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POETRY-FRIENDLY BOOKSTORES


Prairie Lights Bookstore
15 South Dubuque Street
Iowa City, IA
(319) 337-2681

Iowa State University Bookstore
2229 Lincoln Way
Ames, IA
(800) 478-0048

The Bookworm
110 South Riverview
Bellevue, IA
(563) 872-4802

Cumberland Bookshelf
244 Circle Drive
Bettendorf, IA
(563) 359-6630

University Book and Supply
1009 W. 23rd St.
Cedar Falls, IA
(319) 266-7581

Basically Books
212 Edgewood Road NW
Cedar Rapids, IA
(319) 396-8420

The Book Vine
204 West Main Street
Cherokee, IA
(712) 225-2445

Bookends and Beans
309 E. Water Street
Decorah, IA
(563) 382-0100

Beaverdale Books
2629 Beaver Avenue, Suite 1
Des Moines, IA
(515) 279.5400

Paper Moon Books
206 A Street
McGregor, IA
(563) 873-3357

Muscatine Books and More
124 East 2nd St.
Muscatine, IA
(563) 263-4272

Prarie Moon Books
916 3rd Avenue
Sheldon, IA
(712) 324-3624

LITERARY MAP


Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts: Lory Nels Johnson, Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building, Des Moines, IA 50319-0146.

A Periodic Table of Literature Poster is available from Jason Alberty, Washington High School, 2205 Forest Drive, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403, jalberty@ia.com ($7.00 including shipping and handling).

Iowa Add to Notebook
Poet Laureate

Mary Swander
In 2009, Governor Chet Culver appointed Mary Swander the Poet Laureate of the State of Iowa. Swander is the author of four books of poetry, her most recent being The Girls on the Roof (Turning Point/Word Tech, 2009), a Mississippi River flood narrative.
More information on this state's laureateship

Featured Poets

Amy Clampitt

Amy Clampitt
Born and raised in New Providence, Iowa, Amy Clampitt's first published poem appeared in The New Yorker when she was 58 years old. In the next fifteen years she published six books of poems.

James Galvin

James Galvin
James Galvin received his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and serves on its permanent faculty. The author of several collections of poetry, including his Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize winning Collected Poems, he lives in Iowa City.

Donald Justice

Donald Justice
Donald Justice, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems and the Lamont Poetry Selection for The Summer Anniversaries lived in Iowa City, Iowa, until his death in 2004.

Other Iowa Poets
Marvin Bell
Mona Van Duyn
David Young
Literary journals & small presses

The Iowa Review
One of the best-known and most highly respected literary reviews in the country, the Iowa Review has been publishing continuously for 32 years.

Loess Hills Press
Publishes Iowa Poets. Contact Loess Hills Press at 3900 Sulvian Way, Sioux City, IA 51104.

The North American Review
The North American Review is the oldest literary magazine in America (founded in 1815) and one of the most respected. The editors publish high-quality poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on any subject, but are especially interested in work that addresses contemporary North American concerns and issues, particularly with the environment, gender, race, ethnicity, and class.

The University of Iowa Press
Like the historic stone building, home of the University of Iowa press, from which this series draws its name, the Kuhl House Poets combine the best of dedicated craft and contemporary vision. This provocative new series will reawaken readers to a fresh consideration of the possibilities of language and feeling by publishing formally and verbally inventive work that takes its own path outside established routes of either traditional or experimental poetry.

Open Field
Open Field, Cornell College's annual literary magazine, premiered in 1968 and was edited by nationally recognized poet and former Cornell professor, Robert Dana. Sponsored by the English Department, the journal features creative writing (poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction) and artwork by Cornell students.

Inner Weather
Inner Weather is published annually by the University of Norhtern Iowa, highlighting fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and artwork. The magazine is roughly 70 pages, featuring anywhere from 10 to 30 writers.

Flyway
Beginning in 2008, Flyway: A Literary Review is proud to announce its new image as Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. Founded in 1995, Flyway has always been linked with the MFA in Creative Writing and Environment program at Iowa State University, and that relationship is now reflected in the journal's ties to environment. The journal sponsors the Writing the Wild Poetry Chapbook Contest, with a prize of $500.

Readings series, conferences & literary festivals

Iowa Summer Writing Festival
Sponsored by the Division of Continuing Education at the University of Iowa, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival includes 139 non-credit workshops held during one-week and weekend sessions in June and July. The workshops are open to writers 18 and over and the only requirement is the desire to write.

Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness & the Creative Imagination
Iowa State University Creative Writing Department hosts this annual Symposium, feautring writers, artists, scholars, and scientists, in keynote addresses, conversations, poetry readings, a gallery talk, and panel discussions. The purpose is to investigate the relationship between ecological communities, ideas, and creative writing. All events are free and open to the public.

Iowa Poetry Out Loud
A spoken-word competition that aims to encourage high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance. Poetry Out Loud curriculum materials include print and online poetry anthologies, a teacher’s guide to help instructors teach recitation and performance, an audio CD featuring distinguished actors and writers, promotional and media guides, and a comprehensive Website. Iowa’s Poetry Out Loud winner is awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to the national contest in Washington, DC.

Poems about Iowa

Iowa
by Robbie Klein
It never completely gets dark on those back roads...

Iowa Blues Bar Spiritual
by Juan Felipe Herrera
Little Tokyo bar—...

Writing programs & colonies

The Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa
The Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa City was the first creative writing degree program in a U. S. university. The workshop was made possible by the UI's decision early in the 20th century to grant academic thesis credit for creative work in the arts--another first in U. S. higher education. The Writers' Workshop has served as the blueprint for most of the other university-based creative writing programs, which have collectively transformed the terrain of American literary life. The program has produced a dozen winners of the Pulitzer Prize (most recently Jorie Graham in 1996), three recent U. S. Poet Laureates (Mark Strand, Mona Van Duyn and Rita Dove), and numerous winners of the National Book Award and other major literary honors.

Iowa State University MFA Program
The MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment is a three-year writing program that explores the inherent connections between the human story and the imprint of place and the natural world on the literary works we create. The program emphasizing creative writing—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama—that encourages writers to identify and explore in their stories and lyric impressions the complex influences of place, the natural world, and the environmental imagination. Recent visitng writers include Adrienne Rich, Li-Young Lee, Linda Hogan and Ted Kooser.

University of Northern Iowa Creative Writing
At the University of Northern Iowa, undergraduate and graduate students can pursue a BA with a Creative Writing Minor and an MA in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis. Every year, students meet with a variety of poets, novelists, and essayists visiting the campus as part of the University of Northern Iowa's "Writers Talk" Reading Series. Both undergrad and grad students are also afforded opportunities to work as interns and readers at the North American Review. Students publish the literary magazine Inner Weather.

Cornell College Department of English
The Department of English offers a broad range of courses for majors and non-majors alike, ranging from rigorous study of traditional literature, to studies of cinema and new media, to creative writing. Students can visit the Writing Studio and submit creative work to Cornell's literary journal Open Field.

Literary organizations & centers

Humanities Iowa
Humanities Iowa is the only non-profit organization in Iowa committed to bringing the humanities to life and to the public through interactive programming, publications, and events. Humanities Iowa was founded in Iowa in 1971 and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington D.C. It provides grants to aid other non-profit organizations in furthering the humanities in Iowa as well as conducting its own programs in support of the humanities across Iowa. Voices From the Prairie is its tri-annual publication.

Iowa Arts Council
Upon the recommendation of Governor Hughes, the Iowa legislature established the Iowa State Arts Council as a state agency on July 1, 1967. Programs include Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest; funding for arts in education and art in state buildings; and the Iowa Scholarship for the Arts.

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