International Writing Program participant Craig Cliff shares his first impressions of Iowa with his readers back home in New Zealand.

University of Iowa alumnus Ryan Bartelmay will read from his novel, "Onward Toward What We’re Going Toward," at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the UI Writing University website.

Two-time Emmy Award-winner Marcos Villatoro will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a performance by Kenneth Grant, professor of clarinet at the Eastman School of Music, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, in the University Capitol Centre Recital Hall in downtown Iowa City. The performance is a free, public event that is part of the Iowa Clarinet Festival held on the UI campus.

You may have heard terms like public engagement, civic engagement, public scholarship, community-based research or participated in discussions on the importance of outreach. And maybe you wondered what these words mean in the context of your work/life at the university and as an Iowa resident.

The world's largest volcano, called the Tamu Massif, lurks beneath the Pacific Ocean, researchers announced Thursday. UI geochemist David Peate was not involved in the discovery, but says he looks forward to new models of how oceanic plateaus form.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free faculty chamber concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus. The concert will feature the winner of the first University of Iowa String Area Competition winner: cellist Tom Maples, a graduate student of UI faculty member Anthony Arnone.

The American Chemical Society will hold a press conference to discuss the National Science Foundation’s support of a major climate change initiative at the Center of Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment, based at the University of California at San Diego. The press conference will be held from 3:30 to 4 p.m. (ET) Monday, Sept. 9, during the society’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.

The College of Dentistry at the University of Iowa has been awarded a $1.6 million federal grant to operate a dentist-scientist training program. The program, run by dentistry professor Christopher Squier, has been funded continuously since 1985.

The 2013-14 season of International Programs’ WorldCanvass series begins with a program focused on human rights and the arts. The live event takes place on Friday, Sept. 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol Museum.

"Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa" by Chris Baker, alumnus of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is now available from the University of Iowa Press.

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development at the University of Iowa has named two faculty to the newly created Administrative Research Fellows Program. The two chosen are Meenakshi Gigi Durham, professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Thomas Scholz, a doctor and pediatrics professor in the Carver College of Medicine.