Iowa City Book Festival - PPC-Sponsored Readings

The PPC is proud to co-sponsor these policy-related readings on Friday, October 5, and throughout the day on Saturday, October 6, at the Iowa City Public Library. The readings include:

Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman

Ari Berman is a senior reporter for Mother Jones and a Fellow at The Nation Institute. His book, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, was published in August 2015 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has written extensively about American politics, civil rights, and the intersection of money and politics. 

We the Interwoven by Sadagat Aliyena, Melissa Palma, and Chuy Renteria

We the Interwoven brings us the stories of three Americans--three Iowas--whose families have found home in the heartland over the past two generations. This collection brings together a variety of genres, including nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, to represent their unique experiences and amalgamation of influences, from the coast of Azerbaijan to the border towns of Mexico to the archipelago of the Philippines. These stories reflect who they were, who they are, and who they hope to become with the help of Iowa's fields of opportunity. While the American Dream may bring to mind the quintessential white picket fence, the American experience it as unique as it is diverse. 10:00am in Meeting Room A

How to Be an American by Silvia Hidalgo

While author and illustrator Silvia Hidalgo (who was born in Costa Rica and moved to the U.S. in 1998) was studying for her citizenship test, she took to illustrating the different facts about government and American history to more easily absorb the information. She’s collected that information here, as a freshly designed and illustrated two-color guide to all things America. How to Be an American is a beautiful object, an innovative educational tool, and a timely reminder of the importance of understanding and upholding the core values of our democracy. 11:30am in Meeting Room A

The Fall of Wisconsin by Dan Kaufman

Dan Kaufman is a musician and writer living in Brooklyn, New York. He has written previously about the Spanish Civil War for The Nation and the New York Times. His book, The Fall of Wisconsin traces the history of the political heritage of Wisconsin, and the overturn when the state went Republican for the first time in three decades in 2010. Kaufman, a Wisconsin native, has been covering the story for several years and traces how the state’s tradition of progressivism was undone. 1:00pm in Meeting Room A

Storm Lake by Art Cullen

When The Storm Lake Times, a tiny Iowa twice-weekly, won a Pulitzer Prize for taking on big corporate agri-industry for poisoning the local rivers and lake, it was a coup on many counts: a strike for the well being of a rural community; a triumph for that endangered species, a family-run rural news weekly; and a salute to the special talents of a fierce and formidable native son, Art Cullen. In this candid and timely book, Cullen describes how the rural prairies have changed dramatically over his career, as seen from the vantage point of a farming and meatpacking town of 15,000 in Northwest Iowa. Politics, agriculture, the environment, and immigration are all themes in Storm Lake, a chronicle of a resilient newspaper, as much a survivor as its town. 4:00pm in Meeting Room A

To see the full schedule, visit the Iowa City Book Festival website.