The MFA Program’s Emerging Writers Reading Series

One night each month of the school year, authors and literature enthusiasts from Iowa State and Ames gather in Dog-Eared Books on Main Street to attend the Emerging Writers Reading Series. This series is run by volunteers from ISU’s Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing and Environment, a program that focuses on literature, poetry, and drama based on people’s complex relationships with the natural world and environment.

The Emerging Writers group was created so that graduates in the MFA program could share their work with the broader public without being restricted to classrooms or workshops. Taylor Sklenar, a playwright and science communicator, started volunteering for Emerging Writers in graduate school and continues to devote time to the program now that he has become an ISU faculty member.

When asked about the program’s partnership with Dog-Eared Books, Sklenar commented, “It’s been fruitful to come together. The MFA program is something the community might not know about, but many people know about Dog-Eared Books. It helps people know it’s going on, and at the same time, it offers the community a chance to hear from writers studying right here in Ames.”

The last Emerging Writers Reading Series of the spring semester was held on April 24, 2024. That night, science fiction, poetry, and short story authors all took turns expressing their work to an eager but silent crowd of readers and students. Geneva Toland told the story of wolves being reintroduced to the Colorado wilderness from a first-person perspective. Kelli Fitzpatrick read a science fiction romantic tragedy that had been published in multiple science fiction magazines. Emma Krab shared a dream-like flash-fiction piece with intense and unsettling imagery. The emotionally provocative stories involving a strange, beautiful, or terrifying view of nature expressed the skills that the MFA students have honed for years in workshops and classrooms.

Consequently, the partnership of the MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment with Dog-Eared Books to present the Emerging Writers Reading Series has created a hidden gem in Ames. You can rarely see the university and the city of Ames united in such a unique, earnest, and rich way. The Emerging Writers Reading Series will continue to meet in the fall semester on the last Wednesday of every month, with new student volunteers and writers eager to share their talent with the world.