Author: Ryan Collins

SPECTRA Lives! Jeffrey McDaniel Community Write-In & ReadingThurs. 4/23 at Rozz-Tox

Posted on by Ryan Collins

The Quad Cities’ longest running reading series welcomes award-winning poet and professor Jeffrey McDaniel to the QC on Thursday, April 23 at Rozz-Tox (2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL).  

McDaniel will lead a community write-in prior to the readings at 7:00 p.m.; there will be short reading, followed by a prompt he developed. Copies of the reading will be available at no cost, and there will be time for participants to write and briefly discuss their work. Then at 8:00 p.m., McDaniel will give a reading, with local poets Sophia Best, Henry Morray, and Ryan Collins opening.

Announcing the Winners of Iron Pen 2026!

Posted on by Ryan Collins

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Iron Pen 2026. We received many terrific entries, and our excellent judges— Kate Wiegele (nonfiction), Dan Woessner (fiction), and Kristen Sneed (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 most competitive we’ve ever had.

Without any further ado, here are the winners of the 2026 Iron Pen Contest, by category…