They like us
...The Iowa Writers' Collaborative was designated a 'Substack Featured Publication for 2022'
Linking Readers to Writers
We were designated a 'Substack Featured Publication just 48 hours ago, and the influx of new subscribers is impressive. Welcome!
From now on, Sunday mornings, you will receive a weekly roundup of links to columns by members of our collaborative. We are a group of independent, talented writers with one thing in common: Iowa.
Some 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. In his column this week, he writes about a book he's mentioned in that quotes him as being suicidal during the darkest days of bearing the responsibility of keeping a small town paper alive.
We have a former writer for Better Homes and Gardens magazine who teaches memoir writing and classes on A Course in Miracles. She is the author of multiple books that can be found in the Spiritual, Self-Help section of bookstores. She lives on land in Madison County, Iowa, the home of John Wayne and the place romanticized in the book The Bridges of Madison County.
Our writers have appeared in The Des Moines Register, The Quad City Times, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, and Time magazine. We have a veteran television news anchor/managing editor who writes about local media.
See? We are a varied lot.
The Iowa Writers' Collaborative is a response to cutbacks of local news coverage, thoughtful commentary, and analysis that had been a staple of legacy media. We believe there is a hunger for this kind of content and Substack provides a platform by which we can link readers directly to writers.
The Iowa Writers' Collaborative is a bold experiment. We believe we can be more successful by joining forces to introduce our readers to one another, and so far, it is paying off. About 10% of our subscribers pay to subscribe to several of our writers. It is not required, but it does help keep them going.
To encourage our readers to become paid - to any of us - we will launch the first Zoom meeting for paid subscribers from noon to 1 p.m. (central) on October 28. We call this premium The Office Lounge, named after a favorite bar next to The Des Moines Register. Most newsrooms around the country have a similar watering hole where folks gather to grumble or salute their successes.
You can join our merry band of columnists each month as a paid subscriber. Again, another experiment. Our columnist Ed Tibbetts describes it best here: My New Newsroom.
Here's the roundup of column links (in green) for this week:
LAURA BELIN
IOWA GOVERNOR NOT EVEN CLOSE TO KEEPING CAMPAIGN PROMISE
DOUG BURNS
SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, RESILIENCE IN A SMALL-TOWN IOWA NEWSPAPER’S FIERCE LAST STAND
DAVE BUSIEK
JOURNALISM AND POLITICS: WHERE’S THE LINE?
ART CULLEN
WHERE THE KING OF SUMMIT HILL MEETS THE QUEEN OF COUNTRY
WELL-FED FARMERS FIND BITING HAND THAT FEEDS THEM TASTES SO GOOD
SUZANNA DE BACA
DEBRA ENGLE
JULIE GAMMACK
ROAD TRIP TO BURLINGTON (ONE OF THREE)
JODY GIFFORD
BETH HOFFMAN
DANA JAMES
I DELAYED MY COLONOSCOPY DURING COVID: DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE
ROBERT LEONARD
IOWA DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR DEIDRE DEJEAR RESPONDS TO GOVERNOR KIM REYNOLDS
BETH HOWARD: AMBASSADOR OF PIE
CHUCK OFFENBURGER
BARRY PIATT
A QUESTION FOR CHUCK GRASSLEY: DOES HE, TOO, ENDORSE HERSCHEL WALKER?
MARY SWANDER
ED TIBBETTS
FBI: REPORTED CRIME FELL IN DAVENPORT IN 2021
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative is aligned with Iowa Capital Dispatch, a hard-hitting, independent, online local journalism organization that is a part of States Newsroom, a national, donor-supported nonprofit. The ICD runs commentary, linking back to the writer’s Substack column.
If you like what we are doing, please share it with others.
Our list with column names: