Final Thursday Reading Series—Fall 2024
Season 24
FTRS is back for a new season of regional authors & a creative writing open mic on the final Thursday of each month at the Hearst Center for the Arts. Click here to find out more and read interviews with featured readers.
Open mic at 7:00 p.m. Featured reading at 7:30 p.m. Can't attend in person? Featured readers can be live streamed on Zoom. Click to register.
The Final Thursday Reading Series is a collaboration of Final Thursday Press; the Hearst Center for the Arts; the UNI College of Humanities, Arts and Science; and the UNI Department of Languages & Literatures.
Thursday, August 29 • Vince Gotera
Iowa’s Poet Laureate will return to FTRS to launch his new collection of speculative poetry, Dragons & Rayguns (Final Thursday Press). Gotera’s other poetry collections include The Coolest Month and Fighting Kite.
Thursday, September 26 • Marc Dickinson
Dickinson, a UNI English alumni, is the author of the new short story collection, Replacement Parts (Atmosphere Press) He received an MFA from Colorado State University. He teaches creative writing at Des Moines Area Community College and coordinates the long-running reading series, Celebration of the Literary Arts.
Thursday, October 31 • A Night of Monsters
For this special Halloween event, UNI’s Brooke Wonders, alongside students in her horror literature course, will be reading new stories of terror and dread. Dr. Wonders’s scary stories have appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Rupture, and The Dark, among others. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa and editor of literary horror magazine Grimoire.
Thursday, November 21 • The Cities of the Plains
**one week early due to Thanksgiving
The Cities of the Plains: An Anthology of Iowa Artists and Poets features 57 artists and poets and highlights the immense talent of the state. Editor Paul Brooke will be joined by regional contributors to the collection..
