Welcome to the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Local news is the most trusted source for information about your government, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods.
It’s how you receive the information you need to make crucial decisions in your daily lives.
It’s how you connect with your community.
But local news is at risk of disappearing, which is why we created the Iowa Writers Collaborative, so you can receive the news you need and deserve—in your inbox every week.
Keep community-based local journalism and commentary alive.
Donate once:
Or offer annual or monthly support:
When you support the Iowa Writers Collaborative, you receive:
A weekly roundup of reporting and columns from fifty of the best regional journalists in the country.
A monthly Zoom conversation we call The Office Lounge.
An invitation to a real-time holiday party.
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is the support system for these journalists who report and write about real life—your life—giving voice to those typically ignored by the mainstream media.
Your paid support makes their work possible.
Donate to the Iowa Writers Collaborative today to keep real, accountable, community-based local journalism alive.
Donate once:
Or offer annual or monthly recurring support:
Who we are
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is a group of independent professional journalists and writers. These local journalists and writers are the prime source of credible information and analysis to help you in your everyday life.
Some of us discuss politics, and some don't. Some are funny, and others are dead serious. We have two poets in our midst, including one who was designated the Iowa Poet Laurette. We have a Pulitzer winner and another whose family-owned newspaper has won countless awards from the Iowa Newspaper Association.
Our writers have appeared in The Des Moines Register, The Quad City Times, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and more.
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From affluent suburbs to urban centers to rural towns, local news matters.
Paid supporters of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative like you allow us to provide our members with best practices, tech support, and a one-year training course with an expert in Substack tools. The goal is to help us serve you better.
Help keep local independent journalism alive by supporting the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Meet our writers
Each writer is independent and has a Substack of their own.
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Live, Des Moines
Douglas Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Rachelle Chase : Reading with Rachelle, Ottumwa
Iowa Writers Collaborative: Roundup
Steph C: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Taylor Deckert: Taylor’s Millennial Mindset, Sioux City
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield
Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines
Marianne Fons: Reporting From Quiltropolis, Winterset
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Avery Gregurich: The Five and Dime, Marengo
Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Rob Gray's Area: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC
Iowa Podcasters' Collaborative
Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup Sunday Roundup
Black Iowa News: Dana James, Iowa
Chris Jones: Chris’s Substack, Iowa City
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters From Iowans
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Hola Iowa: Iowa
Alison McGaughey: The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurtis Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Vicki Minor: Relatively Minor, Winterset
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander's Emerging Voices: Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Jason Walsmith: The Racontourist, Earlham
Kali White VanBaale: 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
