Prairie Lights Bookstore In Iowa Is Known Around The World

“You build your mind, so make it into something you want to live with.” “This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it.” “There are a thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient.” Do you recognize these words? They were all penned by a famous, award-winning author: Marilynne Robinson. The same Marilynne Robinson that, along with a number of other world-famous authors, is associated with a small town and an independent bookstore located right here in Iowa.

Prairie Lights Bookstore, located on 15 South Dubuque Street in Iowa City, Iowa, has been serving up good books to the Hawkeye State since 1978.

Although it started small, this elite book shop has grown... and grown. It now fills a three-and-a-half-story building, including a coffee house that hosts readings from famous authors.

Past guests, pre-dating the bookstore all the way back to the building's 1930s literary society days, have included Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, Sherwood Anderson, Langston Hughes, e e cummings, Marilynne Robinson (an Iowa City local), and more. Some of these readings were broadcast as the first-of-its-kind literary series on two local stations.

Prairie Lights Bookstore still prides itself on its small, intimate feel, and its ability to offer titles by new voices, established authors, and local Iowa writers.

Iowa City is an ideal spot for such a bookshop paradise because the first creative writing degree offered to students anywhere in the nation was right here at the University of Iowa in 1936. Known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, this program has produced seventeen Pulitzer Prize winners, six U.S. Poets Laureate, and more.

And many of the founders of this program, and the writers it has produced, have worked closely with the Prairie Lights Bookstore and the bookstore's cafe.

Before visiting Prairie Lights Bookstore, check the website for the current operating hours as well as to see if the cafe is open or temporarily closed. You can also find Prairie Lights on Facebook. And just so you know, book lovers, there’s even more literary fun to be had here in Iowa’s literature capital.

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Prairie Lights Books & Cafe, 15 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA 52240, USA

The Unsuspecting Iowa Bookstore That's Known Around The World

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