CONTACT: Dina Smith, (515) 271-3127, dina.smith@drake.edu
Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

Chris Offutt, a visiting fiction writer at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will read from his work and discuss writing at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the Cowles Library Reading Room, 28th Street and University Avenue. This event is the first in the spring Drake Writers and Critics Series, which is free and open to the public.

Offutt is the author of one novel, “The Good Brother,” two books of stories: “Kentucky Straight” and “Out of the Woods,” and two memoirs: “The Same River Twice” and “No Heroes.” His stories and essays have been published in Esquire, GQ, The New York Times, “Best American Short Stories” and “Best Stories of the South.” He has taught at the University of New Mexico and the University of Montana. He is a contributing editor to the Iowa Review and Tin House. In addition, he is the recipient of a Lannan Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Award in Literature “for prose that takes . . . risks” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The schedule for the remainder of the series appears below:

Poets Lisa Jarnot and Mark McMorris, 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center, 29th Street and University Avenue.


  • Paula Amad, a film criticism expert who teaches at the University of Iowa, 8 p.m. Thursday, April 13, room 206 of Cline Hall of Pharmacy and Science, 2802 Forest Ave.
  • Charles D’Ambrosio, a visiting writer at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, lounge of Medbury Hall, 2730 Forest Ave.
  • Scott Russell Sanders, novelist and professor of creative writing at Indiana University, 8 p.m. Monday, May 1, room 206 of Cline Hall.

The Drake Writers and Critics Series is sponsored by the Drake English Department and made possible by a grant from the Drake Center for the Humanities. For more information, contact Dina Smith at (515) 271-3127 or dina.smith@drake.edu.