Far from the Hollywood Hills and the bright lights of Broadway, the entertainment industry has found an unexpected hotbed for storytelling in the heart of the Midwest. The University of Iowa has attracted writers, actors, directors, and other artists—all seeking to hone their craft in a flourishing creative community.

Justin Torres arrived at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with a collection of fictional stories based on his childhood in Upstate New York. He graduated in 2010 with a manuscript that would be published a year later as “We the Animals” and provide the basis of a critically acclaimed film.

Professor John D'Agata's book, "The Lifespan of a Fact," about the line between fact and fiction, will find life under the bright lights as a stage adaptation.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $105,000 grant to Lori Branch, associate professor in the University of Iowa Department of English, to host a three-week seminar for 16 college and university faculty members on the UI campus.

The University of Iowa campus played host in July to the nation’s most talented high school–aged artists and writers as part of the Belin-Blank Center’s inaugural Summer Art Residency and Summer Writing Residency.

Each year dozens of Iowa faculty, staff, students, and alumni get their work published, win prizes, draw accolades, and earn awards. Here are some highlights from the many writing and writing-related programs in the 2017–18 academic year.

So many serious writers are now fixing their sights on television that the University of Iowa, home of the venerable Iowa Writers’ Workshop, has launched a postgraduate TV-writing fellowship and will begin a workshop focused on the specialization this fall.

UI alumni and Bettendorf, Iowa, natives Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are finalizing a deal with Twentieth Century Fox to adapt Stephen King’s “The Boogeyman” for a new horror film. Beck and Woods’s script for this year’s A Quiet Place, co-written by director and co-star John Krasinski, made $328 million.

Jennifer Croft, who earned an MFA from Iowa in 2003, has been awarded the Man Booker International Prize along with Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, whose novel “Flights” Croft translated into English.

Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, who earned her MFA in playwriting at Iowa, was named one of two winners of an international playwriting competition.