Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Iron Pen 2023. We received many terrific entries, and our excellent judges—Samantha DeFilippo (nonfiction), Rachel Rixen (fiction), and Deanie Vallone (poetry), who are last year’s winners in each category—had very difficult decisions to make in their evaluations. We appreciate everyone’s time and talents in making this year’s contest one of the biggest we’ve ever had (120 people registered for Iron Pen XV).
I hope this finds you safe and well as we prepare to turn the page on 2022. We’ve been fortunate to have a terrific year at MWC—from our partnership with WVIK to bring our These Interesting Times anthology into podcast form, to welcoming Ross Gay as our Writers’ Conference keynote speaker, it’s been an exciting year of celebrating the power of the written word. As I reflect and look forward, I’ve been thinking about two people very dear to MWC, both important to our history, who also made lasting contributions that will continue into the future—one of them a writer, and one of them an advocate: Richard “Dick” Stahl and Rochelle Murray.
Join the Rock Island Public Library and the Midwest Writing Center for their annual “Banned Books Reading!” Please note: this event is after library hours, so please arrive no later than 6 pm.
Local authors, librarians, and guests will read passages from their favorite challenged/banned items to celebrate our Freedom to Read. Everyone welcome to attend; content might not be suitable for some attendees. It’s time we “ban”d together” against censorship!