LITERARY LINKS

Bookstores and Libraries

Prairie Lights Bookstore
15 S. Dubuque St. | Map | Phone: 319-337-2681.
Prairie Lights sprang to life in May 1978 as a small, intimate bookstore offering titles by the newer voices of Raymond Carver and Alice Munro and by established authors like Eudora Welty and George Orwell. By 1982 Prairie Lights transplanted itself from South Linn St. to South Dubuque and has gradually spread to three and a half floors, the half being an 1100 square foot coffee house located in the same space that the local literary society met throughout the 1930's, hosting writers Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, Sherwood Anderson, Langston Hughes, e e cummings and others.
Iowa City Public Library
123 South Linn St. | Map | Phone: 319.356.5200.
The Iowa City Public Library was established in 1896 and has served the community from a downtown location ever since. The Iowa City Public Library encourages and sustains a literate, informed, and diverse community, is committed to equal accessibility, intellectual freedom, and life-long learning, and provides a community gathering place for meetings and programming for the benefit of the public.
The Haunted Bookshop
203 N. Linn St. | Map | Phone: (319) 337-2996.
The Haunted Bookshop is Iowa City's oldest used book store. Established in 1978, the store moved in January 2009 to its current location in Northside Iowa City. They carry over 40,000 titles in more than 80 different sections ranging from Iowa interest to poetry, children's books to sociology, travelogues to history and more. They provide a variety of other services as well, including book searches, gift recommendation, space for book groups and community organizations to meet, collection valuation, writing consultation, packing and shipping, sewing advice, tea if the kettle's on and Latin translation.
Murphy-Brookfield Books
219 N. Gilbert St. | Map | Phone: 319-338-3077.
Murphy-Brookfield Books has been in business in Iowa City, Iowa since 1980, specializing in scholarly used books in the Humanities. Areas of interest are Philosophy, Art, Women's Studies, Poetry, Literary Criticism, History, University Press. Owners are Jane Murphy and Mark Brookfield.
Defunct Books
521 E. Washington St. | Map | Phone: (319) 354-3534.
Uptown Bill’s Small Mall
401 S. Gilbert St | Map | Phone: (319) 339-0401 .
The Small Mall is the home to four microbusinesses managed and operated by persons with disabilities: Uptown Bill's Ice Cream & Coffee Bar, Bill's BookMart, The Mad Hatter's Music & Meeting Room and Mr. Ed's SuperGraphics.
Coralville Public Library
1401 Fifth Street, Coralville, IA | MAP | Phone: 319-248-1850.
The library was established through a grass-roots effort and initially maintained by volunteers donating their time and expertise. Within the first year, the library was serving 350 families and rapidly outgrowing its designated space in the corner of the community room in the City Hall basement. The Coralville Public Library has maintained that pattern of growth over the years. In January of 1967, the Library Collection (then 5,733 books and other materials) was moved, again by volunteers, to its new location at 806 5th Street. Initially, the library shared these quarters with the Recreation Department and the Heritage Museum Foundation. Over the next few years, the Recreation Department moved to a new building as did the Heritage Museum Foundation, and the Library eventually grew into the entire one-story space at 806 5th Street.