Maquoketa artist Rose Frantzen was recently awarded one of the highest honors in portrait painting. Out of 2,200 submissions, Frantzen’s piece Last Light won the Grand Prize in the Portrait Society of America’s 2026 International Portrait Competition. When Frantzen accepted the award on April 11 in Atlanta, she described Last Light as “a love letter […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The One of Us horror book fair returns Saturday with a Pulitzer-winning guest
Like an indie horror film that unexpectedly smashes box office records, the One of Us horror book fest was destined for a sequel. Ran by Ames-based Filthy Loot Press and its founder Ira Rat, last year’s inaugural event celebrated horror fiction and independent writers at Public Space One’s Close House. With the groundwork laid from […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Channeling Dolly, Sierra Ferrell entertained floral-adorned fans of all ages on the Hancher lawn
The smell of fresh-cut grass, the roar of generators powering food trucks, and a light dash of summer heat filled the air outside Hancher Auditorium on Friday night, as a massive crowd gathered to see alternative country star Sierra Ferrell perform at Hancher Auditorium’s Fall Welcome concert.
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Before the Mango Ripens’ by Afabwaje Kurian
Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian is an aching and scathing reflection on colonialism, gender politics and the influence of Christianity’s spread amongst non-European cultures. Kurian, who received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, has served as visiting faculty for both the fiction program and the International Writing Program. It’s no wonder that […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: DEĀ EX MACHINĀ — ‘APO/THECARY’
APO/THECARY by DEĀ EX MACHINĀ Nothing is more frustrating than a tired cliché, especially one that happens to be true. Take “the only constant is change,” which is made anew when refracted through the lens of a burgeoning artist. Torina Gedler, a Des Moines-based synth-pop musician playing under the moniker DEĀ EX MACHINĀ, provides that […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: In a deluge of free entertainment, Alternating Currents 2026 flowed into a loading dock, record store and the QC’s coolest venues
The Quad Cities’ annual Alternating Currents Festival landed on a rainy weekend this year (Aug. 13-16), but the weather didn’t dampen the spirits gathering for over 200 events across Davenport, Bettendorf and Rock Island. The smiles outlasted the downpours as free music, art, comedy and film events carried on, albeit with few a cancellations, a […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Maria Bamford offers a brief Bible study ahead of her two Iowa shows
Maria Bamford is a bit of a lightning bug. Not that she’s small in any way. She has flown through decades of the dark, between her own struggles with mental illness, the rigors of Hollywood and whatever perils modern life throws her way. How she flies is hilarious, but how she lands is divine. As […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Carousel’ by Sarah Minor
The concepts of time, memory and perspective are elusive and finicky. In Sarah Minor’s Carousel (Yale University Press), our speaker attempts to guide us through all manner of experiences that may lead us closer to an understanding. Carousel, billed as “an essay on seeing,” is an ambitious and artful collection of vignettes that weave together […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum and instructor Garth Greenwell critiques workshop model as ‘fraudulent’
“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, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Filmmaker Drew Johnson on why his team chose to zoom in on East Palestine, Ohio — and how it reminds him of Cedar Rapids
Drew Johnson grew up in Cedar Rapids making movies with his friends in his backyard. Now an adult, his filmmaking career has flourished without Johnson needing to leave the Midwest. He’s was one of the founding members of Loose Films, an award-winning production house based in Columbus, Ohio. Johnson founded the company with Noah Dixon […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Landyn Zane — ‘Coming Attractions’
In 1973, both David Bowie and Elton John debuted iconic looks along with new albums: Bowie the lightning-bolt face paint of the glam rock singer’s Aladdin Sane and John the rhinestoned jackets that would become his live-show signature after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Cedar Rapids native Landyn Zane references both costuming choices with electric blue […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
UI alum and icon Ana Mendieta is the focus of a new London art exhibition, joining a Frida Kahlo show with Iowa connections
Right now at London’s Tate Modern, there is a single room in which select works from late University of Iowa alumna Ana Mendieta are displayed on a wall directly opposite the multi-paneled painting, Conservatory (Portrait of Frida Kahlo) (1988), by late University of Iowa alumna Miriam Schapiro. And the Iowa connections don’t end there. Hanging […]
