Languages and Literature

"Emigration Road" , exploring the complex emotions surrounding Irish emigration, will be performed by the Irish duo of Tegolin Knowland and Sean Coyne. Emigration has been a constant throughout much of Irish history. This drama by Eamon Grennan, one of Ireland’s foremost poets, sketches out the consequences of leaving “home” to makes one’s way elsewhere. In a performance that covers a range of emigration experiences, Knowland and Coyne give voice to those whose stories are too often lost to history. The performance is free and open to the public.

The University of Northern Iowa "Writers Talk" Reading Series will host a reading by poet, James Cihlar, at 3:30 p.m., Friday, September 28, in Baker 161 on the UNI campus. This event is free and open to the public.

James Cihlar is the author of the poetry books Rancho Nostalgia (Dream Horse Press, 2013), Undoing (Little Pear Press, 2008) and chapbook Metaphysical Bailout (Pudding House Press). His writing has been published in the American Poetry Review, The Awl, Court Green, Smartish Pace, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, Lambda Literary Review, and Forklift, Ohio. 

Dave Gibson, author of the new collection, Pallet King and Tales from the File will take the stage at this month’s Final Thursday Reading Series on September 27 at the Hearst Center for the Arts. 

The title story “Pallet King,” is based on true events involving a local controversy regarding wooden pallets that spun out of control. Gibson notes that most of his writing is “based on real events or thinly veiled reality” and he writes essays and stories about “things that really happened.”  Mostly, he tries “to find humor in my goof ups.” Attendees are encouraged to share their best five minutes of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction.  The evening will begin at 7p.m. with an open mic sign-up and open mic beginning at 7:15.  Dave Gibson will read at 8:00.  Published work by Gibson as well as other regional writers will be available for purchase. 

More information on the Final Thursday Reading Series is available at http://www.finalthursdaypress.com.  The Final Thursday Reading Series continues its 12^th season on October 25 with Iowa’s Poet Laureate Mary Swander.

The One Million Bones Project is being held in the Hemisphere Room, Maucker Union a large-scale social arts practice, which uses education and hands-on artmaking to raise awareness of genocides and atrocities going on around the world, this very day.

The goal is to collect artwork bones made by students and other citizens for a collaborative installation of 1,000,000 bones on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 2013. This installation will serve as a collaborative site of conscience to remember victims and survivors, and as a petition to raise awareness of the issue and call upon our government to take much needed action.

The visit of the One Million Bones Project to UNi is sponsored by UNI-STAND and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education.

Larry Baker is the author of the new novel Love and Other Delusions. His previous novels include A Good Man and The Flamingo Rising.

Open mic signup is at 7 p.m. Share your best five minutes of original poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction. Open mic begins at 7:15 p.m.; the featured author takes the stage at 8 p.m. There will be a question and answer period as time allows. Sponsored by Final Thursday Press; UNI College of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences; and Cup of Joe.

The Sixth Annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony will feature a presentation by Inge Auerbacher, survivor of Terezín (Theresienstadt) Concentration Camp. Auerbacher is the author of several books on the Holocaust, including the story of her survival, I Am a Star; and the recipient of numerous awards for her books and work teaching tolerance and human rights.  The ceremony will include a performance of music, the lighting of candles in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides as well as a special presentation to the Grout Museum at the end of the ceremony. The event is free and open to the public. Sponsors are the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, Sons of Jacob Synagogue of Waterloo, Cedar Valley Interfaith Council, Catholic Parishes of Waterloo, the Peace and Justice Center of the Cedar Valley and the College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences.

As Walt Whitman, re-enactor Bill Koch, adjunct professor of English, performs his multi-media one-man show that explains Whitman's life and times, reciting his poetry. Especially relevant as the country marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War are Whitman's reflections and poetry on the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. Open to the public free of charge.  

Diana Joseph, creative writing professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato, will read from her memoir "I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing But True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother and Friend to Man and Dog." This is part of the UNI "Writers Talk" reading series. This event is free and open to the public. 

The "Writers Talk" Reading Series will host a poetry reading by Waterloo native Sandy Longhorn, author of the poetry collection Blood Almanac. This book won the 2005 Anhinga Prize for Poetry. Longhorn teaches at Pulaski Technical College and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Arkansas in 2003. This event is free and open to the public.

Discussion of Ismael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a 2008 memoir about the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone and the scourge (and rehabilitation) of child soldiers.