Iowa City

Reading with Kazim Ali at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque Street, Iowa City, IA.

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The reading in Iowa City was not my favorite, but I don't really feel like going into it, so… here is what was good about the time I spent there:

Nick Twemlow and Robyn Schiff’s beautiful house. I loved staying there. They left me food and a comfortable bed. I was ecstatic and nostalgic as I drove in from Cedar Rapids:



Meeting up with Kazim Ali, with whom I read (and would read again three more times across the Midwest). Here is Kazim reading:



Seeing a nice woman named Melanie, whom I had met on the Poetry Bus, in the store before the reading, and then going out for a drink with her at the Deadwood before things began.

Seeing Jan Weissmiller, who worked at Prairie Lights when I was a student at the Workshop and now owns a part of the store. She was a terrific hostess.

Seeing Peter Gizzi in the audience. It was interestingly jarring to see him outside of the east coast (The Poetry Project, really).

This nice girl in the audience:



This nice guy who was actually into Poker Face/poker/my brother; the only one to ask me a question after the reading:



Seeing Chris Offut at George’s after the reading and finding out there was a poker game later/playing in the poker game (I forgot about how macho the IWW is):



Meeting Lauren, who is the blond girl in this picture. She is a student at The Workshop and was my Virgil for the evening:



I met a lot of nice people, even if the evening was off.