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In The Media News

Eco-Theatre Workshop | Sat Nov 15

Join The EcoTheatre Lab and Ames Writers Collective for a community Climate Change Theatre Action workshop! The EcoTheatre Lab team will share readings of short climate change plays and introduce the international Climate Change Theatre Action initiative. Then participants will engage with performance and generative writing exercises as a way to connect with local climate change issues and solutions.

Registrations not necessary, but greatly appreciate. Click HERE to let us know that you plan to join us.

While this workshop is open and FREE to anyone who would like to attend, we will gratefully accept pay-what-you-can donations!

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In The Media News

Author Spotlight with Douglas Gentile

Live and In Person at KHOI Radio
622 Douglas Avenue in Ames
Thursday, October 22nd | 7 PM

Join us for a reading with Douglas Gentile. He will discuss his latest book, Lessons Learned at a Buddhist Monastery: Hwadu Slogans.

“I went to a 28-day retreat at Woljeongsa Temple, in the mountains of Pyeongchang, South Korea. Very quickly things went wrong—really wrong.” —Douglas Gentile

Presented by The Ames Writers Collective and KHOI Community Radio, & supported by Ames Commission on the Arts (COTA)

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In The Media News

2nd & 4th Write Together Tuesdays

JOIN ANA MCCRACKEN for
Write Together Tuesdays during the month of October

Open to Fifth Street Members, Community Writers &
Writers From Around the Globe!
Hybrid Write Together Tuesdays
at Fifth Street Writers (612 5th Street Ames)
& on Zoom from 3:30 to 5 PM CT

WHAT’S A Write Together? We briefly state what we’re working on, and write for ~90 minutes. at the end, we share our successes and sign off. More information about Write Togethers can be found by CLICKING HERE.

To learn more about our host, Ana McCracken, CLICK HERE.

REMINDER: We meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month.

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In The Media News

2025 Ames Artists’ Studio Tour at Fifth Street Writers

2025 Ames Artists’ Studio Tour at
Ames Writers Collective Fifth Street Writers
612 5th St, ames
SATURDAY ONLY, 10 am to 4 pm

Designed to serve as a hub for writers, Fifth Street Writers provides a quiet and inspiring environment for writing while also offering a range of programs, classes, and special events tailored for writers of all ages and experience levels. This new space furthers the Ames Writers Collective mission to create healthy communities through the art of writing, while also supporting writers in the region.

During the studio tour, Fifth Street Writers will offer space and supplies for creatives to create poetry collage postcards and “Tumbling Words Wild Writing” sessions from 11 to Noon and 2 to 3 PM. We’ll supply a pen and paper.

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In The Media News

Author Nicole Baart & The Publishing Journey

Nicole Baart | The Publishing Journey | A Publishing Talk & Workshop

Location: Ames Writers Collective, Fifth Street Writers

Saturday, November 8 | 11 AM – 12 PM: Nicole Baart, The Publishing Journey & book-signing
FREE and open to the public

Saturday, November 8 | 1 PM – 3 PM: Pitching Your Work
Publishing practicum workshop

Fee: $25 general admission, Fifth Street members receive a 10% discount, and Students Free. CLICK HERE to receive a discount code.

TO REGISTER for general admission, CLICK here.

Nicole Baart is the author of several novels, including Where He Left Me and Everything We Didn’t Say. The cofounder of a nonprofit and mother of five, she lives in Iowa with her family. Learn more at NicoleBaart.com.

This event is held in partnership with the Iowa State University MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment Pearl Holgrefe Visiting Writers Series.

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In The Media News

Swift Literary Festival Sunday, Sept 28th

Join us this Sunday, September 28th for our 4th Annual Swift Literary Festival held during the 54th Annual Octagon Art Festival. From 10 to 4 PM, come visit our author line up below.

Stop by, mingle, buy books, and contribute to our Community Story. We look forward to meeting you on the 28th.

Stephen Brayton—Fiction, A Cold New Year
Tina Cho—Youth Lit, God’s Little Oceanographer
Kelli Fitzpatrick—
Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers Declassified
Douglas Myeong’il Gentile
Lessons Learned at a Buddhist Monastery: Hwadu Slogans
Lois Kennis—Women’s Fiction, Rise on Eagles Wings
Deb Kline—
Memoir, Forgetting to Remember
Ana McCracken
I Found Myself at Lake Okoboji | Discovering words, wonder, dreams, and inspirations (An anthology)
Linda Skeers—Youth Lit, Women Who Dared
Miles Tritle—
Horror/Sci-fi, The Warning in the Woods
Elise Wayland—
Fiction, Rivals to Lovers
Denise Williams—
Romance, Just Our Luck
J. Susanne Wilson—Historical Fiction, The Death and Life of Iphigenia

Octagon Center for the Arts

City of Ames

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In The Media News

Art of the Haibun with Katherine Larson

Join us for the “Art of the Haibun” with poet, Katherine Larson.

Katherine Larson is the author of two collections of poetry—Radial Symmetry (Yale University Press, 2011), selected by Louise Glück as winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, and The Speechless Ones (Interlinea Press, 2016), recipient of the Vercelli

International Civic Poetry Prize (former recipients include Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Adam Zagajewski). Her forthcoming book, Wedding of the Foxes (Milkweed Editions, 2025), is a collection of lyric essays. Larson’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals including AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, Blackbird, Boulevard, Crab Orchard Review, Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Notre Dame Review, Orion, Poetry, and Poetry Northwest and anthologized in Read America(s): An Anthology, Prentice Hall’s Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, and Firsts: 100 Years of Yale Younger Poets.

She is the recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the Larry Levis Reading Prize, the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Poetry Prize, and the Foreword Indies Gold Medal in Poetry. She has taught in the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. She is currently active with organizations and artists dedicated to conservation and environmental education in the Sonoran Desert and Gulf of California.

Cost: $25 adults. Are you a Student? Choose “Student Ticket” & Enter “FREE” UNDER DISCOUNT CODE.

To register, click here!

This event is held in partnership with the Iowa State University MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment Pearl Holgrefe Visiting Writers Series.

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In The Media News

Author Spotlight | John T. Price | Oct 9th 7 PM

Join the Ames Writers Collective & KHOI Community Radio Station for an evening with John T. Price—live at Fifth Street Writers on Thursday, October 9th at 7 PM.

This free community event features a reading, book signing, and conversation with John T. Price,  author of the novel, Goethe’s Oak–A Holocaust Story. Hosted in partnership with KHOI Community Radio, the evening celebrates literature, community, and creative storytelling.

About John T. Price: He is is the author of four creative nonfiction books: Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey into the American Grasslands, Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships, Daddy Long Legs: The Natural Education of a Father, and All Is Leaf: Essays and Transformations. He is the Regents/Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he directs the English Department’s Creative Nonfiction Writing Program, and is a faculty member in the Goldstein Center for Human Rights.

Visit KHOI to tune in!

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In The Media News

Member Open Hours | Mondays in Sept | 5 to 7 PM

This month, join us for Open Hours at Fifth Street Writers. Open hours are available for members only! Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!

Looking for a space designed for writers by writers? Or are you looking for a quiet area to focus on your most recent project? At Fifth Street Writers, we aim to provide just that from 5pm – 7pm on Mondays in September. There are a few exceptions, please check our events calendar for specific dates!

We have seating areas spread throughout the building at Fifth Street Writers that run the gamut from comfy club chairs to benches with tables, to larger tables with chairs. Limited parking is available in front of the building, with plenty of street parking. Our site host is communications intern, Acacia Coates.

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Blog News

Interview with Tony Moton

Meet Tony Moton!

Tony is a board member with the Ames Writers Collective and is a professor of journalism at Iowa State University. From his start in sports media to his role as a professor, Tony encourages students and writers not to fear the blank page and to overcome perfectionism.

As a board member, Tony helps to support the Ames community through Fifth Street Writers. From hosting Write Together Tuesdays at 612 Fifth Street to assisting in board meetings, Tony is passionate about developing community through the art of writing.