An Evening of Literature

Iowa City is a UNESCO City of Literature. What that means as UNESCO defines it, is “The panel of experts that evaluated the application of Iowa City recognized this University town’s unique profile as a creative writing and reading centre with impressive history of literary accomplishments. The community’s strategic commitment to literary culture through the diversity of grassroots initiatives, such as the Iowa’s Writers Workshop and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, was highly regarded as an instructional model and inspiration for other small cities to promote local economic and socio-cultural development through creative industries."

What that means as I define it, is this city is chock-full of opportunity to feed the small voice inside you that’s always wondered what your name would look like on a best-seller list.

One of these rich opportunities happens several times each week at Prairie Lights, the local independent bookstore. The downtown store hosts authors – many of whom graduated from the university’s highly respected Writer’s Workshop. I’ve been meaning to attend one of these book talks and finally went for the first time tonight.

John Reimringer was there presenting Vestments, his novel about a young priest’s struggle between faith and flesh. I mean Mr. Reimringer no disrespect, but I showed up because I’m working on follow through in my life and Prairie Lights was a neglected goal. I hoped Vestments would surprise me and add further value to my evening of goal accomplishment.

I arrived five minutes late and slid into a forest green plastic chair in the back row, far left side, after a thickset man in overalls vacated the chair by placing his heavy brown work jacket in his lap. I smiled gratefully and focused in on the story.

The surface level summary of this experience is: Iowa City is a wonderfully creative town and author talks like this are a delightful way to celebrate and explore that facet of the city. Also, John Reimringer seems to be a good writer, although I may not pursue reading Vestments. Priestly turmoil isn’t an immediate draw.

The more vulnerable layer to all this is: My fairly regular battle with loneliness was hanging out on the fringes of the evening. While I sat next to my overall-ed friend, Loneliness flipped through the latest Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I struggled to remain present. Then, I began to silently pray for the author. Things I don’t think I would have thought of on my own flowed into my prayers. He kept making eye contact with me and I thought, “I wonder if he can sense what I’m doing? Is God telling him, ‘John. I love you and I’m having that girl in the back row do some interceding for you. Yes, her. Next to the overalls.’” It’s also possible that making eye contact with your audience makes for a good author sharing. After praying, I began thinking about the people in the room, why they were there. I thought about how I love making up stories about random strangers’ lives and how someday I should write a book. Then, I was inspired to dedicate more time to writing and consider what God would do with that. Suddenly, I looked at the cookbooks section and Loneliness was nowhere to be found. I glanced at the Sci-Fi section too, just for good measure. No sign of him.

The talk finished, I chatted a bit with Mr. Overalls, and walked home in the sharply cold Iowa air. I walked and I sang. I told the Lord that He is good. He is good. He is good. I thanked Him for bringing me here to this UNESCO City of Literature, where He has good plans – for John Reimringer and for me.