When we learned the movie adaptation of Nightbitch — Iowa City author Rachel Yoder’s satirical 2021 novel about a new mother embracing her inner (and outer) beast — would be headlining FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival in October, Little Village editors naturally began imagining a cover for the September Fall Arts Preview involving Yoder holding some […]
Garth Greenwell
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America’
The mythology of “the Heartland” (also called “Middle America” or the “flyover states”) is usually rooted in archaic abstractions such as “traditional family values” and conservative ideals. These parts of the American landscape are described as if they are closed off by narrow boundaries, with rigid attitudes imposed upon the diverse populations inhabiting them. As […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Cleanness’ by Garth Greenwell
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
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Writer’s Workshop alum Garth Greenwell makes National Book Award longlist
Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Garth Greenwell made the longlist for the National Book Award in fiction. His novel, What Belongs to You (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015), has earned wide international acclaim and even received a separate UK edition. What Belongs to You follows the unlucky and complicated romance between an American high school teacher […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
IC’s Garth Greenwell speaks out against transphobia, sets out on North Carolina tour
When the state of North Carolina passed House Bill 2 in March designating that restrooms in schools and public agencies reflect biological sex as opposed to gender identity, many businesses and artists vowed to boycott the Tar Heel State.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City author Garth Greenwell hopes to break the ice for queer writers working in Bulgaria
Garth Greenwell’s debut novel, What Belongs to You, begins when an American high school teacher meets a young prostitute named Mitko in the bathroom basement of Bulgaria’s National Palace of Culture. The book that unspools their relationship is already poised to be one of the best of the year. It takes us through Sofia, Kentucky and a complex web of memory that makes us consider the ways all of our relationships are shaped by need and longing, both emotional and material. That longing is woven into our narrator’s very fiber and the complex country that surrounds him and the charismatic, complicated Mitko.
