Book Festival Spreads Across Downtown For "Day in the City of Literature"

The Iowa City Book Festival this years offers many of the favorite events from years past, including a long roster of visiting authors and photo opportunities with storybook characters.

But this year’s events also include a few new festivities—in particular, activities for teens.

Young adult authors Cara Lockwood and Alex Bradley will host “High School Stories” on at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the Second Floor Lounge of the UI Main Library. They’ll speak about their books, the Bard Academy Series and 24 Girls in 7 Days, and during the session a winner will be announced in a drawing for a skateboard decorated with book cover art.

At the end of the day on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the Shambaugh Auditorium, poet Camille T. Dungy—an Iowa City native and a creative writing professor at San Francisco State University—will read in a round robin with local poet Shane McCrae. Instead of reading from their own collections, Dungy and McCrae will read back and forth from each other’s work, choosing poems that in some way connect to the previous selection.

“What I'm really interested in is this idea of seeing how a poet's mind works and what images they pull up,” said Kristi Bontrager, the co-director of the festival and the coordinator of public relations for the UI Libraries.

A handful of mystery writers will also attend the festival, including Julie Kramer, whose novel Killing Kate tells the story of a TV reporter who traces a serial killer’s tactics to an Iowa City cemetery. Kramer will speak on Sunday at 11:45 a.m. in the Third Floor North Discussion area of the UI Main Library.

On Sunday, authors will give readings at downtown businesses as part of the festival’s “Day in the City of Literature.” Last year marked the inaugural year for the downtown readings, and about 25 local businesses participated. This year, about 50 will participate. “It's a really intimate way to see an author,” Bontrager said. “You get to see writers in their natural habitat.”

Two participating local businesses include (perhaps predictably) Prairie Lights and Iowa Book. Other venues are as disparate as Beadology and the Bluebird Diner. Each local business and author was thoughtfully matched, Bontrager said—the Congregational United Church of Christ will host several authors that plan to read spiritual work, for example. Other matches were more personal. Children’s author Laurel Snyder will read at the Hamburg Inn on Sunday at 1 p.m. She remembers the restaurant not only from her time in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, but also as a former employee of the diner.

The festival runs July 15, 16, 17, beginning Friday with an author dinner in the Main Library (tickets are required). Children’s activities on Saturday include a book character parade and clowning and balloon show in Gibson Square, as well as book readings targeted specifically to young literary enthusiasts.

For a full festival schedule and a list of visiting authors, book vendors, food vendors, musical performers and other information, visit the Iowa City Book Festival website.