Author Sarah Bruni‘s debut novel The Night Gwen Stacy Died was released earlier this month to a handful of positive reviews and a spot on Apple’s list of “Ten Books You Must Read This Summer.”
“The novel is a runaway love story shared between two outcasts” Bruni says in an interview with SciFi Pulse. The author earned her undergraduate degree from The University of Iowa just over a decade ago, and during that time, she spent a portion of her days working as a gas station attendant on the Coralville strip. As is often the case with debut novels, the protagonist in The Night Gwen Stacy Died mirrors — albeit slightly — the author’s own experience, at least in the sense that the novel’s subject is a young woman who happens to work at a gas station in small town Iowa.
On her broader experience in Iowa City, Bruni also mentioned a few highlights:
… I haven’t lived in another city with an independent bookstore I’ve felt as strongly about as Prairie Lights. I have memories of silently following bookseller Paul Ingram around the store while he talked up every new thing on the shelves and filled my arms with books.
As an undergrad, Bruni mentions finding her way to all the usual haunts of those working in this City of Literature:
I spent as much time in local establishments like the Tobacco Bowl and the Fox Head or George’s as I did in any classroom, and probably learned as much about writing in these places too.
Check out the full interview for more on Bruni’s debut novel and Iowa City background.
