Wondering what you might have missed while you were away from campus this summer? Here are 12 stories to get you caught up.

Award-winning author and Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Tony Tulathimutte is the inaugural recipient of the Jack Galef Literary Arts Award. The new literary prize administered by the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop is one of the largest literary prizes awarded in the United States.

The UI Stanley Museum of Art debuted a new poetry installation as part of its Thresholds series, featuring UI associate professor of English Donika Kelly’s work in the lobby through September. The rotating series highlights Iowa-affiliated poets and invites visitors — and classes — to experience poetry as both visual art and an interactive teaching tool.

University of Iowa alumnus Samuel D. Hunter’s Broadway debut, Little Bear Ridge Road, received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play on May 5.

Two University of Iowa alumni have won 2026 Pulitzer Prizes, and two more were named finalists — with Yiyun Li and Daniel Kraus joining a distinguished list of more than 40 Iowa-affiliated Pulitzer winners.

UI Press books marked an exceptional year in 2025, earning national recognition for fiction, poetry, and scholarly work, including a Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. These achievements continue to strengthen Iowa’s reputation as the “Writing University.”

"Ultranatural," a new novel published by UI Press and written by Candice Wuehle of the UI Honors Program, arrives in bookstores April 14. It’s one of Iowa Magazine’s three current BookShelf Picks from UI authors, along with "Canon," by UI assistant professor of English Paige Lewis, and "Partially Devoured," by UI alum Daniel Kraus. Learn more about each book.

When Tennessee Williams was a student at the University of Iowa in the late 1930s, still referring to himself by his birth name, Tom Williams, he completed a rarely-heard gothic sketch for radio called “The Strangers.” Williams’ play appears this week in The Strand Magazine, which has previously published little-known works by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck.