How much pain can you handle? This is a question that Nina Lohman asks readers of The Body Alone, her upcoming book set to release July 3 with The University of Iowa Press. The question above comes up repeatedly in Lohman’s book. Sometimes a whole page will be blank save that one simple, barbarous inquiry, […]
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Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mindy Mejia’s latest thriller is inspired by her own Iowa-based trauma
Mindy Mejia was only at the University of Iowa for one year of undergrad, but she still remembers the storm. “During one trip back [to UI] to visit friends, I actually got caught in an ice storm, so very similar to the setting of the book,” the Minnesota-based author recalled. “Everything was shut down, only […]
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In-person readings return to Prairie Lights
There was a time, though it seems so very long ago now, when you could count on Prairie Lights to host in-person events with authors on an fairly aggressive schedule. When the pandemic put those events on indefinite hiatus, it felt as though one of the defining features of the City of Literature had been […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Beyond Sacrifice’ by Alicia Dill
Cedar Rapids author Alicia Dill will be reading from her forthcoming novel, Beyond Sacrifice (Circuit Breaker Books), this month for Prairie Lights. The virtual event will also include a conversation with Sara Maniscalco Robinson, founder of Veterans’ Perspective. Beyond Sacrifice, Dill’s second novel, tells the story of Concepcion Chapa, a woman of many identities. Chapa […]
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Five questions with: Photographer Barry Phipps
Iowa City multimedia artist Barry Phipps has released his most recent book of photographs, Driving a Table Down (University of Iowa Press). It’s a visual travelogue told over 18 days and 108 pages, detailing a trip taken with his mother from Iowa to Florida, to visit (and deliver the titular furniture to) family. In Zak […]
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Music weaves through all aspects of life for poet-critic Hanif Abdurraqib
Music critic, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib has made a career writing about music in both a critical and poetic way. The two aspects that aren’t often mixed, but Abdurraqib has seen renowned successes with his four books. He’ll be reading from them at Prairie Lights on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m.
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Binnie Kirshenbaum, reading at Prairie Lights, offers an inside look at depression in ‘Rabbits for Food’
Reading: Binnie Kirshenbaum, ‘Rabbits for Food,’ Prairie Lights Bookstore — Monday, June 10 at 7 p.m. Rabbits for Food, released last month, closed the decade-long wait for a new book from Binnie Kirshenbaum. Kirshenbaum will be reading at Prairie Lights on Monday, June 10 at 7 p.m. After falling deep into the pages of Rabbits […]
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Five questions with: Author Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work, released his new book, Keep Going: Ten Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, on April 2 through Workman Publishing. As one may expect from the titles of his first two books, the present effort is a bricolage of found artifacts and quotes that Kleon stitches together with insight into his personal process as an artist.
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Five questions with: Author Leslie Carol Roberts
Leslie Carol Roberts’ most recent book, Here Is Where I Walk, a meticulous examination of nature, identity and the complex relationship between them. Roberts will be reading at Prairie Lights on Thursday, May 2
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Book review and interview: Andrew Ridker, ‘The Altruists’
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.
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Five questions with: Novelist Salvatore Scibona
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.
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Five questions with: Author Mark Mayer
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.
