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Presents:
The Mission Creek Literary Series
In its 7th year, the literary arm of the Mission Creek Festival will be more involved and intense than ever. Expect our classic events to return, including: the annual Small Presses and Literary Magazine Book Fair & Reading (with beer tasting hosted by New Belgium), the annual Lit Crawl across Iowa City (now in collaboration with the new Food Crawl!), the Emerging Writers Reading, and the New Work Reading. There will also be a host of other readings and literary events. Stay tuned for a schedule and a list of confirmed writers, presses, and lit mags.
Tuesday, March 27
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Reading: Luis Alberto Urrea @ Prairie Lights Bookstore (15 S. Dubuque St.)
7:00 pm FREE
On Tuesday, March 27th, Luis Alberto Urrea will read from his latest novel, Queen of America, to kick off the literary schedule. A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction, Urrea has published extensively in all genres. The author of 13 books of fiction, essays, and poetry, Urrea’s work has won a Lannon Literary Award and an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America, has been selected by more than 30 different cities and colleges for One Book community and reading programs, and has been adapted into films and graphic novels.
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Reading: Four Short Story Writers of the Apocalypse @ ICPL + tbd
7:00 pm FREE
A new component of the literary festival begins on Wednesday, the 28th; community outreach. UI Professor and Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program Robin Hemley brings his Four Short Story Writers of the Apocalypse for a day of community-oriented workshops, all leading up to a reading that evening by Hemley and his fellow horseman: writers Michael Martone, Melissa Pritchard, and Pinckney Benedict. Across morning and afternoon sessions, these four guests of the Mission Creek Festival and UI Writers’ Workshop will hold short story workshops for undergraduates of the UI, first, and graduate students, second. These sessions will be first-come, first-serve, and the reading that evening will cap off the day of intense creative writing (7 pm, place TBD).
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New Work Reading feat. Mike Doughty @ Motley Cow Cafe (160 N. Linn St.)
5:00 pm FREE
Thursdays during Mission Creek continue to feature the signature “New Work” reading which pairs published authors and writer-musicians reading from recent, unpublished material. In 2012, songwriter and musician Mike Doughty (from Soul Coughing) will be paired with a writer who will be named in the next release. Doughty published his memoir, The Book of Drugs (De Capo Press), earlier this year.
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Reading: Robert Hass @ Prairie Lights Bookstore (15 S. Dubuque St.)
7:00 pm FREE
Mission Creek is proud to co-promote the reading by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass (W10 Buchanan Auditorium, 7 pm), who is visiting the University of Iowa as an Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor. Hass is one of America's most critical poets. His books of poetry include The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems (Ecco Press, 2010); Time and Materials (2007), which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; Sun Under Wood: New Poems (1996); Human Wishes (1989); Praise (1979); and Field Guide (1973), which was selected by Stanley Kunitz for the Yale Younger Poets Series.Hass has also co-translated several volumes of poetry with Czeslaw Milosz, most recently Facing the River (1995), and is author or editor of several other collections of essays and translation, including The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa (1994), and Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry (1984). Hass served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997 and as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007.
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Emerging Writers Reading feat. Michael Kimball @ Prairie Lights Bookstore (15 S. Dubuque St.)
6:00 pm FREE
Another Mission Creek tradition, the Emerging Writers Reading slates three young literary talents as the Friday evening highlight event. Michael Kimball will headline the group. Kimball is the author of four acclaimed books, including Dear Everybody and most recently, Us. His work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, in Vice magazine, The Guardian, Bomb, and New York Tyrant. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. Kimball also blogs at “Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard),” has made a couple of documentaries, organizes the 510 Reading series, and is the man behind the conceptual pseudonym “Andy Devine.” His new novel, Big Ray, is forthcoming this fall from Bloomsbury. The other two emerging authors will be announced in the next release, as well.
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Small Press & Literary Journal Book Fair @ The Mill (120 E. Burlington St.)
11:00 am - 4:00 pm FREEThe third annual Mission Creek Small Press and Literary Journal Book Fair will be held from 12 noon to 4 pm at the Mill Restaurant and Bar. This year, more than 40 presses, journals both in print and online, and literary organizations will be represented, including: Granta magazine, A Public Space, Hobart, Wag’s Revue, Black Clock, the Iowa Review, n+1, Unstuck Magazine, Poetry Magazine, Jubilat, Pank Magazine, New Letters, Forklift Ohio, H_NGM_N, Black Ocean Press, Rescue Press, Birds LLC, Hell Yes Press, featherproof press, Sarabande Books, the UI Center for the Book, UNESCO City of Literature, IYWP, and many, many more…entrance to the event is FREE, so come with a tote bag or two and stock up on some of the best literature being published today!
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Granta Magazine Presents @ The Mill (120 E. Burlington St.)
3:00 pm FREE
Immediately following the book fair, the UK’s Granta magazine will once again host the highlight reading of the festival. Continuing the tradition of bringing to Iowa City the most dynamic literary talent alongside a writer featured recently in Granta’s pages, this reading in 2012 includes Matt Hart, T. Fleischmann, Amelia Gray, plus one more headline author. Matt Hart is the author of Who’s Who Vivid (2006) and Wolf Face (2010). Hart is also the co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety. T. Fleischmann returns to Iowa City since graduating from the Nonfiction Writing Program. Fleischmann’s essays have appeared in Fourth Genre, Pleiades, Indiana Review, Gulf Coast, The Pinch, and in make/shift. A nonfiction editor at DIAGRAM, T’s work has also been named Notable Essays in The Best American Essays in both 2009 and 2010. T’s book-length essay, Syzygy, Beauty: An Essay, is forthcoming in March from Sarabande. Amelia Gray is the author of AM/PM (featherproof) and Museum of the Weird (FC2). Her first novel, THREATS is due in March from FSG.
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2nd Annual Lit Crawl @ Multiple Venues! (tbd)
5-6pm, 6-7pm, 7-8pm FREEFor three, hour-long rounds (5-6 pm, 6-7pm, & 7-8 pm) after the Granta reading, Mission Creek’s second annual lit crawl will showcase local and regional writers in venues across downtown Iowa City. Eight events in eight locations, crawling from the south side to the north, will be hosted and co-hosted by more than 15 publishers, combining authors from their own pages with UI MFA students representing the Anthology Reading Series. In all, more than 50 writers will appear. Check out the next release for the full line-up, and for details on Mission Creek’s first annual, corresponding Food Crawl!
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Reading/Performance @ The Mill (120 E. Burlington St.)
8:00 pm tbd
Mission Creek is proud to announce, and welcome actress and poet Amber Tamblyn back to town. While Amber’s recent successes include films such as 127 Hours and the television series House, Tamblyn has also published four books of poetry - the reading for her latest collection, Bang Ditto, packed the house at Prairie Lights – and she frequently performs on stage as part of “The Drums Inside Your Chest.” Joining her onstage - some of the best spoken word poets in the country; names we'll announce in the next couple of weeks.
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IYWP / Was the Word / Poetry Out Loud Present @ The Englert Theatre (221 E. Washington St.)
5:00 pm FREE
Continuing Mission Creeks’ outreach initiatives, the poets and masters of the stage featured Saturday evening will pair with the Iowa Youth Writing Project and Was the Word on a collaborative event where they will work with young poets from across the state of Iowa on their own poetry, both on the page and for the stage, building to the Sunday event where the poets will perform together at the historic Englert Theatre.