The Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate returns to campus Oct. 23 to discuss her acclaimed memoir, Things in Nature Merely Grow.

Author Tayari Jones, who earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Iowa in 1994, has won the 2026 Kirkus Prize for Fiction for her novel Kin.

Cramer has been named president-elect of the American Geosciences Institute and received the Geological Society of America’s 50 Under 50 Award, recognizing his contributions to the field.

Check out the latest must-read titles from the Writing University.

Poet Brenda Hillman, who earned an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1976, is a 2026 finalist for the prestigious National Book Award.

Dana Thomann, University of Iowa associate professor of instruction in rhetoric, has been named the 2026 Hudson Prize winner for her story collection, Erratics.

Bynum has received a $50,000 fellowship from the John Carter Brown Library to support work on her book, A Revolutionary History of Black Joy.

Ashley Howard, University of Iowa assistant professor of history, has been named a 2026 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s leading funder of the arts, culture, and humanities.

The IT staff members supporting the TRACERS mission, which is the largest grant in University of Iowa history, received an IT Leadership Award.

Award-winning author and Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Tony Tulathimutte is the inaugural recipient of the Jack Galef Literary Arts Award. Tulathimutte is a visiting faculty member in residence at the workshop this fall.