. “Warning Label: prepare to be shaken, moved, amused, terrified, relieved, delighted. Take in small doses or one large gulp; either way, you will be healed.” –Jim Moore Lenfestey is the author of Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage to Cold Mountain, a Minnesota Book Award finalist, and multiple collections of poems, including A Marriage Book. He co-edited the anthology Robert Bly in...