“Who ever thought it was a good idea?” Iowa Writers’ Workshop professor and alumnus Garth Greenwell asks in a Substack post published on Wednesday morning. Titled “Why I Don’t Believe in Workshop Anymore,” the essay lays out why Greenwell has decided not to teach “traditional, critique-based” writing workshops going forward. “That’s a slightly scary pronouncement, […]
Emma McClatchey
Posted inCommunity/News
Four programs helping immigrants, refugees and underserved Iowans grow a farm business
Iowa has farmland in abundance, but astonishingly little of that land is used to grow food for humans — especially not food for Iowans. It’s too bad, because the state is full of folks with the skills and desire to nourish their community, and support their family in the process. Many of these would-be farmers […]
Posted inFood & Drink
International produce you might find at the farmers market
Incubator farms are a sandbox — if that sandbox was full of fertile soil and eager pollinators. Refugee and immigrant farmers grow many fruits, veggies and flowers beloved by Iowans, including tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, microgreens, watermelon, peaches, sunflowers, onions, radishes, beets, zucchini, squash, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers. Other crops favored […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Former Little Village publishers and editors reflect on 25 ‘wild, beautiful and sometimes scandalous’ years in print
Comments from Little Village publishers and editors, former and current, were compiled by editor-in-chief Emma McClatchey and edited for length and clarity. 2001 Icon publishes its last issue on Jan. 25. Five months later, former staffer Todd Kimm begins publishing Little Village along with Icon alumni Beth Oxler, Andria Green and Steve Horowitz. Todd Kimm: […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Rep. Jeff Shipley is on a crusade. If you’re not with him, you might be a ‘fagtard’
Content warning: Homophobic and ableist slurs. On March 3, state representative Jeff Shipley posted a photo from the Iowa House floor holding up a box of ivermectin. Specifically, the Republican from Fairfield was holding a box of apple-flavored IverCare paste. The label showed a horse silhouette and a feeding syringe. “OTC ivermectin now being debated […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Iowa is home to a colorful variety of THC beverage and candy brands. They could all disappear come November.
Last year, after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Congress finally passed a stopgap funding bill — and ignited a ticking timebomb for the billion-dollar THC beverage industry. A provision slipped into the bill at the last minute changes federal law to effectively ban hemp-derived cannabis (delta-9) products starting Nov. 12, 2026. Even the […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Where the grass is greener: 10 dispensaries just over the border in Illinois
Since Illinois legalized recreational marijuana in 2020, dozens upon dozens of state-licensed dispensaries have opened or expanded beyond medicinal offerings in the Land of Lincoln. As a result, Iowans willing to hop over the Mississippi for the boutique weed-buying experience have more options than ever. THC products cannot be legally transported across state lines. This […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A cult in Iowa helped hide Yoko Ono’s daughter from her for years: ‘We never talked about my mom and John’
For a pair of prominent anti-war activists, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had many battles to fight in 1971. Upon their move to America, they faced the ire of bitter (and often racist and misogynistic) Beatles fans, investigations by the FBI, deportation attempts by the Nixon administration and pressure to either manifest or temper the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Seize the means of water testing with a free kit from Nitrate Watch
I wasn’t great at science in high school. Following a set of basic lab protocols was somehow harder for me than memorizing the entirety of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. I scored even worse on the science portion of the ACT than the math portion, which is saying something. That said, I love […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A guide to Iowa nonprofits tackling the biggest issues of our time
“When Americans think of freedom, we usually imagine a contest between a lone individual and a powerful government,” writes Timothy Snyder in his treatise On Tyranny — an Antifa 101 reading assignment, if there ever was one. “This is all well and good. But one element of freedom is the choice of associates, and one […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Iowa beer picks to match your Halloween costume
Don’t know what to be for Halloween? These costumes pair perfectly with a beer from one of Iowa’s devilishly talented craft breweries. Illustrations by Emma McClatchey; beer can images courtesy of the breweries A Witch Witch Slap (6% ABV), Clock House Brewing Whether you’re Elphaba, Glinda or some Etsy curse merchant, this year-round hazy IPA […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with Jordan Klepper of ‘The Daily Show’, a MAGA mediator during Iowa caucuses, Jan. 6 and Trump’s ‘weird, dark’ second term
Jordan Klepper is more determined than ever to wrap his mind around the MAGA mindset. A Daily Show correspondent since 2014 (with a two-year hiatus at the start of Trump’s first term that yielded the TV special Jordan Klepper Solves Guns and his own late-night news satire, The Opposition), Klepper is currently one of the storied program’s regular rotating hosts.
