Focus in Iowa City is on literature July 16-18

Worth checking in today's Sunday, July 11, Gazette is an Accent cover story about the Iowa City Book Festival. The festival, presented by the University of Iowa Libraries, starts Friday night, July 16, with a dinner and keynote address by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Smiley and hits full gear on Saturday and Sunday, the 17th and 18th, with several chances for you to mingle with and listen to many notable authors.

The festival is a good fit for Iowa City's designation as one of only three cities in the world bearing the title UNESCO City of Literature. Several downtown Iowa City stores are part of the festival, hosting authors for readings and talks.

The Gazette Editorial Board got a chance to visit last week with Jeanette Pilak, executive director of Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, and Josh Schamberger, president of the Iowa City-Coralville Convention & Vistors Bureau about this area's connection to literature.

Books may be inanimate objects but the stories inside them bring a deep experience when we read them, Pilak said. "People are looking for community around a lot of subjects," she said.

That Iowa City is a center for writing is well known, thanks to programs like the Iowa Writers' Workshop and UI International Writing Program. Some 40 percent of the authors winning Pulitzer Prizes in literature have some tie to the UI, Pilak pointed out.

"Iowa can lay claim to being the birthplace of creative writing," Schamberger added.

The festival will be about more than just the printed word. It is to include the craft side of books, as well, such as book binding.

Iowa's love affair with books goes beyond Iowa City. The state has more than 540 public libraries, with 412 of them in towns with fewer than 2,500 people, the State Library of Iowa reports.

The hope Pilak and Schamberger shared with us was that all Iowans take pride in the state's connection to good literature.