LitCity

Carver–Hawkeye Arena is a 15,400-seat multi-purpose indoor arena located in Iowa City, Iowa. Opened in 1983, it is the home court for The University of Iowa Hawkeyes men's and women's basketball teams.

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Dave’s Fox Head (402 East Market Street), on the corner of Market and Gilbert streets, has been the “Workshop bar” since at least the 1980s. From the outside it appears to be little more than a shack, and its interior has remained completely unchanged since I first stepped foot inside in the late 1970s. It’s a simple tavern—a couple of rows of scarred wooden booths, a jukebox, and a pool table. It could be 1945 or 2012 or, judging from the jukebox selection, 1967 onward. Being inside Dave’s is a little like being inside a Raymond Carver story, and although it’s often full of writers, I don’t think anyone ever actually writes in Dave’s.

- From City Guide: Iowa City by Jan Weissmiller

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• Frank Conroy at the Foxhead

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The legendary bar known as Gabe’s Oasis, first started as Gabe and Walker’s back in the early 70′s and, while it has gone through many transformations, it is strangely the same.  This place has operated for years bringing some of the best live music available to Iowa City. Gabe's brings high quality local, regional and national shows to Iowa City, with a beer garden out back and two floors of music and social space.

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Half a block west is George’s Buffet (312 East Market Street), another bar that hasn’t had a makeover the entire time that I’ve been in town. It, too, is a hangout for writers, although it is more apt to include a mix of blue-collar and academic regulars than Dave’s [Fox Head] is. There’s no pool table in George’s, but there are hamburgers and cheeseburgers that have quite a reputation. I haven’t had one in a couple of decades, but from all appearances they haven’t changed: a soft white bun and a piece of juicy (greasy) meat with your choice of condiments wrapped in wax paper, no sides allowed. Recently I picked up a friend in town from L.A., and the first thing he wanted when he stepped off the plane was a hamburger from George’s.

- From City Guide: Iowa City by Jan Weissmiller

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For 80 years, Iowa City has been teaching the world to write. The Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa pioneered the teaching of creative writing at the university level. Dozens of creative programs within the university and the city followed. The newest chapter in this tradition is Iowa City’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.

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• "This Was Iowa"
• Abraham Verghese meets John Irving
• Andre Dubus and Robert Lacy at Marv's Tavern
• Charles Wright on his first year at the Workshop
• Gerald Stern, Haki R. Madhubuti, Marvin Bell, and James Galvin reading

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This bridge over the Iowa River connects the east and west University of Iowa campuses.

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• Marilynne Robinson on the Iowa Memorial Union Bridge
• Mildred Wirt Benson Diving into the Iowa River

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The Dey House is the home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. From City Guide: Iowa City by Jan Weissmiller:

... cross the river, and follow Dubuque Street to Church Street. There, if you turn right, you’ll pass the University president’s mansion and come upon Dey House, set on a grassy knoll overlooking the river. In 1997 the Writers’ Workshop relocated from the English-Philosophy building to this nineteenth-century house. The Frank Conroy Reading Room, which was completed in 2006, has vaulted ceilings and a magnificent library. A host of memorable readings by authors such as Robert Hass, Gurganus, D. A. Powell, and Dora Malech have taken place there.

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• Abraham Verghese's first class at the Workshop
• Andre Dubus in Iowa, with Paul Engle
• Anselm Hollo meets Alice Notley
• Carolyn Kizer at the Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Conversations: Interview with Abraham Verghese

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Shambaugh Auditorium is one of the main venues for readings hosted by the Workshop. When Live From Prairie Lights was broadcasted on the radio, we often held readings there too. J. M. Coetzee and Susan Sontag read there. I have heard John Ashbery read there on more than one occasion, and it was where I first heard Donald Justice read. That, for me, was a life-changing event. I felt “the top of my head coming off”—before I’d heard Emily Dickinson’s famous phrase—and the experience remains the standard by which I’ve measured all other readings. I would recommend or, if I may, insist that everyone go the Academy of American Poets website to hear Donald Justice read. In addition to being a perfect poet, his voice is an instrument. I’ve never heard a poet read with more nuanced control of the speaking voice.

- From City Guide: Iowa City by Jan Weissmiller

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The Shambaugh House is the home of the International Writing Program (IWP) on the University of Iowa campus. From City Guide: Iowa City by Jan Weissmiller:

Catty-cornered across the street from the Dey House is the Shambaugh House, home to the International Writing Program. Founded in 1967 by Paul Engle, it currently brings in forty writers—recent visitors include Hans Castellanos Moya and Etger Kerret—from countries all over the world for ten-week residencies each fall. Prairie Lights hosts readings by the fellows each Sunday afternoon during their tenure.

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• Mo Yan at the International Writing Program
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• Tomaž Šalamun at the Shambaugh House
• W.S. Merwin Q & A at the Shambaugh House

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Located in the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall, this location appears in Wallace Stegner's fiction.

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• Wallace Stegner: College and Dubuque St

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