Every president of the United States dominates public discourse so thoroughly that they almost erase their predecessor from the collective consciousness. No one has done that as thoroughly as Donald J. Trump. One has to think hard to remember the Obama presidency, given the relentless onslaught of dishonesty and brutish absurdity […]
Cleanness, the second book by Garth Greenwell (released Jan. 14, 2020), is exemplary. It provides rare rewards to its readers beyond the scope dared by many authors of contemporary literature. It demands much of the reader — not due to its difficulty, but in the unrelenting rigor of the narrator who patiently preserves the paradoxes of everyday […]
Reading: Kiley Reid Prairie Lights — Friday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. Such a Fun Age By Kiley Reid — G.P. Putnam’s Sons Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Kiley Reid has written a timely and compelling debut novel. The action begins when Emira Tucker, a part-time babysitter, who is black, is called in for emergency sitting […]
A Model Earth, the tale within a tale central to The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, is a science fiction story that involves travel between multiple dimensions. It is the manuscript that Saul Drower finds in his grandfather Benjamin’s possessions after his death, and sets out to deliver to Maxwell Moreau, son of its author, Adana. The debut novel […]
Writers of the Depths Anthology Erin Casey & Alex Penland, ed. — The Writers’ Rooms Like a river flowing into the sea, Writers of the Depths, the anthology from the Iowa City–Cedar Rapids workshop collective the Writers’ Rooms, injects a fresh perspective into ocean tales. One traditional story and six fantasy tales are studded with […]
Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey’s second volume of poetry was self-published in October, just five months after his first volume (Look, Black Boy) was released. Heart Notes departs from race as its central topic and focuses on aspects of love, which Rainey explores through widely varying structures and types of poems. In fact, if you’ve ever wondered whether […]
The memoiristic essays in Andre Perry’s Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now (2019, Two Dollar Radio) reconstruct — from journal entries, memory and fictionalized correspondence and dialogue — Perry’s youthful encounters with American music, women, culture and racism-loaded language. Most accounts are positioned in three geographic […]
Brook Hoover is an Eastern Iowa music scene staple. He plays out every week, whether it’s a solo gig with his cover band the Flaming Camaros or a tour stop with his surf-rock group the Surf Zombies. When he’s not in the spotlight, he’s teaching guitar to folks from the very young to the, well, older. His classes are tailored to the goals of the […]
This year’s edition of the I.O.W.A. book festival is set for Sept. 7 and 8 at the Cedar Rapids Public Library. The acronym stands for Imagine Other Worlds with Authors, and the writers on the slate certainly represent a wide array of literary worlds. From fantasy to mystery to romance and more, the festival offers readers an opportunity […]
First a spoiler alert: Among the multiple apocalyptic revelations in Ben Westhoff’s Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic is sour news for all hard drug users, from casual weekend abusers to full-time cocaine cowboys. In light of developments presented in this epic book in gruesome […]
Life as a travel writer and spiritual itinerant was jolted, for Lori Erickson, by the sudden death of a brother and the precipitous progression of her mother’s dementia. Seeking in part to cope with the proximate loss and to recalibrate her own spiritual equilibrium, Erickson looked anew, far and near, upon death. She invites us to join her […]
Many Hands Make Light Work is a primary-colored memoir of the recent past. It depicts growing up in a large family in Ames, Iowa, in the 1960s and ’70s, the tones of the story vivid and bright against a backdrop of an increasingly volatile world. […]
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