Nonfiction Writing Program alumna Biss to join Pulitzer winner Oct. 24
Friday, October 12, 2012
Marilynne Robinson portrait
Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and faculty member in the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will join UI Nonfiction Writing Program alumna Eula Biss for a literary benefit at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City.

Admission to the reading, part of the Englert Theatre’s Centennial Celebration, is $10; tickets are available online through Midwestix.com or from noon to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday, at the Englert box office, 221 E. Washington St. All proceeds will directly benefit the Englert.

Robinson is the author of the novels Housekeeping, Gilead (which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005), and Home, and the nonfiction works When I Was a Child I Read Books, Absence of Mind, The Death of Adam, and Mother Country. Housekeeping was included in the New York Times Books of the Century and listed as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time by the UK Guardian Observer. In 1997 she received a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts.

Eula Biss portrait
Eula Biss

Eula Biss is the author of two nonfiction books, The Balloonists and Notes From No Man’s Land. The second book received the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her work has also been recognized by a Pushcart Prize, a Jaffe Writers’ Award, and a 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library. She holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from the UI and currently teaches writing at Northwestern University.

The Englert’s Centennial Celebration will feature numerous performances and events in addition to the Robinson/Biss reading in October and early November:

  • Thursday, Oct. 18: Kronos Quartet
  • Friday, Oct. 19: Rosanne Cash with Pieta Brown
  • Friday-Saturday, Nov. 2-3: Iowa City Song Project (record release shows)
  • Thursday, Nov. 8: The Klezmatics (concert sponsored by the UI School of Music)

More information about these events can be found at englert.org.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a graduate program in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the new Arts Iowa website.