In his first novel, the Iranian American poet Kaveh Akbar asks whether our pain matters, and to whom, and how it might be made to matter more. Akbar is an associate professor of English and director of the English and creative writing major at Iowa.

The Daily Iowan, a non-profit university newspaper, has purchased two local newspapers saving them from shutting down. Students from the University of Iowa will help both papers cover their communities.

Aron Aji, director of the Translation programs at Iowa, was named a 2024 National Book Awards judge. He has translated poetry and prose by Turkish writers, including Bilge Karasu, Ferit Edgu, Murathan Mungan, and Ebru Ojen.

On this podcast, Donika Kelly joins Kevin Young to read “One Hundred White-Sided Dolphins on a Summer Day,” by Mary Oliver, and her own poem “Sixteen Center.” Kelly is the author of two poetry collections, and the recipient of an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A founding member of the collective Poets at the End of the World, she teaches at the University of Iowa.

Last year, donors contributed $500 million to support local news. And that’s in addition to the tens of millions of dollars of operating losses at billionaire-owned newspapers like the Washington Post and L.A. Times. Then on Jan. 29, higher education joined the fight. That’s when the University of Iowa’s Daily Iowan announced it had acquired two nearby community papers: the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun, and the Solon Economist.

Kaveh Akbar, director of the English and Creative Writing major at Iowa and associate professor, had a raging addiction and little reason to believe his life would turn out well. Now he has a debut novel, “Martyr!,” which makes you want to “get up and yell.”

The Daily Iowan was named national Newspaper, Online, and Multiplatform Pacemaker winners by the Associated Collegiate Press on Oct. 30 and was one of only three college news organizations in the country to win all three awards.

Justin Torres, a 2010 graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction at the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner in New York City on Nov. 15.

The University of Iowa improved its national ranking in undergraduate nursing programs to No. 4 and is tied for No. 1 among public universities, while also remaining the best public writing program in the country, according to the latest rankings published by U.S. News & World Report.

Jamel Brinkley, assistant professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, talks about his new collection of short stories, "Witness." The book follows his widely celebrated 2018 debut collection, “A Lucky Man,” which was a finalist for a National Book Award, the John Leonard Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.