Fiction writer/essayist Roxane Gay and University of Iowa professor of English John D’Agata will read from their work at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City as part of the Mission Creek Festival. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

Gay comes to Iowa City as a Mission Creek Festival Writer-in-Residence. Her work has garnered 14 Pushcart nominations over the last three years, appearing in VQR, American Short Fiction, McSweeney’s, Melville House, mud luscious, and the Wall Street Journal. Her novel, An Untamed State, will be published by Grove Atlantic; her essay collection, Bad Feminist, will be published by Harper Perennial, both in 2014.

D’Agata is the author of About a Mountain, Halls of Fame, and The Lifespan of a Fact, and editor of the anthologies The Next American Essay, The Lost Origins of the Essay, and the forthcoming The Making of the American Essay. He is collaborating with Belgian painter Jean-Baptiste Bernadet on the book On Knowing Not, forthcoming next year. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Howard Foundation, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

Andre Perry, UI Nonfiction Writing Program alumnus and executive director fo the Englert Theatre, will join Gay and D’Agata at the reading.

The Nonfiction Writing Program in the Department of English is part of the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. For more information or an accommodation to attend this reading, call Jan Weissmillerat Prairie Lights, 319-337-2681, in advance. For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the new Arts Iowa website.