Iowa City Poetry

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Iowa City Poetry

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Building community through a shared love of poetry. www.iowacitypoetry.com

A non-profit arts organization, Iowa City Poetry builds community through a love of poetry. We share the wealth of literary resources in Iowa City, a UNESCO City of Literature and home to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, with adult writers of all ages, incomes, identities, and experience levels.

10/30/2026

This is happening! Slam-O-Vision’s 2026 Championship Live Event. This Sunday, Nov 1, 2-4 pm, at the James Theater!

With live poetry performances by HENRY MORRAY, Global Slam-O-Vision Champion, KELSEY BIGELOW, Iowa Poetry Innovator, CALEB “THE NEGRO ARTIST” RAINEY, Iowa Author Award Winner, and PAUL BROOKE, Iowa Poet Laureate — all accompanied by THE BLAKE SHAW TRIO.

It’s a free show and everyone’s invited!

10/24/2026

Come visit us + poetry broadsides + cookies at the Book Fair! As part of the Iowa City of Literature Book Festical! Here at MERGE on the Ped Mall all day Saturday until 4 pm! Rampage Party Press

09/11/2026

Meet Griffin Rockwell! Author of three poetry chapbooks, recent graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and q***r poet who writes about gender, science, pop culture, and unusual connections. Recent work published at Redivider and Up the Staircase Quarterly.

Griffin’s offering a wonderful workshop with us starting this Sunday! On new and invented poetic forms. The four online sessions will explore the phenomenon of contemporary poets inventing new poetic forms to fill new poetic needs.

Tuition assistance available!

Griffin is a brilliant poet and generous, welcoming teacher. You can read more about them and the workshop at https://iowacitypoetry.com/workshops/forms-not-dead-new-and-invented-forms

09/09/2026

Come on down tonight to The Blake Angel. The Blake Shaw Trio and poems are jamming until 10 pm! ♥️

08/23/2026

Stories of Community is a free film showing, celebration, and reception, and you’re invited! RSFIC and Filmscene are featuring three short films by Director Josh Booth, highlighting three community organizations that strengthen our neighborhoods.

Featured groups are Iowa City Community Fridge, Play Club, and Iowa City Poetry Alfresco.

Sunday, August 23

Filmscene at the Chauncey, 404 E. College St, IC

12:30pm — Three short films on the big screen

12:45pm — A short conversation with filmmakers & participants

1:00pm — Reception in the Chauncey lobby with charcuterie

Everyone’s welcome!

07/05/2026

Grief does not resolve. It returns: in images, in objects, in the weight of random moments. And yet, too often we ask a single poem to contain everything inside us.

In this four-week online workshop, we will begin from a different premise: that the most powerful thing about writing through loss — of people, a home, a way of life or otherwise — is not finishing a single poem, but exploring what emerges from a sustained ritual practice.

// Grief Works: Writing through Ritual
\\ Poet & Teacher Warren C. Longmire, Iowa Writers’ Workshop ‘26
// Over 4 Sundays, July 12, 19, 26, Aug 2
\\ 1-3 pm Central (11 am P, 12 pm M,, 2 pm E)

Details at link in bio

Everybody’s always welcome to join the sessions

05/20/2026

Our last session of Write at the Stanley for the semester meets this Sunday, May 24, from 2:30 to 4:15 pm. Join us to generate new creative writing inspired by works in the Stanley collection.

Each generative session will be led by a different talented writer from our area, who will be offering a new prompt and a new approach to ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by visual art).

This month's leader: Adam Witte

Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry and University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art.

Learn more at https://iowacitypoetry.com/events/write-at-the-stanley

05/17/2026

In person and online, the Free Generative Writing Workshops provide a space for career writers, curious beginners, writers of all levels and stages of life.

Details at https://iowacitypoetry.com/events/free-gen-for-may-lei-wang

\\ The Free Gen: Iowa City's Original Generative Writing Workshop
// May's Instructor: Lei Wang
\\ Sunday, May 17, 5:30-7 pm Central
// In person or online!

Our goal is to make it easy to meet and learn from some of the most talented writer/teachers living in or passing through Iowa City. Every month a new writer leads a generative workshop, presenting a prompt inspired by their own preoccupations, passions, or interests.

Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry and PorchLight: Iowa City's Community Literary Salon.

This month's leader: Lei Wang

Lei Wang is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. Her writing has been published in Ecotone, Hunger Mountain, Meridian, and the New York Times’ Modern Love column, and she is at work on her first book, a secular myth buster on spiritual enlightenment. A recovering perfectionist, she is always on the search for tricks to get out of her own way.

05/01/2026

Iowa City Poetry Alfresco 2026 is almost here! Have you charted your path?

Saturday evening in Iowa City, 37 poets will be reading at 12 outdoor sites in the leafy Northside Neighborhood. Plan your path to hit all 20 min readings -- or pop in to hear a few with your favorite artists!

FREE and everybody's welcome!

📅 Saturday, May 2
⏳ 5-8 pm readings. 8 pm after-party in Happy Hollow Park
🌺 Northside Neighborhood in Iowa City

Details at https://iowacitypoetry.com/events/iowa-city-poetry-alfresco-2026

04/29/2026

Wrap up Poetry Month with us this Saturday evening, May 2, at Iowa City Poetry Alfresco!

In this open-air progressive poetry reading, 37 writers will be sharing their work at 12 different outdoor sites in the Northside Neighborhood.

Can you join us?

Everybody's welcome!

Readers, schedule & map at https://iowacitypoetry.com/events/iowa-city-poetry-alfresco-2026

Address

Iowa City, IA
52240

Website

http://www.iowacitypoetry.com/

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