Fun, powerful, insightful, and informed columns

...plus Chuy Renteria is featured in Mary Swander's Emerging Voices

Nov 20, 2022

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The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative recently added columnists Kyle Munson and Fern & Joe. Check them out and say ‘hello.’

Some of our Iowa Writers' Collaborative crew — Some of our. columnists: Belin, Cullen, Swander, Offeburger, Gammack, Leonard, Burns, Tibbetts and Heftman

Some of our Iowa Writers' Collaborative crew — Some of our. columnists: Belin, Cullen, Swander, Offeburger, Gammack, Leonard, Burns, Tibbetts and Heftman

OFFICE LOUNGE THIS FRIDAY

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we will hold Our Office Lounge Zoom call for paid subscribers. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members will be on the call to answer any questions, banter back and forth, and listen to your story ideas. Dave Busiek will moderate. This is a monthly feature for our paid subscribers. We thank you for your support.

Each columnist will send the Zoom link to his or her paid subscribers. If you do not receive one, email: julieokobojiwriters@gmail.com.

The Zoom invitation link is below the paywall.

A NOTE TO READERS: Please enjoy all our members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, and support our work with subscriptions, which will bring our columns to you by email. The subscriptions are free, or you can pay modest fees — your choice. Here’s our line-up:

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Kyle Munson: Kyle’s Main Street, Iowa

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Barry Piatt on Politics-Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Also, please subscribe to our alliance partner, Iowa Capital Dispatch. They provide hard-hitting news along with selected commentary by IWC members. IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH

Your weekly roundup of columns featured in random order:

MARY SWANDER

Mary Swander's Emerging Voices

When to Cut Out a Watermelon's Heart

My dad says the only way to eat a watermelon is to cut out its heart. To crack it open and discard the bits even remotely close to the rind. He disclosed this to me this past summer while we were on vacation in Montana. In a hunter’s lodge visiting my wife's family. We coordinated this grand vacation as a celebration. After we were al…

3 years ago · 5 likes · 7 comments · Mary Swander

KYLE MUNSON

Kyle Munson's Main Street

Varsity Cinema returns to help screen out the noise.

A buzzsaw whined from inside the building as a construction worker named Nick walked out the front door carrying a long and thin artifact. “Want to keep your old handrail?” Nick said. “No, but I appreciate the offer,” said Ben Godar, director of the…

3 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Kyle Munson

FERN AND JOE

Fern: For our introductory column, we talked about ethnic identities, Jewish and Arab. Currently, I feel that it’s a sensitive time to be a Jew. I “identify” as Jewish. I am Jewish. Even as an agnostic, even as someone who doesn’t go to synagogue, even as someone who probably should describe herself first as a secular humanist, I am Jewish. I don’t feel…

3 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Joe Geha and Fern Kupfer

CHERYL TEVIS

Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business

Landmarks anchor the landscapes of memory. For graduates of the Boxholm Consolidated and Grand Community Schools, a monumental landmark was erased when their two-story school was demolished last summer. It marked the end of an era. The last class graduated in 1985. But for two more decades the school welcomed elementary students from Boxholm, Pi…

3 years ago · Cheryl Tevis

ART CULLEN

Art Cullen’s Notebook

Iowa goes its own direction

Iowa took a turn from the bulk of America in the midterm elections with its continued march to the right. Voters put Republicans in full control of the statehouse, again, and draped the congressional delegation in red. Even Storm Lake, which had been voting Democrat, went with the GOP…

3 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Art Cullen

SUZANNA DEBACA

Dispatches from the Heartland

First snow. A hush Falls As the stars Cascade from night To white. A silent blanket Covering up all spaces And traces Of what was before. First snow. Cornstalks jutting up In frosted fields Painted with the palest brush. Silver showers rain down earthbound, Reflecting the moon Catching the earliest rays Of alabaster sunris…

3 years ago · 1 like · 3 comments · Suzanna de Baca

DAVE BUSIEK

Dave Busiek on Media

We Can Take Pictures of Police and So Can You

The city of Des Moines has agreed to pay $125,000 to settle a lawsuit with a guy who took pictures of police officers outside the police station. The man, standing on public property, thought it was wrong that some officers were parking illegally. Police thought he was acting suspiciously, detained him for questions and then let him go, but only after…

3 years ago · 5 likes · 3 comments · Dave Busiek

ROBERT LEONARD

Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture

Leave the Iowa Caucuses Alone

Elizabeth Warren at Simpson College I looked over the shoulder of the Chair of the Marion County Iowa Democratic Party, who was also a caucus official, and watched as she keyed in the results from one caucus location in Knoxville, Iowa that fateful night, Feb 3, 2020. She poked her finger at the keyboard on her iPhone, once, then again, harder. She pause…

3 years ago · 3 likes · 8 comments · Robert Leonard

Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture

Dear Rekha Basu,

Dear Rekha Basu, As far as I remember, we met only once; this past summer at Julie Gammack’s Okoboji Writer’s Retreat. Yet, when I read of your upcoming retirement from the Register the other day, I felt a profound sense of loss. While I can’t remember if I was reading the print edition, or if I read the copy online, I do remember that I leaned forward, …

3 years ago · 18 likes · 26 comments · Robert Leonard

ED TIBBETTS

Along the Mississippi

A second chance

To nobody’s surprise, Donald Trump announced Tuesday he’ll run for president in 2024. The question now is this: What will Republican Party leaders do about it? Especially in Iowa. Many in the Republican Party, including a good share of their leaders, know that Donald Trump is a significant risk for this country. A second …

3 years ago · 3 likes · 6 comments · Ed Tibbetts

BARRY PIATT

Barry Piatt on Politics: - Behind the Curtains

A Modest Proposal

There used to be a tradition in American politics that both winners and losers would come together after an election to bind up the wounds from election campaigns and lower the public’s temperature and blood pressure. Election campaigns are hard fought. Harsh words are often exchanged. You can’t run a country with a population constantly at each other’s…

3 years ago · 2 likes · Barry Piatt

JODY GIFFORD

Benign Inspiration

I woke up this morning to the news of another attack on the LGBTQ community, this time at nightclub in Colorado Springs. At the time of this posting, five people are dead with another 18 injured. The suspect is being treated and is in police custody…

3 years ago · 1 comment · Jody Gifford

BETH HOFFMAN

Rolling Down A Steep Slope

NOTE: This week features a post from the one and only John Hogeland (with some additions by your truly). Fall is rolling down a very steep slope towards winter here at Whippoorwill Creek Farm and we have (largely) gotten out in front of the change in weather…

3 years ago · 2 likes · 4 comments · Beth Hoffman

LAURA BELIN

Iowa politics with Laura Belin

Miller-Meeks touts ag tech, nuclear power at climate summit

This exclusive reporting first appeared at Bleeding Heartland and is shared here as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For regular emails linking to other Bleeding Heartland coverage, subscribe to the free Evening Heartland newsletter. U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Mee…

3 years ago · Laura Belin

Iowa politics with Laura Belin

Breaking down the Iowa election results

KHOI Radio gave Dennis Hart and me a full hour this week, instead of the usual 30 minutes to break down Iowa’s federal, statewide, and state legislative elections. You can find the audio files for any episode of “Capitol Week” on this page. Here’s the…

3 years ago · 1 like · Laura Belin

Iowa politics with Laura Belin

2022 elections bring more diversity to Iowa legislature

This analysis first appeared at Bleeding Heartland, as the third installment in a series interpreting the results of Iowa’s 2022 state and federal elections. It is shared here as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For regular emails linking to o…

3 years ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Laura Belin

CHUCK OFFENBURGER

Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger

Iowa's rockin' Poet Laureate

JEFFERSON, Iowa – After lunching with Debra Marquart in Ames one day last week, I’m ready to call my pals in other states and say, “Our Iowa Poet Laureate is cooler than your state’s poet laureate.” You can check me on that next Sunday afternoon, Nov. 20, in Jefferson. Marquart will join 10 Greene County poets and 10 Greene County artists in a program ca…

3 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Chuck Offenburger

JULIE GAMMACK

Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck

Our Monday Lunch Schedule

Watch now (68 min) | Welcome to our new subscribers! Here’s how we do things around here. First, this is called a ‘potluck’ because it’s a column with a little bit of this and that. It mixes commentary and stories featuring people of interest. Most posts have some Iowa angle. The column is free…

3 years ago · Julie Gammack

DOUGLAS BURNS

MARY SWANDER

Mary Swander’s Buggy Land

An artist residency sounds pretty decadent. Some weirdo holes up in a rustic cabin for a couple of weeks and doesn’t come out the door until it’s time to leave with a finished manuscript and the smoke of a familiar herb floating through the air. I am the co-founder and executive director of a non-profit called AgArts with a mission to ima…

3 years ago · 3 likes · 8 comments · Mary Swander

DANA JAMES

Investing In My Future: Helping Black Students Pick Up ‘STEAM’

I asked the high school junior what career sounded appealing to her. The talkative girl stood before my assistant Shimae Obie and I. She clutched a list with names of the professionals and organizations she was required to visit during a career fair and expo by the nonprofit…

3 years ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · New Black Iowa

DEBRA ENGLE

A Whole New World

Transcendence. It’s not a word we hear every day, but it’s becoming one of my favorites. I started thinking about it a few weeks ago for a yearlong memoir class I co-teach with author Amy Ferris through Story Summit. Transcendence is the inner shift that happens at the end of a great memoir—or any great story, for that matter…

3 years ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Debra Engle

OFFICE LOUNGE LINK, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 12-1 p.m.

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