Geoffrey G. O’Brien, graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will read from People on Sunday at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, 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.

People on Sunday is O’Brien’s new book of exuberantly referential poems of personal and political struggle. Former Writers’ Workshop faculty member Cole Swensen says of People on Sunday, “What is the fate of a surface in destruction? The surface of O’Brien’s writing is already showing us. It proliferates, breaking down into countless facets—line, phrase, word—each of which carries a full poetic charge.”

O’Brien is the author of Metropole, Green and Gray, and The Guns and Flags Project. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Writers’ Workshop and has been the Distinguished Poet in Residence at St. Mary’s College of California. O’Brien is an associate professor in the English department at the University of California-Berkeley and also teaches for the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison.

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

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this reading, call Jan Weissmiller at Prairie Lights in advance at 319-337-2681.

For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the Arts Iowa website.