Shane McCrae and Carmen Giménez Smith will read from their poetry at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

McCrae, an alumnus of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is the author of the poetry collections Blood and Mule and the recipient of a 2011 Whiting Writers' Award and a 2013 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship. Mule was selected as a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a PEN Center USA Literary Award. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry 2010, American Poetry Review, African American Review, Fence, and AGNI. McCrae attended the University of Oregon, Linfield College, the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Harvard Law School.

Giménez Smith is the author of a memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds, three poetry collections—Goodbye, Flicker, The City She Was, and Odalisque in Pieces—and three poetry chapbooks—Reason's Monsters, Can We Talk Here, and Glitch. She has also co-edited a fiction anthology, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. She is the recipient of a 2011 American Book Award, the 2011 Juniper Prize for Poetry, and a 2011-12 fellowship in creative nonfiction from the Howard Foundation. Formerly a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she now teaches in the creative writing programs at New Mexico State University and Ashland University, while serving as the editor-in-chief of the literary journal Puerto del Sol and the publisher of Noemi Press.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a graduate program in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this reading, call Jan Weissmiller at Prairie Lights in advance 319-337-2681. For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the new Arts Iowa website.