Hello there!

There is so much to do (and not do) these days, and our collective bandwidths are being strained in enormous ways. At the University of Iowa, we love our writers, our programs, we love our graduates and our students -- and we love the wealth of literature that they gift us, simply by being here.

We have created "5 Reads for Friday" as an easy, laid-back series, compiling a short list of inspirational, helpful and fun treasures from our family to yours. Enjoy what you find, take what you need, and be well.

5 READS FOR FRIDAY

Friday, April 3, 2020

• Iowa Long Read: Anaïs Duplan -- Creating Art while Empowering Artists
  
  The Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate has a passion for elevating the work of fellow artists, both in his current home of New York City, as well as back in Iowa City.
  
   
• Online Course Highlight: Whitman's Civil War: Writing and Imaging Loss, Death, and Disaster MOOC-Pack
  
  Discover Whitman's Civil War texts in this free online class! For example, Week 3 of the International Writing Program's Whitman's Civil War MOOC Pack is a look at “Poem of Wonder at the Resurrection of the Wheat” / “This Compost.”
  
   
• From the Iowa Review: T.C. Boyle, The Designee
  
  "What he couldn’t have imagined, even in his bleakest assessments of the future, was the boredom."
  
   

• From the University of Iowa Press: Checking In, with UI Press Author Greg Hoch
  
  Author Greg Hoch and his dog-coworker, Ding, share his traveling, socially distant office, and favorite things to do in the current moment.
  
   

• From the Archives: Sarah Vowell reading, October 24, 2008
  
  In this archive from the Writing University, Sarah Vowell reads from her book "Wordy Shipmates" at Prairie Lights Bookstore in 2008.
   

And that's it!
We hope you enjoy. And check back each week for a new list!

^{Photos by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash, and Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash}