Live From Prairie Lights Archives

Book review and interview: Andrew Ridker, ‘The Altruists’

Posted on Mar 26, 2019 by Beth Hudson

To read Andrew Ridker’s sparkling novel ‘The Altruists’ is to find oneself inside the claustrophobic confines of a dysfunctional family. The Alters are apparently normal St. Louis residents; parents Arthur and Francine are respectively a professor of engineering and a couples’ counselor, and the children, Ethan and Maggie, are being prepared for successful careers. Yet under their upper-middle-class veneer, there is a profound disconnection. […]

Five questions with: novelist Salvatore Scibona

Posted on Mar 7, 2019 by Rob Cline

Salvatore Scibona’s 2008 debut novel, ‘The End,’ was nominated for the National Book Award. Scibona, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, now has a second novel on the shelves: ‘The Volunteer.’ Scibona will be reading from ‘The Volunteer’ at Prairie Lights on Monday, March 11. […]

Five questions with: Author Mark Mayer

Posted on Feb 26, 2019 by Daniel Boscaljon

Mark Mayer, graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and inaugural Robert P. Dana Emerging Writer fellow at Cornell College, will read from his debut collection of short stories, ‘Aerialists,’ at Prairie Lights on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. […]

Five questions with: Author Elizabeth McKracken

Posted on Feb 7, 2019 by Beth Hudson

Quirky and engaging, funny and serious at once, ‘Bowlaway’ is a book that makes you think. The story of a bowling alley and the family which owns it is part historical novel, part family saga and part pure whimsy. […]

Five questions with: Author Tom Hunt

Posted on Jan 24, 2019 by Beth Hudson

A disastrous accident embroils a family in terror in Iowa native Tom Hunt’s new thriller, ‘One Fatal Mistake.’ When 18-year-old Joshua hits a man with his car, he has no idea that his choices will be the catalyst for a chain of horrifying events. Hunt will read from his novel at Prairie Lights. […]

The deadline has been extended to submit works for the Bicultural Iowa Writers Fellowship

Posted on Oct 26, 2018 by Genevieve Trainor

Over the course of six months in 2019, the fellows chosen for the program will develop a collection of five pieces. The fellowship will culminate in the publication of the next volume of the We the Interwoven anthology. […]

Taylor Brorby to read from ‘Crude,’ ‘Coming Alive’ at Prairie Lights

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Genevieve Trainor

Author and activist Taylor Brorby is a longtime voice for progressive environmentalism. Hailing originally from North Dakota, he brings a passionate love of the earth to his writing. Last year, as co-editor of the anthology Fracture, he spoke to Little Village about the value of creating new perspectives — in his more recent work, he does just that. […]

Interview: ‘Sweetbitter’ author Stephanie Danler dishes on inspiration, eating on the road and dinner-hour poetry

Posted on Apr 19, 2017 by Frankie Schneckloth

LA-based writer Stephanie Danler’s recently-released ‘Sweetbitter’ spins the tale of a young twenty-something looking to find her way in the world after graduation. The story is told through the lens of front-of-house restaurant work, a job that proves to be both Exhilarating and exhausting for the novel’s heroine, Tess, and one that Danler experienced first-hand in her formative early twenties. […]

Set in rural Iowa, Darnielle’s ‘Universal Harvester’ focuses on connections

Posted on Feb 21, 2017 by Kent Williams

John Darnielle Reading Prairie Lights — Monday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. A palimpsest is a piece of parchment that has been written on, scrubbed clean and written on again. Scholars of the first millennium focus on recovering the erased text, which can tell a story more interesting than the surface writing. The Palimpsest was […]

Rae Meadows to read from her ‘lovely, evocative and powerful’ novel at Prairie Lights

Posted on Sep 6, 2016 by Beth Hudson

Rae Meadows and Dean Bakopoulos Prairie Lights Bookstore — Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. With deft and lyrical prose, Rae Meadows weaves a tale of love, hope and survival in her recent novel, I Will Send Rain (Henry Holt & Co.), published Aug. 9. Meadows will read from the book Wednesday, Sept. 7 at […]

Authors Anna Noyes and Brian Booker return to Iowa

Posted on Jun 14, 2016 by Tim Taranto

Anna Noyes and Brian Booker Prairie Lights Bookstore — Saturday, June 14 at 7 p.m. Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduates and rookie authors Anna Noyes and Brian Booker will be sharing the stage tonight at 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights Bookstore. Noyes will read from her collection Goodnight, Beautiful Women (Grove 2016) and Booker will share […]

Anaïs Duplan and Louis Chude-Sokei share the stage for Live from Prairie Lights

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Genevieve Trainor

Anaïs Duplan and Louis Chude-Sokei Prairie Lights Bookstore — Thursday, May 19 at 7 p.m. The Center for Afrofuturist Studies (CAS) is in the midst of welcoming its second artist-in-residence this week. The peak of this introduction comes Thursday, May 19 at Prairie Lights Bookstore, when the center’s founder and director, Anaïs Duplan, is joined […]

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