Final Thursday Reading Series—Spring 2026
25th Anniversary Season Continues!
Watch this space for more details soon!
The 25th season of FTRS features unique readings, performances, and events, and (as always) a creative writing open mic on the final Thursday of each month at the Hearst Center for the Arts. 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 readings can be live-streamed on Zoom (open for registration soon). If you are on the UNI campus, check out the FTRS 25th Anniversary display on the first floor of the Communication Arts Center.
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. Additional support for this anniversary season is provided by the UNI Sesquicentennial Celebration.
January 29, 2026 • Daniel Umemezie & Lamya Pratchett
Umemzie (2025) and Pratchett (2024) are Cedar Valley Youth Poet Laureates.
February 26, 2026 • Jim O’Loughlin
This event features “Extension Cords,” short stories set in the world of O’Loughlin’s science fiction novel, The Cord, a Midwest Book Award finalist. In-person attendees will receive a free Extension Cord publication (as supplies last).
March 26, 2026 • Art Cullen
Pulitzer Prize winner Art Cullen is the author of the new collection, Dear Marty, We Crapped in Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World. He is also the editor of the Storm Lake Times.
April 30, 2026 • Sean Thomas Dougherty & J. D. Schraffenberger
This event is a book release reading for Dueling Shovels, a poetry chapbook co-written by Dougherty & Schraffenberger, which is inspired by the poetry of James Hearst.