University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumna Marjorie Celona will read from her first novel, Y, at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, 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.

Celona’s Y begins at the Y. Shannon, a newborn baby, is dumped at the doors of the YMCA, swaddled in a dirty gray sweatshirt with nothing but a Swiss army knife. She is found moments later by a man who catches a mere glimpse of her troubled mother as she disappears from view. All three lives are forever changed by the single decision. Bounced between foster homes, Shannon endures neglect and abuse but then finds stability and love in the home of Miranda, a kind single mother who refuses to let anything ever go to waste. But as Shannon grows so do the questions inside her. Y is a novel that asks “why?” even as it reveals that the answer isn't always clear and that it may not always matter.

Celona is the recipient of the John C. Schupes fellowship and Iowa Arts fellowship from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the Olive B. O’Connor fellowship from Colgate University, and was recently writer-in-residence at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harvard Review, Glimmer Train, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Born and raised on Vancouver Island, she lives in Cincinnati with her fiancé, Brian, and their dog, Betsy Lou.

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

For more information or special accommodations to attend this reading, call Jan Weissmiller at Prairie Lights, 319-337-2681. For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the new Arts Iowa website.