Local Iowa City writing programs and businesses will celebrate the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day on Friday and Saturday. UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization,...

Eight women stand shoulder to shoulder on a cold cement floor. Their voices mingle and bounce off the barren, gray walls. They are welcoming, beckoning anyone who will listen to take a ride on a train...

New York artist and University of Iowa alum Sam Gassman makes sure that his annual Smithing and Arts Materials Awards push the envelope beyond what art competitions are supposed to be. That is, just far...

Author Paul Harding resorted to his grandfather’s intimate stories of growing up in rural Maine when writing his latest book. The novel unfolds with the memories of an old man on his deathbed, returning...

Much has changed for Kevin Gordon since his five-year stay in Iowa City during the ’80s. He was studying poetry at Iowa Writers’ Workshop, splitting a $300 rent check with his girlfriend, and playing...

Twenty-three years ago on a hot summer day in Iowa, a legendary video clip was born. Founders of the Found Footage Festival Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett have dubbed it “Jack Rebney: The World’s Angriest...

For poet Emily Wilson, keeping a poetry journal in third grade started her love for rhythmic language. “I always liked to play around with words at a young age,” she said. “When I continued to write,...

The prom queen looks like living hell. A ghost-white foundation covers her face, and blue and black shadows highlight her sleep-deprived eyes. Dark red lipstick is smeared along her cheeks and neck, giving...

Poet Michele Glazer began writing creatively when she was young and took a path toward poetry partly out of necessity. “I’m a failed fiction writer,” she said. “I can’t sustain a narrative.”...

Sharing the same romantic interest can often lead to bad blood, but for Rooney vocalist Robert Schwartzman and guitarist Taylor Locke, it led to a band. “This girl whom we both had a huge, huge crush...

Born and raised in Chicago’s tough South Side, Jerald Walker spent his formative years following the same troubled path as many others in his neighborhood. By the age of 17, Walker was a dropout, a druggie,...

A hammering of drums opens No Joy’s music video “Hawaii.” As layered voices and guitar parts begin to play, the camera settles on a small group of friends sitting on the back of a pickup truck. They...