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2015 Schedule

Friday April, 3
12:00 am start
TBD
Free
Jenny Zhang
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Jenny Zhang is a poet, writer, and performer living in New York. She’s the author of the poetry collection Dear Jenny, We Are All Find. You can find her at jennybagel.com, at her blog, Fashion for Writers, and on Twitter @jennybagel.
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Niina Pollari lives in Brooklyn and has written two previous chapbooks: Fabulous Essential (Birds of Lace 2009) and Book Four (Hyacinth Girl 2012). She translated Tytti Heikkinen’s The Warmth of the Taxidermied Animal (Action Books 2013).
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Erika Jo Brown is from New York. Her chapbook, What a Lark!, was published by Further Adventures Press in 2011. She was educated at Cornell University and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Capote Fellow in Poetry. Most recently, Brown taught at Savannah State University and co-curated the Seersucker Shots reading series. Brown is currently a PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
chloecaldwell1
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Chloe Caldwell is the author of the novella WOMEN (SF/LD, 2014) and the essay collection LEGS GET LED ASTRAY (Future Tense Books, 2012). Her work has appeared in Salon.com, The Sun, Nylon, The Rumpus, Men's Health, The Nervous Breakdown, and the anthologies "True Tales of Lust and Love" and "Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NYC". She lives in Hudson, New York.
bennett-sims
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Bennett Sims is the author of the novel, A Questionable Shape, winner of the 2014 Bard Fiction Prize. Sims has studied at Pomona College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His fiction has appeared in A Public Space, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, Tin House, and Zoetrope: All-Story.
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Nicholas Rombes teaches in Detroit, Michigan. He is author of Ramones from the 33 1/3 series and the book 10/40/70. His writing has appeared in The Believer, Filmmaker Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books,n+1, and The Rumpus.
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Free
DJ Dolack
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DJ Dolack is the author of Whittling a New Face in the Dark (Black Ocean, 2013), as well as the chapbooks No Ser. No (Greying Ghost) and 12 Poems (Eye For An Iris Press). His video reviews and Tourist Trap, NYC series can be found at Coldfront Magazine. He teaches writing at Baruch College and lives in Jackson Heights, Queens.  
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Matt Rasmussen’s poetry has been published in Gulf Coast, Cimarron Review, H_NGM_N, Water~Stone Review, New York Quarterly, Paper Darts, and at Poets.org. He’s received awards, grants, and residencies from The Bush Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, Intermedia Arts, The Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN, and The Corporation of Yaddo. He is a 2014 Pushcart Prize winner, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, and teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College. His first book of poems, Black Aperture, was a finalist for the National…
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Free
Ben Fama
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Ben Fama is the author of the artist book Mall Witch, as well as several chapbooks and pamphlets. In 2015 Ugly Duckling Presse will publish Fantasy, his first full length book of poems.
monica-mcclure
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Monica McClure‘s debut collection, Tender Data, will be published by Birds, LLC in 2015. She is the author of the chapbooks Mood Swing, published by Snacks Press in 2013, and Mala, from Poor Claudia. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Tin House, Los Angeles Review, Lit Review, Lambda Literary Review’s Spotlight Series, The Awl, Spork Press and elsewhere. She studied fiction, poetry, art history and literary theory at DePauw University and earned her MFA in poetry from New York University. With Brenda Shaughnessy, she edited the anthology Both…
Colin Winnette (photo cred Jennifer Yinn)
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Colin Winnette is the author of several books, including ANIMAL COLLECTION (Spork Press 2012), COYOTE (Les Figues 2015) and HAINTS STAY (forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio). His work can be read far and wide in places like McSweeney's, The American Reader, The Believer, Gulf Coast, and others. His prizes include Les Figues Press's NOS Book Contest and Sonora Review's Short Short Fiction Contest, and he was finalist for the Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose and Cleveland State University Poetry Center's…
Emily Wilson
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Emily Wilson was born in Ohio and grew up in Maine; she was educated at Harvard University and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her collections of poetry include The Keep (2001); Morpho terrestre (2006), a limited-edition book with prints by Sara Langworthy; and Micrographia (2009). Wilson has taught at Colby College, Grinnell College, the University of Montana, and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was the recipient of a 2007 fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts.
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Janaka Stucky is the Publisher of Black Ocean as well as the annual poetry journal, Handsome. He is the author of Your Name Is The Only Freedom and The World Will Deny It For You. His poems have appeared in such journals as Denver Quarterly, Fence and North American Review, and his articles have been published by The Huffington Post and The Poetry Foundation. He is a two-time National Haiku Champion and in 2010 he was voted “Boston’s Best Poet” in the Boston Phoenix.
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Mary Hickman is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she received an Iowa Arts Fellowship. Her poems have been published in Boston Review, Colorado Review, jubilat, PEN American Poetry Series, and elsewhere. Her first book, This Is the Homeland, will be published by Ahsahta Press in 2015.
Much More At Mission Creek
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Free
TBD
Mission Creek Artist Installation, March 31 - April 5   After graduating from the UI with a BFA in graphic design, Candida Pagan traveled widely-- adventuring here and there, always on the hunt for a new art or performance project. She has come to rest, as of late, in Iowa City and is currently an MFA Candidate at the UI Center for the book. She is the proprietor of Digraph Press, a limited edition fine press, and works with Special…
The Mill / 8:00 am
Free
dj-dolack
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The Mill
8:00 am start
DJ Dolack is the author of Whittling a New Face in the Dark (Black Ocean, 2013), as well as the chapbooks No Ser. No (Greying Ghost) and 12 Poems (Eye For An Iris Press). His video reviews and Tourist Trap, NYC series can be found at Coldfront Magazine. He teaches writing at Baruch College and lives in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Revival / 8:00 am
Free
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Free
Revival
8:00 am start
Mei-ling Shaw Williams, Iowa City artist, photographer, designer, gardener, metalsmith, sculptress, party-thrower extraordinaire, ghost-wolf-woman from another era, and all-around-incredible, inspirational ladybabe, will be doing a window installation at Revival Clothing Store. Mei-Ling's current work is titled discrete:continuous, and relates to particles and waves within physics. Expect a mindmelt/powerful perception-changer chamber, patiently waiting to wrap you in a carefully constructed handspun web.
White Rabbit Gallery / 10:00 am
Free
Much More At Mission Creek
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White Rabbit Gallery
10:00 am start
Mission Creek Artist Installation March 31 - April 5   Ultra Terrestrial: A superior, non-human entity of natural or supernatural origin that is indigenous to planet Earth.   Bright colors, super natural and mystical imagery, psychedelia, ufos, extra terrestrials, animals, strange vegetation, and visionary folk art from around the world all inspire Becca Kacanda's designs and her life.
Iowa City Pedestrian Mall / 10:00 am
Free
Much More At Mission Creek
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Iowa City Pedestrian Mall
10:00 am start
Gallery/Workshop: 10 am - 5 pm daily throughout the festival McNutt Gallery 204 Stevens Drive, Iowa City Outdoor projection: Iowa City Pedestrian Mall Tuesday, March 31, 8-10 pm Friday, April 3, 8-10 pm   Barry Phipps will relocate his studio to McNutt Gallery for one week as part installation, part store, part workshop, keeping regular business hours from 10am - 5pm, while he works on several projects to reveal the process to prospective viewers. Phipps' artistic process will be filmed…
Urbanity / 10:05 am
Free
Much More At Mission Creek
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Urbanity
10:05 am start
Mission Creek Artist Installation, March 31 - April 5 Alicia Kelly was born and raised among the red dirt and wildflowers of northeastern Oklahoma. The country landscape and fauna of the midwest left a deep impression on Kelly that continues to inspire her artwork. Since receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking in 2010 from the University of Kansas, she has exhibited in numerous galleries, non-profit spaces and flash spaces. Venues included Stumptown Printers (Portland), Spencer Museum of Art…
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Free
BJ Love
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BJ Love is the author of Yes, I'm Sure This Was a Beautiful Place (Strange Cage), a collaboration with the poet, Lucas Pingel. In addition, Love produces Pretty LIT, a podcast that brings together, finally, the worlds of poetry and club bangers, and can be found at: www.prettylit.org.
Velvet Coat / TBD
Free
Much More At Mission Creek
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Velvet Coat
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Mission Creek Artist Installation, March 31 - April 5 A handmade-textile artist whose visual installations have been showcased in Japan, San Francisco, the Portland Airport, and Iowa City, Sayuri creates intricate and enchanting universes that invite the viewer to re-imagine their own perception of place and movement.
Gabe’s / 9:00 pm
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Jack-Lion
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$15
Gabe’s
9:00 pm doors / 9:00 pm start
Iowa City locals Jack Lion look to blur the lines between jazz and electronic and reintroduce it to a modern era. Residing somewhere around the midpoint of laid-back break beats, a jazz composition, and swelling atmospherics, Jack Lion is quickly becoming known as one of Iowa City's most progressive and unbounded musical projects. After taking a cab ride on Halloween of 2013 with a driver the band still regards as one of the most interesting people they have ever met,…
Trumpet Blossom / 8:00 am
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Trumpet Blossom
8:00 am start
Samuel Locke Ward is not just an Iowa City local, a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, he is one of the hardest-working and varied artists in the Midwest, with over 55 EPs & LPs taking the listener from dance-y pop music to the progressive and experimental. In his 2013 endeavor, The Lame Years, SLW released one full-length LP every month for the year, featuring dozens of artists and bands to help make each album completely distinct. His current undertaking, Monday…
Trumpet Blossom / 8:00 am
TBD
Jozef Van Wissem
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Trumpet Blossom
8:00 am start
Josef Van Wissem is an award-winning lutenist and composer based out of New York City. Born in the Netherlands, Van Wissem grew up a fan of classical guitar and participated in the 1980s punk scene. He studied with lute legend Patrick O’Brien in New York, and released his first solo album in 2000. Since then he has gained massive recognition for his contribution and scoring of Jim Jarmusch’s 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive, winning the 2013 Cannes Soundtrack Award…
Hotel Vetro / 8:00 am
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Much More At Mission Creek
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Included with Innovation Ticket
Hotel Vetro
8:00 am start
Prior to the Mission Creek Innovation Conference (Saturday, April 4) there will be daylong workshops for those wanting to go more in-depth and get more hands-on experience. During the conference one track of the conference will focus on entrepreneurship, another track will focus on technology and cross-cutting keynotes will bring all the attendees together. Both tracks will include talks focused on producing social good and on fostering the next generation. Other talks will be more specialized towards topics as diverse…
Multiple Locations / 11:00 am
Free
Free
Multiple Locations
11:00 am start
Mission Creek Artist Installations - Click links below for locations and details March 31 - April 5: Sayuri Sasaki Hemann Barry Phipps Shop UltraTerrestrial Candida Pagan Alicia Kelly Mei-Ling Shaw Williams
Prairie Lights / 3:00 pm
Free
Jessica-Hopper2
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Free
Prairie Lights
3:00 pm start
Jessica Hopper is a music and culture critic whose work regularly appears in GQ, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and the Chicago Tribune. She is a senior editor at The Pitchfork Review and the music editor at Rookie. Her essays have appeared in Best Music Writing for 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011. Hopper was the longtime music consultant for This American Life. Her book, The Girls' Guide to Rocking was named one of 2009's Notable Books For Young Readers by the American Library Association. She lives in Chicago with her…
Prairie Lights / 3:00 pm
Free
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Free
Prairie Lights
3:00 pm start
Mission Print: Publishing Through a Digital Landscape   A panel of Editors featuring Tom Lutz (L.A. Review of Books), Christopher Beha (Harper’s), and Jessica Hopper (Pitchfork Magazine).   A reception will follow in the café.
Multiple Locations / 5:00 pm
Free
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Multiple Locations
5:00 pm start
Writers and publishers from across the country again invade downtown Iowa City businesses for three hours of literary mayhem. In all, more than 60 authors from across the country will represent 18 presses, magazines, and journals, including Rescue Press, MAKE Magazine, Hobart, [PANK] Magazine, Rookie Magazine, One Teen Story, POETRY Magazine, Brooklyn Arts Press, Curbside Splendor, Artifice Books, Forklift Ohio, H_NGM_N, Black Ocean, Third Man Books, Spork Press, Two Dollar Radio, Birds LLC, and Ugly Duckling Presse, as well as…
Blue Moose Tap House / 6:30 pm
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$15 / $18
Blue Moose Tap House
w/ Alex Cameron , The Olympics
5:30 pm doors / 6:30 pm start
Foxygen and Star Power is the Los Angeles songwriting duo of 24-year-olds Sam France and Jonathan Rado. In May 2011, France and Rado nervously handed off a CD-R of this homemade mini-opus Take the Kids Off Broadway (Jagjaguwar, 2012) to producer and visionary Richard Swift after his performance in a Lower East Side club. The duo, who had just mixed and burned the disc that very night, had been devotees of Swift’s outsider-pop oeuvre since high school, when they first…
FilmScene / 7:00 pm
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$50
FilmScene
6:00 pm doors / 7:00 pm start
SQÜRL will perform a live score to films by surrealist artist Man Ray at FilmScene. Extremely limited seating. The performance will be followed by a reception in the FilmScene lobby with members of the ensemble.   When Jim Jarmusch isn’t making films, he is playing guitar in Sqürl. The New York-based, three-piece rock band formed in 2009 when Jarmusch recorded music for his film The Limits of Control with fellow filmmaker Carter Logan and producer Shane Stoneback.     Originally, the…
Trumpet Blossom / 8:00 pm
TBD
Tashi-Dorji
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Trumpet Blossom
8:00 pm start
Tashi Dorji’s chance encounter with the guitar as a teenager has led him to a passionate career in experimental music and improvisation, with 16 albums and EPs of original guitar compositions under his belt. Growing up in the sparsely populated country of Bhutan where media access was highly restricted, Dorji drew his formative influences from classical and flamenco pieces he intercepted from Europe via his shortwave radio. After receiving a scholarship to study music in Asheville, North Carolina, where he…
The Mill / 8:00 pm
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the-multiple-cat
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$15
The Mill
8:00 pm doors / 8:00 pm start
Founded by singer-songwriter and audio engineer Patrick Stolley, The Multiple Cat has been delivering a high-energy pop sound to audiences since 1994 through 3 full-length albums, along with numerous other releases. Former Otis front man and Quad Cities native, Stolley brings great energy to the stage and surely will not disappoint.
Englert Theatre / 8:00 pm
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shovels-and-rope-home-slider
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$25
Englert Theatre
7:00 pm doors / 8:00 pm start
After meeting in 2002, Cary Ann Hearst and MIchael Trent began touring solo acts and each released debut albums in 2006 and 2007. Shovels & Rope began as a single collaborative album between Trent and Hearst that was never intended to be a permanent act. Drawing heavily on their own individual solo careers, Hearst and Trent create a sound that is uniquely their own, blending elements of indie rock, folk, bluegrass, and country. They were married in 2009, yet continued…
The Mill / 8:00 pm
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swearing-at-motorists (1)
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$15
The Mill
8:00 pm doors / 8:00 pm start
Indie-rock outfit Swearing At Motorists was formed in 1994 by frontman and guitarist Dave Doughman, the only constant member in the duo’s history, and drummer Don Thrasher in Dayton, Ohio. Thrasher (of Guided by Voices) was later replaced by drummer Joseph Siwinski. Early on, the band name was considered a joke--until Doughman wrote the name on their debut cassette recording in 1995. Swearing at Motorists represents what was simple and pure about garage and indie rock that originated in Dayton…
Trumpet Blossom / 9:00 pm
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$15
Trumpet Blossom
w/ Jozef Van Wissem , Tashi Dorji , Samuel Locke Ward
8:00 pm doors / 9:00 pm start
Experimental guitarist and founding member of Sun City Girls, Sir Richard Bishop brings his raw and worldly eclectic style to the stage at Mission Creek Festival. With an illustrious career under his belt, Bishop has been captivating audiences with his unique songs since 1998. He incorporates obscure sounds and visuals of Asia and Africa leading his songs into an uplifting trance from his first solo release, Salvador Kali, to his latest, Intermezzo. After 15 years and 10 solo albums, Richard…
The Mill / 9:00 pm
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$15
The Mill
w/ Swearing at Motorists , The Multiple Cat
9:00 pm start
The Sea and Cake is an indie rock band with a jazz influence based in Chicago, IL, consisting of members Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, and John McEntire. The band formed in the mid 1990s from members of The Coctails, Shrimp Boat, and Tortoise. The band relies on electronic sound sources, most evident after their 1997 album, The Fawn. Their most recent album, Runner, brings freshness and vitality, and the ease and musicianship that only comes with experience. Runner, initiated as…
The Yacht Club / TBD
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$10, $12
The Yacht Club
w/ The Mayflies , Cedar County Cobras
8:00 pm doors / TBD
The Ben Miller Band describes their sound as “Mud Stomp”-- a unique mix of folk, country, bluegrass, and blues that pays tribute to their American heritage. Each member brings an unexpected aspect to the band’s performances through their instrumentals--such as using a land-to-land telephone receiver as a microphone, or playing a homemade, one-string bass. Ben Miller Band’s first album dropped in 2012, and scored them an opening slot for ZZ Top the following year. Their newest album, Any Way, Shape…
Gabe’s / 9:00 pm
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cuticle
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$15
Gabe’s
9:00 pm doors / 9:00 pm start
Cuticle is the call-sign of Iowa City musician Brendan O'Keefe, who has just finished a new album, Mind Holding Pattern, for LA's Not Not Fun records. A provocateur of wet electronic music, Cuticle's sound has always been a queasy take on dance music for the introverted--vocal poems whispered through air ducts on landscapes of rigidly patterned techno that melt into complete, genreless exploration for the mind. O’Keefe seeks inspiration from music that breaks the common 4/4 signature, implementing an electronic…
Gabe’s / TBD
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$15
Gabe’s
w/ Mr. Nasti , Cuticle
9:00 pm doors / TBD
Born and raised in upstate New York, Com Truise is the pseudonym of producer and designer Seth Haley. Com Truise calls his music “mid-fi synth-wave, slow-motion funk”. Prior to his first full length Com Truise release, Galactic Melt, Haley was an art director while making music on the side through numerous other pseudonyms. Haley has mastered the art of making familiar things sound beautifully hand-smeared in his window-fogging synth-wave DJ style. Mr. Nasti Cuticle
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