A 24-hour plane trip would exhaust anyone.

For Israeli poet and essayist Efrat Mishori, however, her first experience in the United States was anything but jetlagged.

“I was told that I shouldn’t go into the houses,” said the 45-year-old. Barely an hour after arriving, though, she did just that.

Her impulse led to a friendship with local folk band Slewgrass that wasfollowed by a collaboration with the band performing one of Mishori’s poems at the Mill, 120 E. Burlington St.

“They were so friendly,” Mishori said.

Her story is just one of many perspectives that will be shared at the annual Images of America, the International Writing Program’s last panel discussion of the year. The event will begin at noon on Friday at the Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St. The panel serves as an opportunity for the Iowa City community to converse with IWP members. Writers share their American experiences, followed by an open question-and-answer.

Mishori was offered a literature scholarship from Yale University 20 years ago, but she had to turn down the offer because she was pregnant (her only son later immigrated to the United States on her visa to become a horse wrangler in Tennessee). Now in the United States for the first time, the Tel Aviv resident was awestruck by the natural beauty that Iowa had to offer.

“We [Israelis] don’t know that America has so many open spaces,” she said. “It got beyond my illusions.”

For Fedosy Santaella, visiting the United States is simply a rite of passage shared by his upper- and middle-class compatriots in Venezuela. Many who visit the States come to shop for goods not found or too expensive to buy at home or to plan a family trip to Florida or New York.

“For Venezuelans, it’s a must to go to the United States at least once,” said Santaella, who is visiting, to his recollection, for the 20th time since age 11. “If you don’t go to Disneyworld, you might go to hell.”

The 39-year-old detective novelist and short-story writer is visiting the Midwest for the first time after past excursions on the East Coast. The Caracas resident, husband, and father of a 4-year-old son said what has intrigued him most while in Iowa City was the community’s pedestrian-friendly lifestyle.

“Iowa City is a city where you can walk,” Santaella said, describing the Venezuelan capital’s wide, traffic-filled boulevards and crime ridden streets. “You cannot walk in Caracas; it’s not made for walking.”

Although both Santaella and Mishori have had mostly positive experiences so far, the latter — along with her colleagues — will have a chance to express the little malaise she has with the American culture at Friday’s panel.

After the discussion, all 36 IWP writers will be swept away for a week of conferences and readings in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City before heading home.

Throughout the open-mike event’s existence, some writers have expressed their angst about American politics — especially about the previous eight years. Some writers have even expressed some criticism about their stay, said Natasa Durovicova, the editor of 91st Meridian, the IWP’s electronic publication.

However, “95 percent of the time, people have been very happy and very grateful,” she said, who noted that the panel’s significance runs deeper than just a Q&A session.

“It is the spirit of reciprocity; most of the time it’s to say thanks,” Durovicova said. “It’s a chance for the writers to make their own topics.”