MUSCATINE, IOWA (October 6, 2023) — On Thursday, October 19, the Muscatine Art Center will welcome writers Marina Porcelli and Martha Cecilia Ruiz from the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP). The two are participating in the Fall Residency program that attracts established and emerging creative writers — poets, fiction writers, dramatists, and nonfiction writers — from all over the world. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State is a major source of support for the program.
During the free program at the Muscatine Art Center, Porcelli and Ruiz will read excerpts from their writings, speak about their lives and their work in their respective countries and respond to questions from the audience. The program will be held in the Stanley Gallery where an exhibition of portraits by the Mauricio Lasansky, an Argentine artist and founder of the school of printmaking at the University of Iowa, is on view.
Marina Porcelli is a fiction writer and essayist from Argentina. She is the author of the novella Cuaderno de invierno [A Winter Notebook] (2021), a collection of essays on gender, Nausica. Viaje al otro lado de la otredad [Nausicaa. Journey to the Other Side of Otherness] (2021), the story collections La cacería [The Hunt] (2016) and De la noche rota [Of the Broken Night] (2009/2021), and others. Her work has garnered her the 2014 Edmundo Valadés Ibero-American Award and the 2021 Eduardo Mallea National Essay Award; she has attended residences in Mexico, Canada, and China. A frequent contributor to Latin American newspapers, she writes the column “Nocaut Lírico” [The Lyrical Knockout] about gender and boxing for Playboy Mexico.
Martha Cecilia Ruiz is a non-fiction and fiction writer, editor, and arts promotor from Nicaragua. She has for the past three decades worked as a reporter, scriptwriter, and a host of radio and tv programs. The organization she founded, “Proyecto365MCR,” promotes Nicaraguan women’s creative writing. The author of Familia de cuchillos [Family of knives] (2016), she has also contributed fiction and non-fiction to a dozen national and regional anthologies.
“This new partnership with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa is a special opportunity for the Muscatine community to hear firsthand from some of the brightest writing talent today,” exclaimed Katy Loos, Muscatine Art Center Program Coordinator. “Marina and Martha have incredible stories to share, and it is a thrill to build this connection with the prestigious IWP.”
About the International Writing Program:
The International Writing Program (IWP) is the oldest and largest multinational writing residency in the world. With a tradition of excellence that has continued for over five decades, the IWP annually brings outstanding authors from every continent to the University of Iowa (UI), a major American research institution internationally renowned for its writing programs.
Since 1967, over 1,600 writers from more than 160 nations have taken part in the IWP’s Fall Residency. The goal of the IWP is to provide authors a one-of-a-kind intercultural opportunity and the time and space to write, read, translate, study, conduct research, travel, give readings, stage work, and become part of the vibrant literary and academic community at the UI and in Iowa City, the first American city designated as a UNESCO City of Literature, in part because of the IWP’s presence.
Each year, the IWP brings together 30-35 of the world’s emerging and established writers to participate in the Fall Residency’s unique intercultural experience. Over the course of eleven weeks, aside from working on their own projects, writers give readings and lectures that share their work and cultures, collaborate with artists from other genres and art forms, and travel and interact with American audiences and literary communities across the United States.
The Muscatine Art Center is located at 1314 Mulberry Avenue in Muscatine, Iowa. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10AM-5PM; Thursdays, 10AM-7PM; and Saturday and Sunday, 1-5PM. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated. Visit muscatineartcenter.org for more information about programs and events. Please contact Katy Loos, Program Coordinator, with any questions about our upcoming programs at 563-263-8282 or by e-mail at kloos@muscatineiowa.gov.
