Events Calendar

Join us for the International Writing Program's Prairie Lights Reading Series this Sunday to hear readings by two 2024 Fall Residency writers and one University of Iowa MFA student.

Nicholas Wong (poet, translator, visual artist; Hong Kong) is the author of Crevasse (2015), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Besiege Me (2021), which was a finalist for the same award. He was also the winner of Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize in 2018. His poems and translations have appeared in The Missouri Review, Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Griffith Review, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, Wasafiri, and World Literature Today, among others. Wong has also contributed writings to projects organized by the Manchester International Festival and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He currently teaches at the Education University of Hong Kong. His participation was made possible by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global.

Catarina Gomes (nonfiction and fiction writer; Portugal) is the author of four nonfiction books, most recently Um dedo borrado de tinta [A Finger Smudged with Ink] (2024). Her debut novel, Terrinhas [Little Lands] (2022), received the Agustina Bessa-Luís Revelation Literary Prize, and three of her books are included in the Portuguese government’s National Reading Plan. Gomes worked as a journalist at the daily newspaper Público for 19 years, was a two-time finalist for the Gabriel García Marquez Journalism Prize, and was awarded the King of Spain Prize in 2016. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Grace Morse (she/her) is a third-year MFA candidate in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, where she teaches creative nonfiction. In 2023, she was named the Englert Nonfiction Fellow; in this capacity, she designs and teaches creative writing courses for middle school students in the community for the 2023–2024 school year. Her work has been shortlisted for essay prizes by CRAFT and Brink, among others. She is an alum of the IWP’s 2016 Between the Lines creative writing summer camp, and served as a program assistant for the same program this summer. 

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the IWP in advance at iwp@uiowa.edu or 319-335-0128.