"Live from Prairie Lights" Audio Archive
"Live from Prairie Lights" is a live, one-hour radio program featuring readings and interviews with an eclectic mix of new and established writers. Since the program's beginning in 1991, radio producer Julie Englander has hosted the show from Prairie Lights Bookstore.
Michael Gartner Reading, December, 2005
Michael Gartner reads from and discusses his book, Outrage, Passion, and Common Sense. Gartner, who himself won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, discusses the great newspaper editors and… more
David Albahari Reading, December, 2005
David Albahari reads from his book, Götz and Meyer. He begins by discussing his time spent in the International Writing Program in 1986, and how those experiences have informed his… more
Deborah Noyes Reading, November, 2005
Deborah Noyes reads from her novel, Angel and Apostle, intended as a “revisionist’s look” at Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Noyes explains her decision to write a sequel to The Scarlet… more
Meredith Broussard reading, November, 2005
Editor Meredith Broussard reads from her book, The Encyclopedia of Exes: Twenty-Six Stories by Men of Love Gone Wrong, a collection of fictional stories by male writers that explore love… more
Faith Sullivan Reading, November, 2005
Faith Sullivan reads from her novel entitled Gardenias, a sequel to her previous novel, Cape Ann. She begins by reading a poem by a fellow southern Minnesotan poet, Phoebe Hanson. … more
Jeremy Mercer Reading, November, 2005
Jeremy Mercer reads from and discusses his memoir, Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.. He goes on to detail the events that led up to… more
Craig Davidson reading, November, 2005
Canadian novelist Craig Davidson reads from his collection of eight violent, macabre, and raw short stories, Rust and Bone; his characters include gamblers, fighters, and sex addicts. Davidson admits that… more
Mark Blumberg Reading, November, 2005
Mark Blumberg discusses his work, Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior. Blumberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Iowa, begins by discussing various popular culture headlines dealing with genetics and… more
Kay Redfield Jamison Reading, October, 2005
Kay Redfield Jamison discusses and reads from her book entitled Exuberance: the Passion for Life. Jamison points out that the state of “exuberance” is rarely studied in psychology; psychologists tend… more
Ted Kooser Reading, October, 2005
Ted Kooser reads various poems in honor of the release of his collection of poems entitled Delights and Shadows.
Kooser explains his tradition of annually sending postcards inscribed… more
Paul Collins Reading, October, 2005
Paul Collins reads from his nonfiction work, The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine. Collins explains how his coming across an article within an old… more
Bill Thompson, Julie Zickefoose, and Donald E. Kroodsma Reading, October, 2005
Bill Thompson and Julie Zickefoose discuss their book entitled Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges. They explain how the book evolved from a column that Thompson edits… more
Katherine Towler Reading, July, 2005
Katherine Towler reads from Evening Ferry, her second novel in a trilogy. During a question and answer session, Towler describes her childhood spent living on the grounds of the General… more
Bart Yates Reading, July, 2005
Bart Yates reads from his second novel entitled The Brothers Bishop. During a question and answer session, Yates describes his writing process as well as his subsequent decision to write… more
Elizabeth Kostova Reading, July, 2005
Elizabeth Kostova reads from her novel entitled The Historian. During a question and answer session, Kostova details how the topic for her novel came from the stories about Dracula that… more
Lee Child Reading, June, 2005
Lee Child reads from his novel, One Shot: A Jack Reacher Novel. Child then explains his path to becoming a writer, which began when he was fired from his corporate… more
Jodi Picoult Reading, April, 2005
Jodi Picoult reads from her novel Vanishing Acts. She discusses the extensive research that went into the preparation of the novel, focusing primarily on the idea of recovered memory. She… more
Erin Hart Reading, March, 2005
Erin Hart reads from her mystery novel, Lake of Sorrows. Hart gives a brief plot synopsis, explaining that the novel is set in modern day Ireland where officials have just… more
Marilyn Abildskov Reading, March, 2005
Marilyn Abildskov reads from her memoir entitled The Men in My Country. Abildskov gives a brief context of her memoir, claiming that it is about the time she spent teaching… more
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards Reading, March, 2005
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards discuss their book entitled Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. Baumgardner and Richards discuss their early days working together at Ms. magazine, and their… more
Aimee Phan Reading, March, 2005
Aimee Phan reads from her collection of short stories entitled We Shall Never Meet. Phan gives a brief historical background of her stories, detailing the project “Operation Baby Lift” during… more
Eleni Sikelianos Reading, March, 2005
Eleni Sikelianos reads a selection of prose and poetry from her two most recently-published books, The Book of Jon and The California Poem. Sikelianos fields questions from the audience. She… more
Suzanne Lebsock Reading, February, 2005
Suzanne Lebsock reads from her work, Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial. Lebsock, who considers herself a social historian, details the 1895 ax murder of a white woman in… more
Curtis Sittenfeld Reading, February, 2005
Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus Curtis Sittenfeld reads from her debut novel Prep and then answers questions from the audience and host Julie Englander for the rest of the hour. Sittenfeld… more
Andrew Sean Greer Reading, February, 2005
Andrew Sean Greer reads from his novel entitled The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Greer explains that Max, the protagonist of the novel, grows physically younger as the years of his… more
Steve Healey and William Waltz Reading, February, 2005
Steve Healey reads selections from his collection of poetry entitled Earthling. Waltz then reads selections from his own collection of poetry entitled Zoo Music.
During a brief question… more
Rattawut Lapcharoensap Reading, February, 2005
Rattawut Lapcharoensap reads “Draft Day” from his collection of stories entitled Sightseeing. Spending his childhood moving between Bangkok, Thailand and Chicago, Lapcharoensap discusses his time spent in the Thai armed… more
Pam Houston Reading, February, 2005
Author Pam Houston reads from her novel, Sight Hound. She explains the format of her novel. Each chapter is written in the first-person, from the perspectives of different characters, including… more
Mary Doria Russell Reading, February, 2005
Mary Doria Russell reads fromA Thread of Grace, a work of historical fiction. Russell explains her choice to write about Jewish Italians during World War II, claiming that approximately 85%… more
Jennifer Haigh Reading, February, 2005
Jennifer Haigh reads from her novel, Baker Towers. She discusses how her childhood experience of growing up in a small mining town in Pennsylvania ultimately informed the setting for Baker… more
David Laskin Reading, January, 2005
David Laskin discusses his nonfiction work, The Children’s Blizzard, which details the blizzard that hit the Midwest on January 12, 1888. Laskin details the terrible storm, pointing out that the… more
Lisa Reardon Reading, November, 2004
Lisa Reardon reads from her novel entitled The Mercy Killers. Reardon discusses the lengthy research she conducted for the novel, which is set during the time of the Vietnam War. … more
Patricia Foster Reading, November, 2004
Patricia Foster reads two excerpts from her book of essays entitled Just Beneath My Skin: Autobiography and Self-Discovery. Foster, a professor in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of… more
Gish Jen Reading, October, 2004
Gish Jen reads from her novel entitled The Love Wife. Jen gives a brief synopsis of the novel, explaining that it focuses on the relationships between members in a contemporary… more
Tamora Pierce Reading, October, 2004
Tamora Pierce discusses her young adult fantasy novel, Trickster’s Queen. She takes questions from the audience, which is mostly comprised of young adults. Pierce lays down a few ground rules… more
David Gilbert Reading, October, 2004
David Gilbert reads from his novel entitled The Normals. During a brief question and answer session, Gilbert explains the research he conducted for his novel, where he visited a facility… more
Rick DeMarinis Reading, October, 2004
Rick DeMarinis reads the title story from his collection of short stories entitled Apocalypse Then. During a question and answer session, DeMarinis discusses his time spent as an engineer at… more
Thomas Frank Reading, October, 2004
Thomas Frank reads selections from his book entitled What’s the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Frank goes on to detail a phenomenon he terms “The… more
Mona Smith Reading, October, 2004
Mona Smith discusses and reads from her non-fiction work, Becoming Something: the Story of Canada Lee. Her book outlines the “meteoric rise” and “precipitous fall” of African American actor Canada… more
Timothy Liu and Bruce Beasley Reading, October, 2004
Timothy Liu and Bruce Beasley read selections from their various poetry collections. During a short question and answer session, Liu and Beasley discuss the allusions to visual art that frequently… more
Rebecca Wolff and Catherine Wagner Reading, September, 2004
Poet Rebecca Wolff reads a selection of poems from her collection, Figment, and also reads a few new, unpublished poems. Catherine Wagner reads a selection of poems from her collections… more
Dan Chaon Reading, September, 2004
Dan Chaon reads from his novel, You Remind Me of Me. Chaon discusses his portrayal of the Doberman in the novel, and how he successfully choreographed the shift of… more
Lucia Watson and Teresa Marrone Reading, September, 2004
Lucia Watson begins by discussing her book entitled Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland. Watson who is chef and proprietor of Lucia’s Restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, discusses the importance… more
Michelle Glazer Reading, September, 2004
Michelle Glazer reads a selection of poems from Aggregate of Disturbances and poems from her first book, It Is Hard to Look at What We Came to Think We’d Come… more
Iowa Review Reading, September, 2004
David Hamilton, editor of the Iowa Review, begins the reading with a moment of silence for the hostage tragedy in Beslan, Russia. He notes that every issue of the Iowa… more
Thisbe Nissen Reading, September, 2004
Thisbe Nissen reads from her novel, Osprey Island. Nissen, who received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1997, discusses the research she conducted for her book. She discusses… more
George Hagen Reading, July, 2004
George Hagen reads from his first novel entitled The Laments. Hagen discusses the similarities between his childhood experiences and the novel, pointing out that “the places are real, the events… more
Wayne Johnson Reading, July, 2004
Wayne Johnson reads excerpts from two of his books, The Baseball Diaries and The Devil You Know. Johnson then goes on to discuss his childhood years spent in northern Minnesota,… more
Kent Haruf Reading, July, 2004
Kent Haruf reads from his novel, Eventide, which is a sequel to his previous novel, Plainsong. Haruf acknowledges that while his growing up in small Colorado towns influenced his novels,… more
Sandra Scofield Reading, June, 2004
Sandra Scofield reads from her memoir entitled Occasional Sin.
moreLarry Watson Reading, June, 2004
Larry Watson reads from his novel entitled Orchard. During a question and answer session, Watson discusses his writing process, claiming: “Often I feel like I’m writing for the work itself—if… more
Jennifer Stevenson Reading, June, 2004
Jennifer Stevenson reads a selection from her novel entitled Trash Sex Magic. During a question and answer session, Stevenson discusses the importance of nature in her novel, calling it a… more
Gina Franco Reading, June, 2004
Gina Franco reads selection of poems from The Keepsake Storm. Franco explains how both her upbringing in a Latino culture, and later her study of the traditional literary canon, informed… more
Seth Kantner Reading, June, 2004
Seth Kantner reads selections from his novel, Ordinary Wolves. During a brief question and answer session, Kantner discusses how closely the dialect in the book matches the true dialect of… more
Douglas Unger and Rachel Pastan, June, 2004
Douglas Unger reads the short story “Leslie and Sam” from his collection entitled Looking for War. Rachel Pastan then reads an excerpt from her novel entitled This Side of Married. … more
Tim Tyson Reading, June, 2004
Tim Tyson reads from his memoir, “Blood Done Sign My Name.” Tyson describes his childhood in Oxford, North Carolina, and the murder of an African American man by Tyson’s white… more
Karen Joy Fowler Reading, May, 2004
Karen Joy Fowler reads selections from her novel The Jane Austen Book Club. She explains how she conceived the idea for the novel while at reading at an independent bookstore. … more
Anchee Min Reading, May, 2004
Anchee Min reads from her fourth novel, Empress Orchid. The novel, set in 19th century China, follows the rise of the last Empress Dowager of China. Min describes the difficulty… more
Andrei Codrescu Reading, May, 2004
Andrei Codrescu reads from his novel entitled Wakefield. Codrescu jokes about the fact that his publishers scheduled the first stop on his book tour for Iowa City, claiming that they… more
Jenna Blum Reading, May, 2004
Jenna Blum reads from her first novel entitled Those Who Save Us. Blum discusses the historical background of her book, which takes place in Nazi Germany during World War II. … more
Faith Adielé Reading, April, 2004
Faith Adielé reads excerpts from her memoir entitled Meeting Faith: the Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun. Adielé, a woman of both Scandinavian and Nigerian descent, discusses her time… more
Christopher Merrill Reading, April, 2004
The author reads excerpts of Only the Nails Remain, a nonfiction book about his work and travels in the former Republic of Yugoslavia and his involvement with the literary demimonde… more