Poets! Join us for the 2026 IPA Poetry Slam Ames Qualifier!
Doors open at 6:30 PM! Qualifying event begins at 7 PM!
Bring your poems and be ready to compete! Click here to register.
Tag: #ameswriterscollective
This month, join us for our Members Open Hours at Fifth Street Writers. Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!
Open this month from 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM on Wednesdays. There are a few exceptions, please check our events calendar for specific dates!
Our space is designed for writers by writers? It’s a quiet place to focus on your writing projects? 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 this month is communications intern, Acacia Coates.
Join The EcoTheatre Lab and Ames Writers Collective for a community Climate Change Theatre Action workshop!
This event is located at Fifth Street Writers on Saturday November 15 from 10am – 12pm. This event is FREE and open to the public.
The EcoTheatre Lab team will share readings of short climate change plays and introduce the international Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA) initiative. Then participants will engage with performance and
generative writing exercises as a way to connect with local climate change issues and solutions.
This workshop is open to anyone who is interested, but pay-what-you-can donations will be accepted at the door. Click here to RSVP.
LIVE and In Person at
FIFTH STREET WRITERS
612 5th St., AMES, IA
Thursday, November 20, 6:30 PM
Books for Sale & Author Signing
A vividly illustrated family memoir told in two voices, father and daughter, The Art of Being a Stranger explores the impact of displacement and historical memory across generations.
Karen Bermann is professor emerita of architecture at Iowa State University. She worked on sweat equity rehabilitation in her native New York and taught first-year design in Ames and fourth-year design in Rome, where she now lives.
On Exhibit & Meet the Author/Artist:
Drawings from The Art of Being a Stranger
Thursday, Nov 20: 6:30 PM
Friday Nov 21 10:30 AM to Noon and 1 to 6:30 PM
Saturday Nov 22: 1:30 to 6:30 PM
Meet Nicole Baart!
Nicole is the bestselling author of several novels, including Where He Left Me and Everything We Didn’t Say. She has years of experience in modern publishing and knows what it takes to move a novel from first draft, to query, to published work. She will share her experience publishing and practical tips for new authors. Details below.
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.
This event is held in partnership with the Iowa State University MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment Pearl Holgrefe Visiting Writers Series.
Learn more about Nicole at NicoleBaart.com.
Categories
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!
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)
Categories
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.
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.
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
