The University of Iowa International Writing Program, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Prairie Lights Books will host a reading to commemorate the life and works of Irish poet Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, in Room 100 of Phillips Hall on the UI campus.

The University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program will present a free public performance by the JACK Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus. The concert, which will feature clarinetist Derek Bermel, is part of the JACK’s extended residency Oct. 6-13 at the UI School of Music.

UI physicist Donald Gurnett is pleased that the Voyager I spacecraft’s plasma wave instrument, built by his own University of Iowa research group, was able to provide evidence of the leap into interstellar space.

A University of Iowa study shows that mothers with prematurely born babies benefit emotionally and mentally from one-on-one sessions with a hospital nurse. The pilot "listening visits" may provide a framework for helping pre-term infant mothers combat anxiety and depression. Results published in the Journal of Perinatology.

University of Iowa leaders say they’re planning their sharp new Art Building based on an 80-year-old idea developed here—the “radical project” of melding art practice and art theory in the same space. (Note: A paid subscription may be required.)

Fourth-generation pig farmer Paul Willis hadn’t planned to return to his family’s farm in north central Iowa after completing a psychology degree at the University of Iowa and joining the Peace Corps. But when his stepfather asked if he could help with the harvest in 1974, he obliged—and never left.

Tori M. Forbes and Sara E. Mason, both assistant professors of chemistry in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, have each been selected by the National Science Foundation to receive a 2013 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.

University of Iowa Alumni Fellow Simone Ferro and Grant Wood Fellow Esther Baker-Tarpaga will join Department of Dance faculty in providing choreography for this year's Dance Gala, which runs Oct. 17-26.

The University of Iowa Center for New Music, housed within the UI School of Music, will present a free performance by guest clarinetist Michael Norsworthy (with David Gompper, UI professor of composition) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

UI student Meghan Ryan will share her Irish heritage and culture through her performance with the Champagne Academy of Irish Dance at the Celebrating Cultural Diversity Festival this Sunday, Sept. 29, held for the first time in Hubbard Park and as the kickoff to Homecoming 2013.

The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History will host “Advancing the Iowa Idea: A Program Celebrating the Beginning of Construction,” from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, in 240 Art Building West on the UI campus. The program will recognize individuals who have contributed to the design and planning for the new Visual Arts Building.

Former Congressman Jim Leach comes home to the University of Iowa and joins the UI faculty to teach the next generation.