Welcome to the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
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 real-time gatherings in Iowa.
The Iowa Writers Collaborative supports writers and songwriters 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 storytellers.
Some of us discuss politics, and some don't. Some are funny, and others are deadly serious. We have poets and songwriters in our midst, including one who was designated the Iowa Poet Laurette. We have Grammy-nominated musicians and a Pulitzer winner.
Our writers have appeared in The Des Moines Register, The Quad City Times, The Washington Post, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and more.
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.
: Chip Happens, Des Moines
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Rekha Basu: Shouts and Whispers, Des Moines
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
: Romen Borsellino, Hollywood, CA
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Life, 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
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Taylor Decker: Taylor’s Millennial Mindset, Sioux City
Nina Elkadi, Corn Belt Confidential, Iowa City
CHAD ELLIOTT, Iowa’s Renaissance Man, Jefferson
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield
Christina Fernández-Morrow, Hola Iowa and Christina Fernández-Morrow, Des Moines
Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines
Marianne Fons: Reporting From Quiltropolis, Winterset
Kathryn Severing Fox: Creston
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
Chris Gloninger: Weathering Climate Change, US
Dennis Goldford: Let’s Talk Politics, Clive
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
, Things We Don’t Talk About, Like Religion, Washington
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia
Phoebe Wall Howard: Shifting Gears, Detroit
Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC
Iowa Podcasters' Collaborative
Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup Sunday Roundup
Black Iowa News: Dana James, Iowa
Chris Jones: The Swine Republic, 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, Davenport
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
Ty Rushing: Ty’s Take, Iowa City
Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty
Maxwell Schaeffer, Maxwell’s Voice, Ankeny
Sarah Scull: The Piecemaker, Creston
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Zachary Oren Smith: Cornhole Champions, Iowa City
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
Joan Zwagerman, Nuts and Bolts, Storm Lake
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People
Founder: The Iowa Writers' Collaborative includes highly regarded, popular, columnists from around the state. Produces the Okoboji Writers' Retreat. Writes Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck. Having a blast.
Robert Leonard is a former radio news reporter. He has bylines in the New York Times, TIME, USA Today, the Des Moines Register, the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, the Kansas City Star, and many more.