Beyond the Books: Meet our Iowa Writers and Students!
Beyond the Books: Five Questions for Writers in our University of Iowa Literary Community
Welcome to the 5Q Interview series! Each year, the Writing University conducts a series of interviews with writers while they are in Iowa City participating in the various University of Iowa writing programs. We sit down with authors to ask about their work, their process and their descriptions of home.
Featured Interviews
Elisa Ferrer Molina, Spanish Creative Writing MFA
Full Collection
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Sharon Wahl
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
"The book opens with stories of new love—crushes, first dates. There is a longer story tracing a relationship from beginning to end, followed by stories about breaking up and then starting over, finding just the right person to fall in love with again."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Shelly Mazzanoble
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
"As a parent, you can’t help but wonder if you’re doing it right, where you’re falling behind, is everyone having more fun than you, do these kids even like me??? I think that way as a parent and a Dungeon Master."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Marguerite Sheffer
Monday, November 11, 2024
"The stories are completely unlinked, and encompass a mix of genres: there’s horror, science fiction, historical fiction, and a ghost story or two, alongside quite a bit of flash fiction."
5Q Interview: IWP resident Han Junghyun
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
"I wrote a lot of novels on my iPhone while riding the subway or bus. I write on my iPhone while preparing meals in the kitchen."
5Q Interview: Mélanie Werder Avilés, IWP Resident
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
"...so far, I'm liking Iowa City a lot: I've been cycling all over it, and the amount of writers you find per square meter is exciting."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Aaron McCollough
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
"At some point around 2018, I spontaneously started writing pieces that I trusted in a way I hadn't for a long time."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Melody S. Gee
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
"Language acquisition is something I’ve thought about a great deal in my life—my parents learning English, my navigating English and Cantonese, and various language extinctions in my life."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Amy Frykholm
Monday, October 14, 2024
"I generally write for about three hours and then panic about the things on my to-do list."
5Q Interview: Zhang Chu 张楚, IWP Resident
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
While contemporary attention often centers on urban life, I want to explore and illuminate the hidden narratives and solitary lives in rural settings.
5Q Interview: Okamoto Kei 岡本啓, IWP Resident
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
"Right now, I'm still dreaming about that something, something that is neither a novel nor a poem."
5Q Interview: Nathalie Chang, IWP Resident
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
"There are two wonderful periods of time for me to write in Iowa: one before 8:00 and one after 17:00, because the sunlight then is so tender and sublime."
5Q Interview: Anna Davtyan Աննա Դավթյան, IWP Resident
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
"I have the full confidence that anything deeply private is completely universal. So I think what is privately Armenian and privately mine is good literature for everyone to read."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Edward Ziff
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
"Our book is about the function of the brain. We argue that we live in a world that is chaotic and often unpredictable, and the book presents our thesis that the brain invents a simplified world to help us navigate this chaos and conduct our daily activities."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Peter Mishler
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
"One morning, I got out of bed and looked out my window and saw a group of children dressed in full tactical gear."
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Lucas Mann
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
"The essays move around a lot in subject and form -- there are shorter, more lyric pieces, longer works of cultural criticism and literary journalism, some memoir work; one is about Brad Pitt eating on screen, another is about watching LeBron James's online dad content, another is about Andy Warhol's diaries"
5Q Interview: UI Press Author Nina Lohman
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
"I believe that broken bodies tell broken stories. Or, they can, at least. Mine does."
5Q Interview: Blake Kellinger, UI Screenwriting student
Friday, March 29, 2024
"Iowa was not only the best location for me, but it felt like I could focus on my work here. The campus is so beautiful here, and the program itself is so enticing, it pushes me to be the best."
5Q Interview: Gleisson Alves Santos, Literary Translation MFA
Thursday, February 15, 2024
"I am always deeply inspired by everything that surrounds me – people, songs and sounds, landscapes, books, classes, talks, and the list could easily go on."
5Q Interview: Siqi Lui, Iowa Writers' Workshop
Thursday, January 25, 2024
"Before coming to Iowa, I was living in New York City, desperately wanting to write but spending most of my waking hours in an office job."
5Q Interview: Ara Javaheri, Literary Translation MFA
Monday, January 22, 2024
"There are only a few literary translation programs at the graduate level and the University of Iowa was one of the oldest and most prominent ones."
5Q Interview: Angie Lee, Iowa Writers' Workshop
Thursday, January 4, 2024
"The sheer excitement of being at the Workshop -- and having the privilege of reading and discussing the wonderful work of my friends here -- is inspiring me every day."
5Q Interview: Jake Goldwasser, Iowa Writers' Workshop and Literary Translation
Monday, December 18, 2023
"I applied to Iowa four times before I got in. Originally I came here to study poetry at the Workshop, but then I stayed for a second degree in literary translation. They have both been helpful in their own ways."
5Q Interview: Sophie Perez, UI Screenwriting BA student
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
"...what remained constant was my love for film, my passion for telling stories, and my desire to attend a school that would help refine my craft. That’s why I chose to go to the University of Iowa and major in Screenwriting Arts."
