Events Calendar

You are invited to join the International Writing Program (IWP) for the seventh in our series of Sunday afternoon readings at Prairie Lights. The reading will begin at 4 p.m., and it will feature two IWP Fall Residency authors and one University of Iowa MFA student. Participation is free and all are welcome!

Judith Santopietro (poet, translator, editor, scholar; Mexico) has published the poem collections Palabras de Agua and Tiawanaku. Poemas de la Madre Coqa/ Tiawanaku. Poems from the Mother Coqa. Her poems appear in many anthologies, and her translations from the Spanish and the Nahuatl have received several awards. Between 2005 and 2016, she directed Iguanazul: literature on indigenous languages, a project to revitalize native languages through oral tradition, literature, and arts. Currently, she is working on narratives about enforced disappearances in Mexico. She participates courtesy the Paul and Hualing Engle Fund

Briar Grace-Smith is of Nga Puhi (Maori) descent. In 2018, she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her contribution to stage, television, and screen; in 2017, she was recognized with Te Tohu Toi Ke a Te Waka Toi for her contribution to Maori arts. She is the author or co-author of eight stage plays, a collaborator on many TV programs and the director or co-director of six short films and features, most recently Cousins (2021). Her participation was made possible by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.

Amanda Keating is a playwright and translator from Western Mass, currently pursuing her MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her plays have been produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Two Headed Rep, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, and Samuel French. Her play With Fellowship was commissioned by the Sloan Foundation and was named a Finalist for the 2021 O’Neill Playwrights Conference and the 2022 winner of the Student Jane Chambers Award. This winter, her play the fog comes on little cat feet will be produced by Dreamwell Theatre in Iowa City.