Authors, books abound for Iowa City Book Festival

Book lovers won't want to miss out on all the activities happening in Iowa City in coming days.

The Iowa City Book Festival kicks off on Thursday to Oct. 4, with more than 50 author and book-related events happening over the course of four days.

'It seems so cliche to say it, but at this festival there really is something for everyone,” says John Kenyon, executive director of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature that runs the festival each year. 'No matter what your taste is - crime or politics or fiction or food writing - you will find something of interest here.”

'Our goal is really to get someone to find an entry point, then have them realize that if you are here you should check out the other things on the schedule,” he adds. 'You might discover something you are interested in that you wouldn't have discovered otherwise.”

While there are myriad events throughout the festival, Kenyon says that attendees should make time to attend at least one panel discussion, which are created in partnership with the International Writing Program. 'Some of the hidden gems of the festival are the panel discussions,” he says. 'It may be five authors you aren't familiar with, but you go in and hear people talk passionately about the topic and you can learn so much. They are some of the most fascinating conversations you'll hear in Iowa City that weekend.”

Other signature events make the festival a standout on the literary scene. One such event is the presentation of the annual Paul Engle Prize. Author Sara Paretsky - a native Iowan whose notable crime novels have really paved the way for women within crime fiction - will receive the honor this year for her pioneering spirit in the world of literature and active participation in the larger issues of the day that has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts. The event, which will be moderated by noted NPR and Washington Post book critic Maureen Corrigan will be held on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Coralville Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Another notable author coming to speak this year is Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative. His New York Times best-selling book 'Just Mercy” has gained much acclaim for its examination of the injustices that exist within the American justice system. 'Unfortunate as it may be, the advertising for that talk is on the front page of the paper every day, so I think it's great we can bring him here and we expect a huge crowd for this.”

'There is so much discussion of inequality and justice and opportunity or lack there off and Bryan really speaks to those things so eloquently and has some very important things to say,” Kenyon adds. 'We can't say we are going to start the conversation because it is already something that is ongoing in our community and the state, but we think this will be an important part of that conversation that can push things forward.” Stevenson will speak at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Iowa Memorial Union. As with all Festival events, admission is free and open to the public.

Debut authors are showing a strong presence at this year's festival as well, a feature that Kenyon said the City of Literature is proud to focus on. 'This is always a great showcase for us, presenting some of the best new fiction that is out there,” he says. 'We have a real emphasis on fiction because it's such a bedrock of what we do here in Iowa City.”

One notable book, Kenyon says, is J. Ryan Stradal's 'Kitchens of the Great Midwest.” Just released in July, the book made the New York Times best-seller list and gained much acclaim, especially in the Midwest where the story is set. It follows the maturation and rise of a Midwest chef through the various points of view of the people in her life who introduced her to different ingredients Set in Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota, Stradal said being in Iowa City to talk about the book will be a lot of fun. 'This will be a highlight of the fall for me,” he said. 'I left the Midwest in 1998 to live in California, so this feels like a homecoming.” Part of a larger Midwestern tour - Stradal will also be reading in Perry, Iowa and Peoria, Illinois the week after the festival - the Iowa City Book Festival will fuel the book's Midwest roots. 'These events are a really nice way to connect with people,” says Stradal. 'I feel blessed to have audiences who are curious and supportive. People seem heartened by the positivity in the book and see that these are complex characters with the kind nature of the Midwest.”

Tracy Manaster, who lives in Portland, is excited to have her own homecoming of sorts next weekend as well. Manaster will be returning to Iowa City after graduating from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2005. 'I will be riding a wave of pure nostalgia as I come back to Iowa City,” she says. 'The city itself is so welcoming to writers. It was the first place that I was able to say with a loud clear voice that I am a writer. I was able to take myself seriously as a writer because Iowa City takes writers seriously.”

Her debut novel 'You Could Be Home by Now” was published in late 2014. The story is set in a very posh Arizona retirement community where there are aggressive regulations, including the prohibition of residents under the age of 55. When it's discovered that one of the residents in raising her grandson there, the community finds a moral dilemma on their hands. 'Many funny and sad things happen from there,” Manaster says. 'I say that it's either a very, very sad funny book or a very, very, very funny sad book depending on how glass half full you are.”

And while not fiction, Stephen Witt's debut 'How Music Got Free,” is another featured book that attendees should enjoy getting to know, Kenyon says.

Released in June, 'How Music Got Free” takes a fresh approach to exploring the evolution of the MP3 and how it revolutionized the music industry. Witt said the book was inspired by his own experiences of pirating music in the late 90s and early 2000s. 'Everyone thinks they know this story,” say Witt referring to the familiarity with Napster. 'This book is almost entirely new research. It's a massive true crime story that occurred underground for several decades.”

Witt's appearance is supported by the Iowa City Public Library, and is part of the library's yearlong 'Music is the Word” slate of programming. He says that because the story is so familiar, he gets especially excited to meet with readers and hear their perspective.

'So many people who read this book have a personal stake in this story,” Witt says. 'In Generation Y there was a lot of pirating (music). In my book I compare it to the experimentation with illegal drugs in the 1960s. Suddenly everyone was doing it.

Like Witt, the authors participating in the book festival very much look forward to the event and the opportunity to interact with attendees.

'I enjoy connecting with people who I have never met and don't have an obvious six degrees of separation from who have read this book and have had the opportunity to live in my mind for a couple of hundred pages and to see what they have taken away from it,” says Manaster. 'I have people make connections that weren't obvious to me about what is going on in the text.”

'I was looking over the schedule for the festival and I was wishing I could clone myself because there are so many great events,” she adds. 'To me as a reader, I am always just so excited to be in a room with other people who are so excited about books and reading that they are setting aside time to talk to me and go out to the festival,” she adds. 'It's part of their life architecture. Those people are my people. Even if I've never met them, it's a whole lot like coming home.”

Iowa City Book Festival author book readings and discussions

All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule visit www.iowacitybookfestival.org

THURSDAY

l Public reading of 'Don Quixote” by Migeual de Cervantes, 9 a.m. on the Old Capitol steps (Supreme Court Chamber in inclement weather). Will end when the book is finished.

l An Evening with Jonathan Katz: Life, Death and Public Health After the Haiti Earthquake,” 7 p.m. at the University of Iowa College of Public Health Building, Callaghan Auditorium, Iowa City.

l How Books Travel: Literary Translation and International Writing, noon at Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St.

FRIDAY

l Paul Engle Prize Presentation: Sara Paretsky with Maureen Corrigan, 7 p.m. at the Coralville Public Library, Coralville.

SATURDAY

l Edward Hamlin & Charles Haverty, 10 a.m. at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Hamlin and Haverty will read from their prizewinning short story collections from the University of Iowa Press. Hamlin will read from 'Night in Erg Chebbi & Other Stories,” winner of the 2015 Iowa Short Fiction Prize. Haverty will read from 'Excommunicados,” the winner of the 2015 John Simmons Short Fiction Award.

l Riley Hanick & Cate Dicharry, 11:30 a.m. at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Iowa City natives Cate DiCharry and Riley Hanick will read from their work. Nonfiction Writing Program graduate Riley Hanick will read from 'Three Kinds of Motion: Kerouac, Pollock, and the Making of American Highways.” Hanick previousl has served as a writer-in-residence for the University of Iowa Museum of Arts, and currently teaches at Murray State University, where he is the Watkins Chair in Creative Writing. Dicharry will read from her humorous work of fiction, 'The Fine Art of F***ing Up.” This send-up of art world academia takes place at a prestigious Midwestern art school that has to save its priceless Jackson Pollock painting when the local river floods. Dicharry is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, and has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Low Residency Program at the University of California, Riverside. She lives in Iowa City with her husband and sons.

l J. Ryan Stradal & Robert Goorick, 1 p.m. at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Stradal will read from his original novel, 'Kitchens of the Great Midwest.” Goolrick, will read from his book, 'The Fall of Princes.”

l Vu Tran & Stuart Neville, 2:30 p.m. at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Writers' Workshop graduate Vu Tran will read from his literary thriller, 'Dragonfish.”

l Caroline Heller, 4 p.m. at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Heller will read from 'Reading Claudius,” a dual memoir of her parents' lives and her own.

l Robert Reich: Saving Capitalism, 7 p.m. at The Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St., Iowa City. Reich will speak about his new book, 'Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few.”

Oct. 4

l Poet Salvatore Marici, 11 a.m. at High Ground Cafe.

l Bonnie Jo Campbell, noon at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Campbell will read from her new story collection, 'Mothers, Tell Your Daughters.”

l Lauren Halderman & Marc Rahe, 1 p.m. at R.S.V.P., Iowa City. Halderman will read from 'Calenday.” Rahe will read from 'The Smaller Half” and 'On Hours.”

l Rob Cline, Dennis Green and Lennox Randon, 4 p.m. at High Grounds Cafe, Iowa City. Cline from the story collection, 'Slices.” Green will read from his novel, 'Prisoner.” Randon will read from his novel, 'Memoirs of a Dead White Chick.”

Kids events

FRIDAY

l Dress as your favorite Wonderland character for tea and treats while celebrating the 150th anniversary of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” noon to 8 p.m. at The Haunted Bookshop, XXXX.

SATURDAY

l 10 a.m. at FilmScene, View 'Alice in Wonderland” at 10 a.m. at FilmScene, Iowa City

l Listen to the poems in 'Wonderland” and 'Through the Looking-Glass,” 11:30 a.m. at the Senior Center, XXXX, Iowa City

l Sarah Prineas will read from her new novel, 'Ash & Bramble,” 11:30 a.m. at the Iowa City Public Library Teen Center, 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City.

l Iowa Writers' Workshop alum John McNally will read from his new young adult novel, 'Lord of the Ralphs,” 1 p.m. at Iowa city Public Library Teen Center, 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City

l Panel discussion on writing for a younger self, 2:30 p.m. at Old Capitol, Iowa City.

l Marc Falk will perform from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City