11 p.m. Don and Timmy and I watch the constant news reports in the living room of Timmy’s Upper East Side apartment. We sit stunned, speechless, needing to be with others as we watch the towers collapse over and over again. I can’t even think who I know who works downtown. My mind is a void. Later I will learn that one of Timmy’s friends was killed in the World Trade Center that day; that, for days afterward, Don would be finding papers in Brooklyn that had floated from the towers.
Iowa City literature
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Love Letters: Three women describe what it was like to lose a parent
These essays won first, second and third place in the Love Letters: What Matters Most contest, hosted by Honoring Your Wishes, a division of Iowa City Hospice. The contest asked writers to reflect on themes of love, forgiveness and gratitude.
Posted inHot Tin Roof
Hot Tin Roof: Rolling In The Deep At Old Man’s Creek
The geriatric van tattooed with faded peace signs sped past golden stacks of Iowa wheat on this sticky September afternoon. Our driver, Ana Mendieta, had the five of us, plus her photography gear and plastic buckets, stuffed in her vehicle for the short drive to Old Man’s Creek near Sharon Center.
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Philip Roth (1933-2018) on Iowa City
Philip Roth, one of the major figures of 20th century literature, died of congestive heart failure on Tuesday night. The author, known for his darkly comic novels and short stories, was 85. His first book, Goodbye Columbus, a collection of five short stories and a novella, won the National Book Award in 1960. The title […]
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LitCity tour site launches today
Just in time for Iowa City’s hosting duties for this year’s Annual Meeting of UNESCO Cities of Literature, the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization, in collaboration with the University of Iowa, is launching LitCity, a new website that provides literary tours of Iowa City.
Posted inHot Tin Roof
Hot Tin Roof: On Being Ghosted
Hot Tin Roof is a program to showcase current literary work produced in Iowa City. The series is organized and juried by representatives of three Iowa City-based cultural advocacy organizations: Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and Little Village magazine, with financial support from M.C. Ginsberg Objects of Art.
Posted inHot Tin Roof
Hot Tin Roof: How to Get Rid of Bruises: Seven Easy Tips
Hot Tin Roof is a program to showcase current literary work produced in Iowa City. The series is organized and juried by representatives of three Iowa City-based cultural advocacy organizations: Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and Little Village magazine, with financial support from M.C. Ginsberg Objects of Art.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Interview: Reza Aslan on humanizing God
Reza Aslan will appear on Thursday, Dec. 7 at the First United Methodist Church (214 E Jefferson St, Iowa City) for a conversation with Iowa Public Radio host Charity Nebbe about his newest book, God: A Human History.
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Iowa grad’s second novel, ‘Pigeon,’ pulls readers into a Parisian mystery, with a twist
Pres Maxson, a 2002 University of Iowa graduate, published his second novel, Pigeon, in October. The book, a rollicking romp through the made-up world of a Parisian uber-elite sports club, follows a young busboy mistaken for the world’s greatest detective as he tries to solve a decades-old mystery.
Posted inHot Tin Roof
Hot Tin Roof: Self Help through IKEA Furniture Assembly
The dream fills the room when we unpack — the parts — the makings of our soon-to-be kitchen table.I remember reading that IKEA furniture in particular is more self-gratifying than the non-IKEA do-it-yourself-put-it-together furniture because of the self-assembly required.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
It’s NaNoWriMo, and if you’re not writing a novel, maybe you should be
“National Novel Writing Month is very open to zaniness and wild ideas and exploration. There’s not really a way to do it wrong, other than by not doing it.”
Posted inHot Tin Roof
Hot Tin Roof: Before Planting
Leave the screams, the unspoken fights — / “I can’t take it all, I ain’t gonna take it all, I don’t want none of it, I just want” — / to roll naked across a gravel road while the dust kicks up and the blood is drawn / like a goddamned roadmap across ass and knees and chest.
