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Celebration of Literary Arts

Celebration of Literary Arts Festival​

The Celebration of Literary Arts Festival was initiated at DMACC in conjunction with the National Poetry Festival. The purpose of this celebration is to bring noted fiction and poetry writers to DMACC to read their works and interact with students. Central to the festival is the idea that writers can be published and that one can indeed make a living as a professional writer. In addition to reading on campus, writers have evening reading at a local bookstore. Each year the writers read at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines.

2025 Events


BJ Soloy

BJ Soloy

BJ Soloy is the author of Birth Center in Corporate Woods (2025, Black Lawrence Press), Our Pornography & Other Disaster Songs (selected by Ocean Vuong as winner of the Slope Editions Book Prize, 2019), and the chapbook Selected Letters (2016, New Michigan Press). He lives and dies in Des Moines, IA, home of the Whatever.

Selected Writing:

Tuesday, April 15th

Ankeny Campus
Building 2, Room 25A
11:15 a.m.

 Chris Offutt

Chris Offutt

Chris Offutt grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, population 200, a former mining town in the Appalachian hills. His books include Shifty's Boys, The Killing Hills, Country Dark, Kentucky Straight, Out of the Woods, The Good Brother, The Same River Twice, No Heroes, and My Father the Pornographer. He wrote and produced scripts for True Blood, Weeds, and Treme.  His television work was nominated for an Emmy.

His work is in many anthologies, including The Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Memoirs, Best American Food Writing, Best of the Decade: New Stories of the South, and The Vintage Book of American Short Stories. His writing has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, a fellowship from the Lannan Foundation, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.  He received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for “prose that takes risks.”  The international magazine Granta included him in its list of the “Top 20 Young American Writers.”

Thursday March 27

Beaverdale Books
2629 Beaver Ave Ste. 1
Des Moines, IA 50310 

Schedule
6:00 p.m. - DMACC creative writing contest winners reading
6:30 p.m. - Chris Offutt reading

 

2025 Authors

Previous Celebration of Literary Arts Festivals

2019 Festival

Authors

  • Jericho Brown, Poet
  • Dorothy Allison
  • Jamel Brinkley, Stanford University
  • Maggie Smith, Ohio Wesleyan University

 

Iowa Writers

  • Grant Faulkner, Executive Director, National Novel Writing Month
  • Jennifer Colville, Prompt Press
  • Jacob Dawson, Iowa State University
  • John Domini, AWP: Associated Writing Programs
  • Lauren Haldeman, University of Iowa
  • Kim Magowan, Mills College
  • Lettie Prell, SFWA: Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America
  • Steve Rose, Simpson College, Professor Emeritus
  • Michelle N. Ross, Fiction Editor, Atticus Review

2018 Festival

Authors

  • Pam Houston, University of California, Davis
  • Justin Torres, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Jennifer Chang, George Washington University
  • Matthew Olzmann, Warren Wilson MFA Program

 

Iowa Writers

  • Dean Bakopoulos, Grinnell College
  • Alissa Nutting, Grinnell College
  • Chloe Clark, Iowa State University
  • George Barlow, Grinnell College
  • Claire Kruesel, Iowa State University
  • Jennifer Wilson, St. Martin’s Press
  • Ryan Collins, St. Ambrose University
  • Paula Smith, Grinnell College
  • Michaela Mullin, Nomadic Press
  • Emma Murray, Gold Wake Press​​​​

2017 Festival

Authors

  • Charles Baxter, University of Minnesota
  • Kevin Brockmeier, Iowa Writers’ Workshop
  • Megan Mayhew Bergman, Bennington College
  • Charles D'Ambrosio, Iowa Writers’ Workshop
  • Tarfia Faizullah, University of Michigan
  • Oliver de la Paz, College of the Holy Cross

 

Iowa Writers

  • Devon Walker-Figueroa, Iowa Writer's Workshop/Poetry Editor Iowa Review
  • Ralph James Savarese, Grinnell College
  • Molly McDonald, Iowa State University
  • Rick Christman, DMACC, Professor Emeritus
  • Hai-Dang Phan, Grinnell College
  • Ned Balbo, Iowa State University
  • Calla Devlin, Young Adult Novelist​​​

2016 Festival

Authors

  • Matt Bell, Arizona State University
  • Robin Balck, Rutgers University-Camden, MFA Program
  • Kevin Prufer, University of Houston
  • Ada Limon, Queens University of Charlotte, Low Residency MFA

 

Iowa Writers

  • Tim Bascom, Waldorf College
  • Paul Brooke, Grand View University
  • Meg Johnson, Iowa State University
  • Jennifer L. Knox, Iowa State University
  • Magogodi Makhene, Iowa Writer's Workshop
  • Ralph James Savarese, Grinnell College​​​

2015 Festival

Authors

  • Bret Anthony Johnston, Harvard University
  • Makkai, Sierra Nevada College
  • Roger Reeves, University of Illinois, Chicago
  • Rebecca Hazelton, Oklahoma State University

 

Iowa Writers

  • Barbara Haas, Iowa State University
  • Christiana Langenberg, Iowa State University
  • Kyle McCord, Grand View University
  • Sarah Smith, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa​​

2014 Festival

Authors

  • Laura van den Berg, Emerson College
  • Evie Shockley, Rutgers University
  • Alan Heathcock, Boise State University
  • Ross Gay, Indiana University

 

Iowa Writers

  • Jim O'Loughlin, University of Northern Iowa
  • Kali VanBaale, Drake University
  • Hannah Loeb, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Larry Baker, Kirkwood Community College
  • K.L. Cook, Iowa State University
  • Charissa Menefee, Iowa State University​​

2013 Festival

Authors

  • Kyle Minor, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
  • Ron Carlson, University of California, Irvine
  • Caitlin Horrocks, Grand Valley State University
  • Aimee Nezhukumatathil, State University of New York
  • Matthew Dickman, Vermont College of Fine Arts

 

Iowa Writers

  • Mary Swander, Iowa State University
  • Jeremy Schraffenberger, University of Northern Iowa
  • Heather Derr-Smith, Iowa State University
  • David Wolf, Simpson College
  • Deborah Kennedy, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Winifred Moranville, Simpson College​

2012 Festival

Authors

  • Charles D'Ambrosio
  • Danielle Evans
  • Dorianne Laux
  • Joseph Millar

 

Iowa Writers

  • David Zimmerman, Iowa State University
  • Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa
  • Jennifer Perrine, Drake University
  • Neal Bowers, Iowa State University
  • May Letter, Drake University
  • Vince Gotera, University of Northern Iowa​

2011 Festival

Authors

  • Antonya Nelson, University of Houston
  • Steven Schwartz, Colorado State University
  • Denise Duhamel, Florida International University
  • Dale Young, Warren Wilson MFA Program

 

Iowa Writers

  • Benjamin Percy, Iowa State University
  • Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa
  • B.J. Love, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Deb Marquart, Iowa State University
  • Carol Spaulding-Kruse, Drake University
  • Yasmina Madden, Drake University

2010 Festival

Authors

  • Jonas Agee, University of Nebraska
  • CJ Hribal, Marquette University
  • Camille Dungy, San Francisco State
  • Kevin Stein, Illinois ​

 

 

  • For additional information, contact Celebration of Literary Arts Coordinator, Marc Dickinson, 515-964-6221