Just three weeks after it came out, Descent, a thriller by UI alumnus Tim Johnston about the disappearance of a teenage girl and her family's agony over it, is already in its third printing and made USA Today's top 100 bestseller list.

Kindred by Choice, written by Glenn Penny, professor of history in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2015.

The University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts will present "Good Kids" by Naomi Iizuka as part of a rolling premiere commissioned by the Big Ten Theatre Consortium. This production will be on stage Feb. 5-8 and 11-15 in the David Thayer Theatre.

Students on the UI’s summer Irish Writing Program have the opportunity to work with esteemed Irish writers and academics to hone their craft while taking in Dublin’s rich cultural and literary history. This is one of many programs to be represented at the spring Study Abroad Fair Thursday, Jan 29.

"Iowa Now Minute" is a 60-second roundup highlighting recent UI activities, research, public engagement, and campus life. Look for a new video every Thursday on Iowa Now.

The University of Iowa Department of Dance outreach program—the University of Iowa Youth Ballet and School of Dance—has recently added a third level to their adult classical ballet program.

An annual University of Iowa celebration honoring the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. and addressing contemporary human rights issues will be held Jan. 19-31.

The University of Iowa Office of Strategic Communication will highlight publications by UI faculty of academic books and journal articles on a regular basis in Iowa Now.

A study involving the University of Iowa finds crows can use analogical reasoning without being trained to do so, a skill scientists previously thought only humans and apes could master.

The University of Iowa Committee on the Celebration of Excellence and Achievement Among Women announces that the Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty has been renamed the May Brodbeck Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty in honor of the UI's first female vice president.

Dr. Robert Franciscus, UI Department of Anthropology, with a secondary appointment in the College of Dentistry, and Dr. Jeffrey Murray, UI College of Medicine, with a joint-appointment in the College of Dentistry, have been elected as 2014 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Drs. Murray and Franciscus are being honored for their contributions to innovation...

The Los Angeles Review of Books interviewed Meenakshi Gigi Durham, professor in the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, as part of its four-part interview series discussing the various cultural and literary impacts of Nabokov's Lolita.