MISSION CREEK FESTIVAL LITERARY LINEUP

Integral throughout the six years of the festival, writers, small presses, and literary journals from across the country will, in 2011, continue the growing presence of the literary arts participating in the festival. The lineup includes a special edition of the radio show Sound Opinions, a reading presented by the esteemed literary journal Granta Magazine, a performance by writer/filmmaker John Waters, and the first annual Mission Creek Festival Literary Crawl which will feature several writers reading all across downtown Iowa City!

Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago radio program Sound Opinions will host an installment of their show at The Mill. Kot and DeRogatis are two of the country’s most respected music critics. They have written for publications such as Rolling Stone, Spin, and Vibe. Kot wrote Learning How to Die an acclaimed biography about Wilco and DeRogatis penned Let It Blurt, the definitive book about pioneering music critic Lester Bangs. Sound Opinions has been hailed as one of contemporary music’s most vibrant, cutting-edge rock and roll talk shows.

Sponsored by the Iowa City Public Library, University of Iowa School of Journalism

Iowa Press Poetry Award Reading: Julie Hanson will read from her poetry collection Unbeknownst upstairs at Prairie Lights.

Three young literary talents will read at Prairie Lights: Tao Lin, Lindsay Hunter, and Ted Thompson. New Yorker Tao Lin is one of the most progressive and controversial figures in contemporary American Literature. He has published one collection of poems on Action Press, and five works of fiction, all through Melville House Publishing. Chicago writer, and co-founder of the Quickies Reading Series, Lindsay Hunter has turned heads with her debut novel Daddy’s, a novel Prairie Lights’ own Paul Ingram has said “If Help is the alpha of Southern Lit, Daddy’s is the Omega.” Also, Writers’ Workshop graduate Ted Thompson will read from a novel due out on Reagan Arthur Books in early 2012.

A host of presses and journals will gather to present their newest issues and back catalogs. The list includes: Granta Magazine, The Iowa Review, Rescue Press, Make Magazine, featherproof, Hell Yes Press, Flim Forum, Defunct, University of Iowa Press, Wag’s Revue, Canarium, PANK Magazine, Blue//Green Press, and more to come... New Belgium's Iowa Ranger will be there to serve you fabulous beers from the New Belgium tap.

A special reading presented by UK’s Granta Magazine and featuring writers Sam Lipsyte, Benjamin Percy, and Dora Malech. Granta’s editor John Freeman will host this reading. Fresh off the popularity of their recent issues on Pakistani literature and the top young Spanish language writers, Granta is the hottest literary journal around. For further literary digestion, Sam Lipsyte will read from stories that American author Jonathan Ames has said “come at you like a fist, they knock you around, they make you wince, they make you look away, and then they make you look back.” Ben Percy has been published everywhere and in every form – his short stories, nonfiction, and radio pieces can be found in everything from the Paris Review to The Wall Street Journal to NPR, and that’s nothing to say of the success of his last novel, The Wilding, out on Graywolf Press. Hardly any other poet around grabs audiences as quickly and deftly as Dora Malech – if you didn’t know about her before, now you know.

The Mission Creek Lit Crawl will showcase the talents of literary entities and writers from across the Midwest and the Northeast, at a number of venues and business across campus and downtown Iowa City. One crawl, three rounds, six locations, and more than 25 writers will appear.

Presented by Anthology Reading Series, Make Magazine, Monsters of Poetry, Defunct Magazine, Quickies, and Rescue Press