Prairie Lights Books

Prairie Lights Books is more than a bookstore; it is one of the defining cultural institutions of Iowa City, the only UNESCO City of Literature in the United States. Since 1978, the store has served as the literary living room for a community that includes Iowa Writers' Workshop students and faculty, University of Iowa scholars, and readers drawn to a city where literature is taken as seriously as anywhere on earth. The literary fiction and poetry sections are curated by staff with deep expertise in contemporary writing, and the small-press collection is among the most comprehensive in the country. The upstairs reading space has hosted thousands of author events over the decades, many of them broadcast on local public radio. The cafe provides a contemplative space for reading, and the store's commitment to stocking challenging, adventurous literature ensures that every visit offers the possibility of discovering something genuinely new.