Upcoming Events
Live from Prairie Lights | Xochitl Gonzalez in conversation with Kevin Brockmeier
Monday, March 18, 2024 7:00pm
Writers' Workshop graduate and New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming Xochitl Gonzalez will read from her new novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last. She will be joined in conversation by author Kevin Brockmeier. Anita de Monte Laughs Last has been called by LitHub, "a dynamic exploration of love, art, and power," and has been called "incandescent" by Publisher's Weekly. "Funny, piercing, and full of moxie, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is unsparing in its assessment of what goes on...
Live from Prairie Lights | Nam Le & Daniel Khalastchi
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 7:00pm
Writers' Workshop alumni Nam Le and Daniel Khalastchi will read from their new books of poetry. Nam Le will read from 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem. "With a cool outsider’s eye, Nam Le takes the English language to pieces and reassembles it with a virtuoso ease not seen since Finnegans Wake. There is wit aplenty, of a dancing, ironic kind, but the fury and the bitterness that underlie 36 Ways come without disguise, as do its moments of aching love and loss. Nam Le is a poet working at the...
Book Matters: Christopher Goetz in Conversation with Corey Creekmur at Prairie Lights
Thursday, March 21, 2024 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Join us for a reading and discussion, co-hosted by Prairie Lights, to celebrate Christopher Goetz’s recent book, The Counterfeit Coin: Videogames and Fantasies of Empowerment. Goetz is an associate professor and head of film studies in the Department of Cinematic Arts. After the reading, Corey Creekmur, associate professor in the departments of Cinematic Arts and English, will join Goetz for a conversation and Q&A with the audience. A reception will follow the event.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
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Local Libraries LIT: Grace M. Cho
Thursday, March 21, 2024 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Join the libraries of Johnson County for the latest Local Libraries LIT author event featuring Grace M. Cho. This is a free virtual event, with registration required.
Grace M. Cho's work sits at the crossroads of creative nonfiction and interdisciplinary scholarship, exploring the ways in which residues of state violence and historical trauma permeate the intimate spaces of the here and now. As a sociologist, she approaches storytelling as an opportunity to broaden the lens through which...
Live from Prairie Lights | Cristina Henríquez in conversation with Lan Samantha Chang
Friday, March 22, 2024 7:00pm
Writers' Workshop alum Cristina Henríquez will read from her powerful new novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, The Great Divide, which was named a most anticipated book by The Washington Post, Elle, Book Riot, Electric Literature, Goodreads, The Everygirl, Lit Hub, The Millions, and Reader’s Digest. She will be joined in conversation by author and Writers' Workshop Director Lan Samantha Chang.
"Against the backdrop of the construction of the Panama Canal, Cristina Henríquez’s...
Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop
Sunday, March 24, 2024 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Join us monthly to generate new creative writing inspired by works in the Stanley collection. Each session will be led by a different talented writer from our area, who will be offering a new prompt and a new approach to ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by visual art). Bring your own notebook and pencil or computer and leave with the beginning of a newly written piece. Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry. Teen and adult writers in all genres are welcome.
Write at the Stanley meets every fourth...
Live from Prairie Lights | Sarah Rose Etter in conversation with Carmen Maria Machado
Monday, March 25, 2024 7:00pm
Sarah Rose Etter will read from her best selling novel, Ripe, which was named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Huffington Post, and Kirkus. This novel, now available in paperback, has been A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club Selection, and a Marie Claire Book Club Pick. Etter will be joined in conversation by author Carmen Maria Machado.
“Sarah Rose Etter is electric on everything from tech culture’s toxic absurdities to bone-deep loneliness to the...
Live from Prairie Lights | Jane Huffman
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 7:00pm
Writers' Workshop graduate Jane Huffman will read from her new book of poetry, Public Abstract, winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize selected by Dana Levin. "In Jane Huffman’s poems, I feel the impassioned psychic venturing of Emily Dickinson, the wit of Kay Ryan, the fragmented surreal of Jean Valentine, and the playfulness and bravado of Gertrude Stein. Public Abstract is a striking debut." —Dana Levin
Jane Huffman is a doctoral student in poetry at the University of Denver. She is...
Austin Frerick in conversation with Erin Jordan | Live from Prairie Lights
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 7:00pm
Agricultural and antitrust policy expert Austin Frerick will read from his new book on the titans of today’s food industry, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry. He will be joined in conversation by Gazette Reporter Erin Jordan. Hailed as “An urgently important book,” by Eric Schlosser, Publishers Weekly says, “In this eye-opening debut study, Frerick, an agricultural policy fellow at Yale University, reveals the ill-gained stranglehold that a handful of companies...
Natalie Lira & Angela Hume : New Histories for Reproductive Justice | Live from Prairie Lights
Thursday, March 28, 2024 7:00pm
Professors Natalie Lira and Angela Hume will talk about their new books, Laboratory of Deficiency and Deep Care. They will engage in conversation about reproductive justice on the topics of abortion and the history of sterilization.
Natalie Lira is Assistant Professor of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Laboratory of Deficiency. "Lira's multilayered research and analysis provide a powerful model for understanding and challenging the...