Mission Creek Festival Announces Literary Lineup

Press Release

The seventh annual Mission Creek Festival is proud to announce its slate of literary events alongside the full lineup of musicians and artists performing from March 27th to April 1st, 2012. As always, writers, small presses, and literary journals from across the country will appear alongside musical acts such as The Magnetic Fields, Sharon Van Etten, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, William Elliott Whitmore, and performances by comedians David Cross, H. Jon Benjamin, and Jon Glaser. All literary events are free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, March 27th, Luis Alberto Urrea will read at (7 pm, 15 S. Dubuque) 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.

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 with undergraduate and graduate students.

Thursday will continue the tradition of a “New Work” reading at the (5 pm), which pairs published authors and writer-musicians reading from recent, unpublished material. This year will feature songwriter Mike Doughty (from Soul Coughing) paired with a writer to be announced. Doughty published his memoir, The Book of Drugs (De Capo Press), earlier this year.

Later Thursday evening, 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. One of America's most critical poets, Hass is the author of more than 15 books of poetry, translations, and critical work, including Time and Materials (2007) which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He 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.

On Friday, March 30th, three young literary talents will read at Prairie Lights Bookstore (6 pm): 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.
 
On Saturday, April 1st, we are proud to announce a slate of events that includes our annual book fair, lit crawl, and readings featuring the UK’s Granta magazine and from some of the best spoken word poets in the country. All told, Saturday will feature more than 60 writers and over 40 publishers across 10 readings.

The third annual Mission Creek Small Press and Literary Journal Book Fair will be held from noon to 4 pm at the . 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, and many more. Entrance to the event is free and open to the public.

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 year 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.

For 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.

And back for the second year in a row, actress and spoken word poet Amber Tamblyn returns for an event at The Mill (8 pm). She will be curating an event full of some of the best spoken word talent in the country; and continuing Mission Creek's outreach initiatives, these poets and masters of the stage will pair with the Iowa Youth Writing Project and Was the Word for an event on Sunday where they will work with young poets from across the state of Iowa on their poetry, from the page to the stage, building to the Sunday event where the poets will perform together on the stage at (5 pm).

Confirmed Writers:
Luis Alberto Urrea
Amelia Gray
Michael Kimball
Robert Hass
Amber Tamblyn
Mike Doughty
Matt Hart
T Fleischmann
Robin Hemley
Michael Martone
Zach Dodson
Caroline Picard
Lindsay Hunter
Aaron Burch
Adam Novy
Roxanne Gay
Robert Stewart
Ben Furnish
Linda Rodriguez
And many more…