The Iowa Theater in Winterset, Iowa, known locally as “The Iowa,” is once again a gem of a space—Art Deco facade, classic marquee, single silver screen, 150 seats (including balcony), red velvet curtain that opens dramatically at start of show, and a concession stand offering Iowa-grown popcorn served with real butter. The Iowa closed in … Read more
When deciding how I feel about a nineteenth or early twentieth century quilt, one of my tests is whether I would like to have lunch with the maker. If the workmanship is angel-perfect, a cup of coffee or a glass of water might be enough. Perfectionists are notoriously un-fun. Other anonymous quilts from the past … Read more
A member of my Novel in a Year cohort (Marie Deaconu-Baylon) recommended Brit Bennett’s debut novel, THE MOTHERS during a class meeting a couple of months ago. Marie mentioned she knows Bennett personally, as they were undergraduates together at Stanford University in California. When recent buzz about Bennett’s second novel THE VANISHING HALF appeared in … Read more
As we stayed home this spring, making masks or quilts or sourdough bread, we watched events we were planning to attend get canceled or postponed, and rightly so—it’s clear that limiting travel, wearing masks, and physical distancing have definitely helped slow the spread of the COVID19 virus. As spring became summer, we learned that the … Read more
The dozen writers in my Novel-in-a-Year cohort at StoryStudio Chicago are all serious readers as well as writers. Over the past months, they’ve pointed me toward THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, THE IDIOT, THE AGE OF LIGHT, and now Marilynne Robinson’s HOUSEKEEPING. HOUSEKEEPING was a finalist for the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Robinson eventually … Read more
My favorite bookshop is Fair Isle Books on Washington Island, Wisconsin. Though the size of a small bedroom, Fair Isle is everything a bookstore should be. Its petiteness in fact makes everything simpler—one doesn’t waste time browsing through books one needn’t bother to read. Proprietor Deb Wayman once emailed to let me know a book … Read more
Anyone who reads my posts knows I was instrumental in the renovation and reopening of my small town’s single-screen movie theater a couple of years ago. Its official name is The Winterset Iowa Theater, but around here folks just call it The Iowa. Like theaters across America and around the world, due to the COVID19 … Read more
A week or so before “The Call of the Wild” (the movie based on Jack London’s famous novella) opened at the Iowa Theater here in Winterset, I happened to read somewhere that the dogs in the film are computer generated images. “Gosh,” I thought, “couldn’t they have given real dogs gainful employment?” It seemed unfair … Read more
It’s been a long time since I read THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, and quite a few years since I saw a performance of HAMLET, but as I entered the world of novelist Elif Batuman’s THE IDIOT, I thought frequently of the protagonists of both those classic works.* What I remember about THE CATCHER IN … Read more
You’re not out to pasture but the green hues of the field start coming into focus when a fast-moving horse like me becomes the subject of tributes and end-of-career awards. In 2018, for example, The Quilt Show chose me as their Legend. Don’t get me wrong—the whole experience was a blast. My longtime pals Alex … Read more