University staff, faculty, and students are accomplishing great things every day. See who’s making news with awards, publications, promotion and tenure, and more.

"Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights," written by Marina Warner, professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex, is the winner of the 2013 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin. The award is administered for the Truman Capote Estate by the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

University of Iowa staff members who wish to begin or continue their undergraduate education can apply for funding support from the Robert F. Ray Staff Scholarship, offered through the Division of Continuing Education. The application deadline is April 1.

Experience “The Here, the Now, and the Then” at the next University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA) First Friday reception on April 5 from 5-7 p.m. at hotelVetro. For $5, enjoy refreshments, light hors d’oeuvres, art by Des Moines-based Larassa Kabel and toe-tapping indie pop tunes.

Colin Gordon, professor of history, will present “Iowa on WorldMap“ on Thursday, March 28, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre at the Old Capitol Town Center.

Join the 10th anniversary celebration of the University of Iowa’s Asian and Pacific American Cultural Center April 5-7, co-sponsored by the UI Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and the UI Alumni Association.

"The Mythical Bill: A Neurological Memoir" by Jody McAuliffe is now available from the University of Iowa Press. Part medical mystery, part war story, and part social and family history, the book is the story of how one man’s physical and mental pain radiates outward into the life and mind of each member of his family.

The University of Iowa College of Education’s Teacher Leader Center will host a panel discussion “Tweet the Good: Positive Social Media in Schools,” from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27. The discussion will take place in Room N140 Lindquist Center and is free and open to the public.

April is Earth Month, and University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums will offer visitors information on how to care for our planet at home and away as well as a month’s worth of movies with environmental themes.

The University of Iowa "Research in the Capitol" event is set for Tuesday, March 26, in Des Moines. The annual spring event invites about 20 students under the auspices of the honors program at each of Iowa’s three Regents institutions.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena hosts first and second round action in the 2013 NCAA women's basketball tournament starting Sunday. The Hawkeye women open play at 6:30 p.m. against the University of Miami.

Five Iowans who were equal rights advocates and likely involved in the Underground Railroad will be the subject of a free public lecture on Thursday, March 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the Senate Chamber of the University of Iowa Old Capitol Museum.