Jerald Walker, a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, reads from "Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion and Redemption."
Walker's narrative traces his life through delinquency, crime, drug use, family tensions and tragedies,...
Animal activist Gene Baur reads from "Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food," his bestseller now out in paperback. The reading is one of several events at which Baur will appear during a four-day visit to eastern Iowa...
Award-winning American novelist, Alice McDermott, author of Charming Billy, and Child of My Heart, reads from her new novel, After This, once again proving her mastery of Irish-American suburban life. “Word by word, metaphor by metaphor, Alice...
Rachel MacNair, editor of Prolife Feminism: Yesterday and Today, reads from and discusses this collection of essays on abortion and related social issues by authors Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothy Day, Nat...
University of Iowa Writers' Workshop alumna Kate Christensen, author of the acclaimed "Epicure's Lament," reads from her new novel, "The Great Man."
"The Great Man" is the tale of a famous American artist who is known for his endless troubles...
Zakes Mda, one of South Africa’s greatest writer’s of fiction and playwriting, reads from his new novel, Cion. Toloki, the main character in Mda's first novel, Ways of Dying, returns in this latest work. Toloki, a South African professional...
Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," reads from his new book, "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto."
Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through...
Ecologist Cornelia F. Mutel reads from "The Emerald Horizon: The History of Nature in Iowa," published by the University of Iowa Press.
Mutel combines lyrical writing with meticulous scientific research to portray the environmental past, present...
Historian Gordon Taylor reads from his new book, "Fever and Thirst: A Missionary Doctor Amid the Christian Tribes of Kurdistan."
The doctor in Taylor's account was Asahel Grant of Utica, New York, who in the 1830s, with his new bride, explored...
USA Today political columnist Walter Shapiro reads from his early-campaign chronicle, "One Car Caravan: On the Road with the 2004 Democrats Before America Tunes In." Michael Janofsky wrote in the New York Times, "It can safely be said that this is...
Kay Redfield Jamison discusses and reads from her book entitled Exuberance: the Passion for Life. Jamison points out that the state of “exuberance” is rarely studied in psychology; psychologists tend to focus their study on the more “morbid...
Cheryl Peck reads from her collection of short stories, Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs. Peck addresses the difficulties of being both a large woman and a lesbian in today’s society. When asked how she deals with society’s pressures, Peck responds:...
Cece Arnold talks about the conference that is headquartered in Des Moines and Catholic social teaching for creating their policy. Arnold explains seven principal Catholic teachings: human dignity, subsidization, solidarity, universal destination...
J. Harley McIlrath reads from Possum Trot, a collection of essays. The pieces in Possum Trot form a lament for a way of life mostly gone. The family farm is dead. If E.B. White wrote Charlotte’s Web today it would take place in a hog confinement...
Asim Mohamed Al Saidi of Oman begins the panel by stating that he writes to expand the mind as exercise does the body and to make the world a better place. He then attempts to answer the question of why he writes by considering different...
Patricia Albers will read from Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, the first full-scale biography of the dazzling, outrageous, mythic Abstract Expressionist artist considered today one of the major American painters of the latter half of the 20th century....
Northwestern University faculty member Abigail Foerstner reads from her new biography, "James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles."
A Publishers Weekly feature explained, "The name Van Allen (1914-2006) is known primarily today through the...
Saul Kaplan talks and answers questions about his new book, The Business Model Innovation Factory. Business models don’t last as long as they used to. So how can you stay relevant when the world is changing at such breathtaking pace and the...
Carl Klaus and Ned Stuckey-French read from and discuss their edited collection, Essayists on the Essay. The first historically and internationally comprehensive collection of its kind, Essayists on the Essay is a path-breaking work that is nothing...
Alice Kessler-Harris reads from A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman. A Difficult Woman tells the story of Lillian Hellman, a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most...