The University of Iowa is known for its world-renowned writing programs, including the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, which has produced countless writers and poets over the years. Now, with thousands of alumni graduating each year, the UI has accumulated an entire alphabet of authors from across the workshop and other departments.

A – Ann Patchett

Named one of “TIME” magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Patchett has won numerous awards and distinctions for her novels, with notable titles including “Tom Lake” and Pulitzer Prize finalist “The Dutch House.” Patchett owns her own bookstore, Parnassus Books, in Nashville, Tennessee, and is preparing for the release of her latest novel, “Whistler,” which explores themes of love, endurance, and the sweetness of life.

B – Brandon Taylor

While at the UI, Taylor was an Iowa Arts Fellow in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is the author of novels “Real Life” and “The Late Americans,” as well as short story collections including “Filthy Animals.” Taylor’s latest novel, “Minor Black Figures,” was a Booker Prize finalist and follows a queer, Black painter caught between the lines of desire, creativity, and faith.

C – Claire Lombardo

A former Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate and professor, who also used to work at Prairie Lights Books, Lombardo became an instant New York Times bestselling author with her debut novel, “The Most Fun We Ever Had.” Her second and most recently published novel, “Same As It Ever Was,” is a contemporary piece surrounding family drama, the same genre as her first book.

D – Dawnie Walton

Walton is the author behind “The Final Revival of Opal & Nev,” which was endorsed as one of the best books of 2021 by former President Barack Obama. Walton is also the co-founder and co-host of a podcasting and storytelling venture, Ursa Story Company. Walton’s writing recently appeared in the short story collection, “You’ve Got a Place Here, Too.”

E – Esha Patel

Patel, who is graduating in May, is a contemporary romance author who signed her first book deal for her Formula 1 novel “Offtrack” while as a student at the UI. 

“Aside from there being many beautiful places to sit and write, it’s really cool to be on a campus that cares about literature and the fine arts like this,” Patel said. “I’m looking forward to having writing be part of my career, and I think that’s probably been one of the coolest things I’ve gotten out of here.”

Patel’s seventh book, “Cross My Heart,” is preparing for its U.S. release in March, while her eighth book, “Long Hot Summer,” is releasing in May.

“‘Long Hot Summer’ is such a homey and cozy vibe, like those ‘Virgin River’ type dramas where it’s a small town and everybody knows each other,” Patel said. “It felt like that to write, it felt like coming home.”

F – Flannery O’Connor

O’Connor published her first story, “The Geranium,” while working toward her master’s degree at the UI. She has since become recognized as one of the most prolific Southern Gothic writers. Blending macabre elements and a Southern setting with themes of faith and the supernatural, O’Connor is praised both for her short stories and novels, such as “Wise Blood,” “The Violent Bear It Away,” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” O’Connor also has a plaque on the Iowa Avenue Literary Walk.

G – Gail Godwin

Godwin’s first novel, “The Perfectionists,” originally began as her Ph.D. dissertation at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was published in 1970. Since then, Godwin has produced several other novels, short story collections, and nonfiction works. 

H – Harriet Clark

A fellowship recipient from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the 2023 “Paris Review’s” Plimpton Prize, Clark began writing with the publication of her short story, “Descent.” Clark’s debut novel, “The Hill,” follows a girl trapped between two worlds of punishment needing to find her own way of life, and is expected to be released in May.

I – Ian Stansel

Stansel is the author of the western mystery novel, “The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo,” which was published in 2017. In addition to his work being featured in several literary journals, Stansel is also the author of the short-story collections “Everybody’s Irish” and “Glossary for the End of Days,” which is his latest book.

J – Jane Smiley

Smiley obtained both her master’s and Ph.D. from the UI, and has published numerous novels since. Her most widely recognized novel, “A Thousand Acres,” is an adaptation based on William Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” and won Smiley a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. The 2002 drama film, “The Secret Lives of Dentists,” was adapted from Smiley’s novella, “The Age of Grief.”

K – Kiley Reid

Reid was the recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship during her time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the author of two novels.

“The places I work end up inspiring much of my fiction. I worked as a nanny for six years when I was in my 20s, at a time when I was without health care. That experience inspired ‘Such a Fun Age,’” Reid said. “I also worked as an RA in my college dorm, and that experience inspired my second novel, ‘Come and Get It.’”

Reid’s popular debut novel from 2019, “Such a Fun Age,” became a New York Times bestseller, with themes of privilege, race, and social commentary. 

“The Iowa Writers’ Workshop gave me the time and space to become fully lost in my work while learning to be a good reader to my classmates,” Reid said. “The UI was where I learned to teach at the college level for the first time, where I met my agent, and where I gathered wonderful friends who are still my readers today.”

L – Lucy Ives

A graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ives is the author of novels and poetry collections. Ives’ debut novel, “Impossible Views of the World,” was a “New York Times” Book Review Editor’s Choice, and her book of poetry, “The Hermit,” brings audiences into the mind of a writer through a catalog of pieces on art and experience.

“I’m inspired by the absurdity of most forms of prestige and by the vulnerability of all humans,” Ives said. “The UI taught me that absurdity will never be in short supply.”

M – Mildred Wirt Benson

Former Hawkeye Yearbook editor and employee of The Daily Iowan, Benson began her writing career as a journalist before transitioning to ghostwriting, where she was offered the opportunity to write the “Nancy Drew” series. 

After creating the iconic character, Benson is credited with writing 23 of the first 30 books in the “Nancy Drew” series under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene at the request of her employer, Stratemeyer Syndicate. Throughout her life, Benson, who died in 2002, had published hundreds of novels under various names.

N – Nicholas Meyer

Meyer graduated from the UI with dual degrees in theater and filmmaking and is known notably for his work in the “Star Trek” series. Meyer has also written three Sherlock Holmes novels, with his most famous being “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,” which he later adapted into the screenplay for the 1976 film of the same title, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Adapted Screenplay. 

O – Orhan Pamuk

Recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, Pamuk is a Turkish novelist known for his works on Turkish history and identity, and was a participant in the International Writing Program at the UI in 1985, where he lived in Mayflower Hall. 

P – Paul Harding

Harding is an award-winning author who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2010 for his debut novel, “Tinkers.” After being inspired by his maternal grandfather’s tales from growing up in rural Maine, Harding pieced together both facts and fiction to create the story of “Tinkers.”

“I simply would not be a writer if not for the Writers’ Workshop and for my teachers there — Marilynne Robinson and Elizabeth McCracken, and the English novelist Barry Unsworth — who gave me inspiration to last several lifetimes,” Harding said.

Q – Dan Beachy-Quick

Beachy-Quick is an established essayist and poet who attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is known for his poetry collections, including “Mulberry” and “This Nest, Swift Passerine.” In 2008, Beachy-Quick published “A Whaler’s Dictionary,” which is a collection of essays and dialogue inspired by Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”

R – Rita Dove

Known for her renowned poetry on race, identity, and history, Dove earned her MFA in creative writing from the UI in 1977 and won the Pulitzer Prize for “Thomas and Beulah,” her third poetry collection, in 1987. 

After that, Dove went on to serve as the first African American U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995 while former U.S. President Bill Clinton was in office. Her latest poetry collection is “Playlist for the Apocalypse.”

S – Sandra Cisneros

Cisneros is an internationally acclaimed fiction author, poet, and founder of the Macondo Foundation, an association of activist writers dedicated to changing the world through their art. Through her resilience, Cisneros published her first novel, “The House on Mango Street,” which is now required reading in schools and universities across the country.

“My experience at the Writers’ Workshop was so traumatic I considered quitting. I was lucky to transform my depression to rage, and my rage fueled a little book called ‘The House on Mango Street’ that I began as a reaction to the Poetry workshop,” Cisneros said. “Though it didn’t count as any credit towards my MFA, writing it kept me afloat while I was drowning.”

T – Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

With an MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the UI, Schlote-Bonne is a horror author of the novels “Such Lovely Skin” and “The Mean Ones.” Born through her desire to write a high-stakes adventure story taking place underground and her inspiration from her favorite comfort films and anime, Schlote-Bonne’s next novel, “What Feeds Below,” is expected to be released in fall 2026.

“When I started working on ‘What Feeds Below,’ I had just finished writing ‘The Mean Ones,’ which was a deeply personal story that pulled from much of my own experiences with relationship trauma and body image, and I wanted to write something that was pure escapism and fun,” Schlote-Bonne said.

U – Leslie Ullman

Ullman began her poetry career with the publication of her first poetry collection, “Natural Histories,” which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 1978. Since then, Ullman has taught in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas-El Paso and has published four poetry collections, including “Slow Work Through Sand,” which the UI published as a co-winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize in 1997.

V – Vauhini Vara

Vara’s debut novel “The Immortal King Rao,” published in 2022, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist that followed after Vara began her career as a technology reporter. In 2023, Vara published her short story collection, “This is Salvaged,” which won several awards and nominations. 

W – W.P. Kinsella

Kinsella is a Canadian short-story writer and novelist, with most of his pieces centering on baseball. One of his most famous novels, “Shoeless Joe,” was adapted into the 1989 film, “Field of Dreams,” with his short story, “Lieberman in Love,” being adapted into an Oscar-winning short film. 

X – Xóchitl González

New York Times bestseller, screenwriter, and Pulitzer Prize finalist, González has done it all since the release of her debut novel, “Olga Dies Dreaming.” She has now written the script for the upcoming TV series adapting the book. 

Y – Yaa Gyasi

A Ghana native who grew up in Alabama, Gyasi was inspired by a research trip she took to her home country Ghana for her debut novel, “Homegoing,” which is a historical fiction piece spanning three hundred years. Gyasi’s second novel, “Transcendent Kingdom,” also drew inspiration from her personal life, and focuses on a Ghanaian family living in Alabama.

Z – ZZ Packer

Packer was first published at age 19 in “Seventeen Magazine,” and has since then been recognized as a talented African American author. A winner of several awards, Packer’s short story collection, “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere,” spans across a variety of settings, characters, and themes.