Writers' Workshop

University of Iowa professor Anna Barker will read from her book, 13 Notes from Napoleon, Iowa: Musings on the Edge of the French Empire, and will be joined in conversation by Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, DK Nnuro.

Between 1800 and 1803 the future state of Iowa was ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of the French Republic. 13 Notes from Napoleon, Iowa: Musings on the Edge of the French Empire illuminates some aspects of Iowa’s French past, such as cities named after the Napoleonic battles of Marengo and Waterloo, and explains the mystery of Iowa’s distinctly French-looking flag. Along the way, Dr. Barker muses on other Napoleon-related matters, such as Empire waist gowns, Goethe's and Byron's Bonapartism, the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna, and to what extent Europe's current internal contradictions have been impacted by its Napoleonic past.

Uchenna Awoke will read from his new novel, A Siege of Owls, and will be joined in conversation with Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, Reyumeh Ejue. Described as "An urgent and unforgettable work of magical realism following a young man coming of age in rural West Africa as he bears witness to the violence, upheaval, and hope in a rapidly changing society," A Siege of Owls is praised by The Malvern Observer as "a deeply human, urgent, and earnest story," while Chimezie Chika, author of Afrocritik, says: "A Siege of Owls is a masterpiece . . . If mythmaking—that is, mythmaking the becoming or unbecoming of our country—is Awoke’s goal in writing this novel, he immensely succeeds in mythologising the aggressive extremities of our times."