Robin Hemley, director of the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program, will read from "Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness," at 7 p.m. Friday, May 10, 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.

Loren Glass, professor in the University of Iowa Department of English, will read from his new book, "Counterculture Colophon: Grove Press, the Evergreen Review, and the Incorporation of the Avant-Garde," at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 9, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City.

Matthew Lavin will present “Digital Biographies of Books: Death Comes for the Archbishop as a Case Study” from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2 for the next lecture in the PDH4L series. The talk is free and open to the public.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding, a graduate and former teacher at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

The University of Iowa Department of Dance will present an undergraduate dance concert at 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, May 9-11 in Space Place Theater of North Hall.

The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History will host ArtsFest from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, May 3, in the Studio Arts Building at 1375 Highway 1 West in Iowa City. ArtsFest is a free, interactive art experience that will feature artwork by UI students, as well as demonstrations and hands–on opportunities in studio art and art history.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free concert by the University and Concert Bands at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 6, in the Second Floor Ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union.

University of Iowa officials recently installed the campus’s first hearing loop system, which provides unprecedented sound clarity for people with hearing aids and cochlear implants, and there are plans to install five more over the next few years.

Two UI students, Kyra Seay and Tess Haverkamp, recently traveled to China on the Rivers as Bridges program that examines the sister-river relationship of the Mississippi River in the U.S. and the Yangtze River in China.

Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus Geoffrey Nutter will read from his poetry at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, 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.

The University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts will present the 2013 Iowa New Play Festival, the most ambitious new-play festival in collegiate theater, with readings and staged productions May 5–11 in the UI Theatre Building. The full productions of new scripts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop will be presented at 5:30 and 9 p.m. May 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11.

Stephanie Patterson, a graduate student in bassoon performance in the University of Iowa School of Music, embraced her entrepreneurial side in order to highlight women composers. Using Kickstarter, Patterson raised funds to present a concert, "Iowa Celebration of Women Composers," on Friday, April 19 in Iowa City.