Free Generative Writing Workshop this Sunday

I'm offering a prompt at June's Free Generative Writing Workshop this Sunday, June 21 at Public Space One in Iowa City. Hosted by Iowa City Poetry and Prompt Press, the monthly workshop brings together adult writers of all levels to create a supportive environment in which participants can generate new writing and meet others interested in the same. I've been doing some research about ways of combining text and image, contrasting 'solitary geniuses' like Lynda Barry and William Blake with historical, commercially-motivated, collaborative modes of creating and publishing stories—modes including medieval scriptoria and twentieth-century American mass-market comics publishers. The prompt I'm working on will include instructions to an imaginary illustrator! The workshop starts at 5:30 pm.

Artist's Books at Prairie Lights!

Come see my multitalented students display their artist's books from our Creative Writing for Book Arts class! Subtitled 'Writing for Visual & Material Genres', the class has explored comics, zines, typography, text + image, and hybrid genres before culminating in their final project—a book whose form is integral to its content. The event is this Saturday, May 9 from 5–7 pm at Prairie Lights Bookstore.

UICB MFA Group Show

The 2015 graduating MFA's at the UI Center for the Book are currently showing selections from our thesis work at the K.K. Merker Gallery in the basement of North Hall. I'm proud to be a part of it—there's some pretty fantastic work by Maggie Heineman, Alexandra Janezic, Andrea Kohashi, Candida Pagan, Steph Rue, Leslie Smith, and Kalmia Strong. The reception is this Friday, May 8th from 4–6 pm.

Catholics on Display

I'm debuting a new artist's book, Catholics, as part of my MFA thesis show at the UI Center for the Book. I'll be showing work along with Alexandra Janezic at the K. K. Merker Gallery in the basement level of North Hall from April 13–17. The reception will be from 5:30–7:30 on Friday, April 17.

Both Janezic's and my work features images built and printed from metal type (see below). To learn more about Catholics, click here and here. I'll be posting more images from the book in the coming weeks.

Mission Creek Lit Crawl: BAP & Poetry magazine

Brooklyn Arts Press is collaborating with Poetry magazine for Mission Creek Festival's Lit Crawl this Friday, April 3. I'll be reading between 5–5:45 pm at NoDo Downtown along with Erika Jo Brown, Robert Fernandez, Robyn Schiff, Mary Hickman, BJ Love, and Emily Brown.

February Reading at Prairie Lights

I'm excited to read from The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales at Prairie Lights later this month. If you're in Iowa City, come join me on Wednesday, Feb 18 at 7 pm!

UICB Open House

The University of Iowa Center for the Book is hosting their annual Open House tomorrow night from 4 - 6 pm. As part of my Graduate Assistantship, I letterpress printed a flyer advertising the event. The whole thing is printed from handset metal type.

There will be printing, binding, and papermaking demos tomorrow—stop by the ground level of North Hall to see them, eat some homemade snacks, and look at student work on display.

17. HEIR

Champagne, please! Tonight is the release party for my short fiction collection, The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales, out now from Brooklyn Arts Press! Click HERE to order it.

Included is a piece of flash fiction called ‘Heir’, which I adapted into a broadside printed on a manila envelope. The story’s young narrator stalks her uncle at a Salvation Army thrift store and pores over a collection of increasingly haunted objects until she encounters an old woman who may or may not be her grandmother’s ghost.

If you live in Iowa City, drop by the Paper Nest tonight between 5-7 pm, where the 'Heir' broadside will be on display. OR be one of the  first 50 people to order The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales from the Brooklyn Arts Press website, and receive a free letterpress broadside of one of stories featured in the collection. ORDER NOW to get yours!

IT'S OUT!!!

Today is the official release date of The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales! Buy it now from Small Press Distribution!

And if you're in Iowa City, stop by the book's release party at the Paper Nest this Friday, Dec 5 between 5-7 pm. I'll have collages and broadsides of select stories on display and will give a brief, informal reading at around 6. The Paper Nest is at 220 E Washington St, across the alley from Studio 13.

August Readers in Transit

This Tuesday marks the third and final installation of August Readers in Transit, a reading series designed to take advantage of the turnover that happens in Iowa City during the month before the academic year starts. I'll be joining C.S. Ward and Sara Majka, and will be reading stories from The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales, my book forthcoming from Brooklyn Arts Press. All this in a twilit back yard: 7 pm at 115 N. Dodge St.

Artist's Books this Saturday at Prairie Lights

I've been lucky to work with an exceptional group of students this semester in my Creative Writing for Book Arts class. They've been working hard on their final projects, artist's books that will be on display this Saturday night from 7 - 9 pm at Prairie Lights. Come see their work, which includes the following intriguing tag lines: 

A look into Plato's cave. An epic take on the lowly shrimp. Eye-test poems. Forty thoughts from a forty-passenger tour bus. Emails from The City of Love. All this and more ...

March Anthology Poster

The March edition of Iowa City's Anthology reading series is on the 28th, and I printed the poster for it. Check it out:

The Iowa Working Group Archives

I've been working on archives for the Iowa Working Group. The IWG has now hosted a year's worth of book-art-focused presentations followed by casual discussion, and I wanted to make sure they were documented. Check out the latest entry for October: Candice Wuehle and Patrick Reed's The Sacrebleu Defense, which was a performative excerpt variation from their in-progress chapbook. The next IWG meeting will take place Friday, Nov 15, and will feature sneak previews from Iowa students who plan on presenting at the upcoming College Book Art Association conference. To find out more details, sign up for the IWG listserv by emailing iowaworkinggroup at gmail dot com.

Chili Dreams

I've always wanted to judge a chili cook-off, and now my dreams are finally coming true. This Saturday night, Iowa City's Public Space One (which is being reincarnated in the space formerly known as ps-z) is holding a silent auction fundraiser featuring lots of art and three different chilis! I have the honor of being one of the evening's Chili Bards—along with Dave Morice and Lisa Roberts—which means that rather than judging, I'll be poetically tributing whatever the cooks have put in the pot. PS1 is at 120 Dubuque Street. 

Zine Librarian (un)Conference this weekend

I had fun designing the logo for the Zine Librarian (un)Conference happening this weekend in Iowa City. Now in its fourth year, the event uses an unconference format to explore issues around maintaining accessible collections of zines.

Mission Creek Book Fair this Saturday!

This Saturday, April 6, is the Mission Creek Book Fair, and I'll be sitting at a table with some comics and broadsides (including this Mission Creek collaboration with Roxane Gay). I'll be sharing a table with fellow cartoonist and UICB student Cody Gieselman (who recently posted this essay on SIFT's blog). If you're in Iowa City this weekend, come by The Mill (120 E Burlington St) some time between 11-7.

Broadside with Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay is reading this Tuesday as part of Iowa City's Mission Creek Festival, along with John D'Agata and Andre Perry at Prairie Lights. I collaborated with Roxane on this broadside featuring her short story, "What Long Legs Mean," which will be available for sale at the reading. Printed using handset type at the UI Center for the Book, the broadside is printed on repurposed manila folders and posterboard. To see other broadsides I've printed, click here. The reading starts at 7 and is free.