Iowa City Book Festival

10/12/2025

🔥 TONIGHT! 🔥
Get ready for Little Village’s 13th Annual Roast of Iowa City — the annual interrobang of the Iowa City Book Festival!

📅 Sunday, October 12, 2025
🕕 6–8 p.m. (doors at 5:30)
📍 ReUnion Brewery on the Ped Mall
🎟 Free Admission!

Hosted by the one and only Karen Vásquez, the Roast brings together some of Iowa City’s sharpest comics, humorists, and local legends:
Aaron Pang • Aloe Mean • Brody Stanford • Dylan Wenzel • Iowa City Police Log • Karen Vásquez • Kass Johnson • Schmuckdate • Vic Kauder

Plus, your favorite advice column goes live — Dear Kiki Live!

Come laugh, cringe, and celebrate the city we love to roast.
Sponsored by Romantix.

10/11/2025

Find your way around the festival today by watching the signs at your feet, the flags outside venues, or the special things that have popped up along the way!

10/11/2025

🕵️A missing mother. A deadly secret. History repeating itself.

Join Jennifer Fawcett for "Keep This For Me." A gripping thriller of suspense, family secrets, and danger. Conversation with Tim Budd included!

When: Oct. 11 @1:00 p.m.
Where: Prairie Lights

https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/icbf/ #1655234890322-6673f1f8-cfe2

10/10/2025

If you have never seen the auditorium of the Iowa City Masonic Building, Saturday is your opportunity to do so. We will have four events there, starting at 11;30 am with John Scalzi, then at 1 pm we will celebrate Joe Haldeman and “The Forever War,” and then panel discussions at 2:30 and 4 pm. Join us as we bring books to life!

10/10/2025

✍️ Writers Row – Local Author Book Fair ✍️

October 12 | 11:00 a.m.– 3:00 p.m.| MERGE 136 S Dubuque St.

Meet local authors, explore their latest works, ask questions, and get books signed!

https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/icbf/ #1655234890322-6673f1f8-cfe2

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10/10/2025

🎤 SlamoVision Watch & Judge Party 🌍

Join us Oct. 10 @ 5:30 p.m. to watch slam poets from 17 UNESCO Cities of Literature compete for the crown! Score each performance, enjoy free pizza, and help Iowa City choose the next SlamoVision champion! 🍕🏆

https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/icbf/ #1655234890322-6673f1f8-cfe2

10/10/2025

We hope to be able to recreate this photo as we bring Joe Haldeman to the Iowa City Book Festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of his classic novel, "The Forever War." To mark the occasion, we are bringing this statue from our Book Marks project back to the streets. You can see it Saturday in front of the Masonic Building where Haldeman will appear at 1 p.m. (and where our friends at the ICON science fiction and fantasy convention will be selling their wares). Join us!

Thanks to Mike Miller, a panelist on the event with Haldeman, for the photo.

10/10/2025

Check out these scenes from the Book Festival today, including our tree tour, a reading at Prairie Lights Bookstore and the vendor space at the Guild of Bookworkers meeting. More to see and do Friday through Sunday. Visit www.iowacitybookfestival.org for the full schedule!

See the photos: From a literary tree walk to a book-binding convention and author talks, check out our favorite photos from the Iowa City Book Festival. bit.ly/4nIQ2Se

10/10/2025

🚀 Sci-fi fans, prepare for liftoff!

Bestselling author John Scalzi presents "The Shattering Peace," a thrilling interstellar adventure of fragile alliances, alien conflicts, and a secret mission that could change the destiny of the galaxy—or end it.

📅 Oct. 11, 11:30 a.m.
📍Iowa City Masonic Building 312 E College St

https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/icbf/ #1655234890322-6673f1f8-cfe2

10/09/2025

📚 Iowa City Book Fair – Discover Something New! ✨

For over 50 years, The Iowa Review has been a premier literary magazine, offering a beautifully curated space for diverse voices in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Connected to the University of Iowa, TIR amplifies and validates writers while presenting the best contemporary work to readers everywhere.

Why it’s special:

1) Work published in TIR has been selected for Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, and The Pushcart Prize
2) Publishes three issues per year: spring, fall, and winter
3) Printed sustainably in Iowa on 30% post-consumer recycled paper

Find more info: https://iowareview.org/content/about

Stop by the Iowa City Book Fair to explore TIR’s latest issues and celebrate decades of literary excellence!

The Iowa Review's mission is to provide an expertly curated, carefully edited, and beautifully designed print and online space for the voices of writers of every kind of diversity to move and enlighten us; to use the experience gained from fifty-plus years of continuous publication and our connectio...

10/09/2025

📖 Panel Discussion: Importance of Genre 📖

October 11 | 4:00 p.m.| Iowa City Masonic Building 312 E College St

Join Anna Bruno, Gregory Galloway, Scott Phillips, and Tatiana Schlote-Bonne for a lively discussion on how genre influences storytelling, shapes readers’ expectations, and guides the writing process.

https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/icbf/ #1655234890322-6673f1f8-cfe2

10/09/2025

Crime fiction fans, don’t miss this double dose of noir! 📚✨

Authors Gregory Galloway ("All We Trust") and Scott Phillips ("The Devil Raises His Own") team up for a conversation about betrayal, revenge, and the gritty history of noir storytelling.

📅 Oct. 11, 11:30 a.m. | Prairie Lights

https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/icbf/ #1655234890322-6673f1f8-cfe2