In April, in the month of poetry A theater raises praises to a bard The offering a simple symmetry Disarming to the ardent avant-garde Since 1996, the U.S. has recognized April as National Poetry Month, a celebration organized by the Academy of American Poets. Here in the first U.S. UNESCO City of Literature, that certainly […]
Iowa City poetry
En Español: The “Wetback’s” Story

Historia del “mojado El hombre llegó desorientado ¿Preguntándose que es todo esto? ¿A dónde fue? Que es todo esto que está escrito Un idioma no conocido El hombre llega con miedo Pero los recuerdos de su esposa Su familia, y de sus hijos que llevan su sangre lo guían entre lo desconocido. El hombre trabaja […]
Marvin Bell, UI professor and first Iowa Poet Laureate, has died

Marvin Bell, first Poet Laureate of Iowa, longtime Iowa Writers’ Workshop professor and first poetry editor of The Iowa Review, died on Monday, Dec. 14 after a months-long illness. He was 83. Bell earned his MFA from the Writers’ Workshop prior to his 40-year tenure teaching there. His students included such luminaries as James Galvin, […]
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey

Caleb Rainey was voted Best Poet/Spoken Word Artist in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. “The oldest poem I can think of was one in elementary school. Obviously, it rhymed,” Best Poet of the CRANDIC Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey said in a recent phone call, laughing. “But the poem that I count […]
The world’s in crisis, but poetry is more accessible than ever in Iowa City

“Poetry is somewhere between jazz and bird call and computer code and ornate lacquer box and hot wrought iron and prayer and primal scream,” said Lisa Roberts, founding director of Iowa City Poetry. For seven years, Roberts has collaborated with artists around one of the most prestigious (and arguably elitist) writing capitals in the world […]
#StayHome: Indigenous Peoples Art Gallery goes virtual during COVID-19

As any discussion of the ongoing pandemic should note, small businesses, organizations and communities have, in many cases, seen more pronounced effects from COVID-19 than their larger counterparts. These entities, not usually included in major media discourse, nevertheless face the same questions as the world at large: How do we transition our pre-COVID lives into […]