Three University of Iowa alumni will read from their work Oct. 23-26 at free events at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The readings will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

The Live from Prairie Lights reading schedule is as follows:

• UI alumnus Joseph Dobrian will read from a collection of essays, Seldom Right but Never in Doubt, at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 23.
• Writers’ Workshop alumnus Justin Cronin will read from The Twelve at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 25.
• Writers’ Workshop alumnus Robert Grunst will read from Blue Orange at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 26.

Cronin’s The Twelve is the second book in The Passage trilogy. Zach Baron writes in the New York Times, “Cronin’s first two novels are lovely, in a muted way. But they are delicate books, written in a tone that can feel no louder than a whisper. The Passage and The Twelve vibrate with a different kind of energy: louder, wilder, more unkempt.” And David Martindale of the San Antonio Express-News says, “Cronin is one of those rare authors who works on two different levels, blending elegantly crafted literary fiction with cliffhanger thrills and spine-tingling ‘gotcha’ scares.”

In addition to The Passage novels, Cronin has written Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest. He has won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Stephen Crane Prize, and the Whiting Writer's Award. He taught creative writing and was the "Author in-residence" at La Salle University in Philadelphia from 1992 to 2005. Currently he is a professor of English at Rice University.

Grunst’s poems have appeared in American Literary Review, Cimarron Review, the Iowa Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, Seneca Review, Tar River Poetry, and many other magazines. His essays focusing on the history and culture of the Great Lakes commercial fishery have appeared in a number of publications. He teaches a variety of courses including creative writing as professor in the English department at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul, Minn.

Dobrian has been writing for his living for almost 30 years. He’s best known as a business journalist; he writes about real estate, finance, management, and other topics for clients such as Dow Jones, J.D. Power and Associates, American Express, Ernst & Young, and many others. He also writes poetry, plays, and essays. His first novel, Willie Wilden, was published in 2011.

The 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.