Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus Jason Lewis will read from his first novel, The Fourteenth Colony, and play music as part of a free event at 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 8, in the Times Club Café of Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City.

Lewis’ writing has appeared in Yemassee, Connotation Press, Little Village, and Tape Op. An essay Lewis wrote about his time in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop was featured in Word By Word, a collection of writings published in celebration of the Workshop’s 75th anniversary. The Fourteenth Colony was published in November 2011 along with a companion album of songs written by Lewis in the voice of the novel’s protagonist.

He is the director of the Writing and Humanities Program at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, managing editor of The Examined Life: A Literary Journal of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and co-director of the recently formed Humanities Distinction Track at the same institution.

A singer, songwriter, and producer for nearly 25 years, Lewis has released four albums of original material, first with his group, Star City, and most recently with Sad Iron Music.

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.