In one of the last public Iowa City events of the 2013 International Writing Program fall residency, 34 writers from 31 countries will come together to share memories of their time spent in Iowa and elsewhere in the United States.

The event, “What We Saw: International Writers Share Impressions of Iowa, the U.S.,” will taqke place at noon Friday in Iowa City Public Library Meeting Room A, 123 S. Linn St.

The annual gathering provides a time for the international writers to reflect on their time not only in Iowa but also their mid-residency trips to New Orleans and San Francisco.

Many of the writers also took individual trips to universities, theater companies, and numerous literary outlets in which they were able to share their work.

Some of the places they visited include University of California-Berkeley, Yale University, and Portland Stage Company.

During their residencies, many of the writers also blogged about their U.S. experiences and submitted work to several newspapers’ opinion pages in the States and also abroad.

The writers who contributed to these platforms plan to add to these reflective pieces during the public discussion on Friday.

On Nov. 4, the IWP writers, who arrived in Iowa City in August, will end their residencies and embark on new journeys to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City before many return to their home countries.

— by Samantha Gentry