In 1988, Timothy Fay published the very first issue of the Wapsipinicon Almanac at his Route 3 Press in Anamosa, Iowa. Fay’s goal was to offer a journal somewhat outside of mainstream Iowa journalism. For thirty years, the annual Wapsipinicon Almanac entertained midwestern readers with timely essays, works of fiction, news notes, art, poetry, and so much more. This book celebrates selections from three decades of the WapsipiniconAlmanac, so that readers can enjoy this important regional publication for years to come.

In The Art of Touch: Prose and Poetry from the Pandemic and Beyond, the unique voices of thirty-nine of some of the most creative thinkers of our times have been brought together to consider the profound impact of one of our five main senses: touch. Psychologists, healers, massage therapists, academics, creative writers, and others reflect on or tell personal stories about what it means to be able to touch or experience touch, or to have to go without it—as so many did and still do because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They explore how transmissions such as texting may impede opportunities for touch, while those like Zoom may make it possible for people who otherwise might be left behind to stay “in touch.” From the experience of touching beloved animals to the life-changing ways in which books and performances can touch us, virtually all aspects of touch are acknowledged in these pages.

Chariton Review Spring 2014

I wrote two previous books about my home town of Grinnell, Iowa, a nostalgic-historical approach. I have done something similar here with "Memories of Cornell College, 1957-1962", it is also nostalgic-historic and I reflect on my time at Cornell, some memories pleasant enough, others not so pleasant. In one of the final scenes of "Cambridge Spies", a non-fiction BBC presentation of the story of a small group of privileged Englishmen who betrayed their country and the Allies and spied for the Soviet Union from the 1930's - 1950's, Anthony Blunt, one of the men in question and Professor of Art History at the University of London at the time, was walking down a busy London street. Someone who recognized him said, "Mr. Blunt, I believe. Yes, you were at Cambridge with Philby, Burgess and McClain. How are they? Went on to bigger and better things, I imagine?" Blunt hesitated, then smiled and replied, "Yes, bigger and better things." At the time Burgess and McClain had just escaped to the Soviet Union, Philby was in the process of catching a midnight steamer from Beirut to Odessa and Blunt was to be revealed, then stripped of his Knighthood and ridiculed publicly. The men I focus on in this book were not spies; in fact one, Captain Ron Zinn lost his life in a firefight in Viet Nam in 1965 and another, Colonel Jerry Huml served in the RVN twice and had a distinguished U.S. Marine Corps career, but, yes they all did without question go on to bigger and better things - things which make Cornell look very good. Dorr, Zinn, Robison, Beamer, Weeden, Sunderlage, Hilmer, Taylor, Huml, Altenberg and others- yes, bigger and better things! This book is about life on the Hill Top over 50 years ago, as I saw it, and its impact on me later. Dave Adkins

In America’s Midwest, where “wilderness” is in short supply, working to defend what’s left of Iowa’s natural resources can be both a daunting and an entertaining task. In Wildland Sentinel, Erika Billerbeck takes readers along for the ride as she and her colleagues sift through poaching investigations, chase down sex offenders in state parks, search for fugitives in wildlife areas, haul drunk boaters to jail, perform body recoveries, and face the chaos that comes with disaster response. Using an introspective personal voice, this narrative nonfiction work weaves stories of Iowa’s natural history with a cast of unforgettable characters. Wildland Sentinel touches on what it means to be a woman working in the male-dominated field of conservation law enforcement.

The University of Iowa is a leading light in the writing world. In addition to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop for poets and fiction writers, it houses the prestigious Nonfiction Writing Program (NWP), which was the first full-time masters-granting program in this genre in the United States. Over the past three decades the NWP has produced some of the most influential nonfiction writers in the country. I’ll Tell You Mine is an extraordinary anthology, a book rooted in Iowa’s successful program that goes beyond mere celebration to present some of the best nonfiction writing of the past thirty years. Eighteen pieces produced by Iowa graduates exemplify the development of both the program and the field of nonfiction writing. Each is accompanied by commentary from the author on a challenging issue presented by the story and the writing process, including drafting, workshopping, revising, and listening to (or sometimes ignoring) advice. The essays are put into broader context by a prologue from Robert Atwan, founding editor of the Best American Essays series, who details the rise of nonfiction as a literary genre since the New Journalism of the 1960s. Creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing writing concentration in the country, with more than one hundred and fifty programs in the United States. I’ll Tell You Mine shows why Iowa’s leads the way. Its insider’s view of the Iowa program experience and its wealth of groundbreaking nonfiction writing will entertain readers and inspire writers of all kinds.

Much has changed with Iowa’s wildlife in the years 1990 to 2020. Some species such as Canada goose, wild turkey, and white-tailed deer that once were rare in Iowa are now common, and others like sandhill crane, river otter, and trumpeter swan are becoming increasingly abundant. Iowa’s Changing Wildlife provides an up-to-date, scientifically based summary of changes in the distribution, status, conservation needs, and future prospects of about sixty species of Iowa’s birds and mammals whose populations have increased or decreased in the past three decades. Readers will learn more about familiar species, become acquainted with the status of less familiar species, and find out how many of the species around them have fared during this era of transformation.