- On this episode of American Stories: A Reading Road Trip, we're heading to the Hawkeye state.

- Join us as we dive into Iowa's impact on our literary culture, which predates its statehood, starting with Black Hawk's powerful autobiography.

We'll also learn about the ghost writer behind Nancy Drew, and the illustrious Iowa workshop.

- One alumnus is Jane Smiley.

Her novel, "A Thousand Acres", earned her a Pulitzer Prize.

We'll also hear from bestselling writers of today like Denise Williams, author of "How to Fail at Flirting", and author of "The Overnight Guest", Heather Gudenkauf.

- Join PBS Books, the Library of Congress, and the Iowa Center for the Book on a literary adventure through Iowa.

This is American Stories: A Reading Road Trip.

(bright music) - Well, hello and welcome.

I'm Fred Nahhat here with Lauren Smith from PBS Books.

- We are exploring America's storied past, and spotlighting the writer shaping today's literary scene.

Be sure to like, share, and subscribe to PBS Books on YouTube right now so you never miss an episode of American Stories: A Reading Road Trip.

- Today we're heading to Iowa, a state cradled by two great rivers.

It is so overflowing with stories in literary heritage that it became the first state to have a US city recognized by UNESCO for literature.

(bright music) - You know, to me the landscape of Iowa is, it's stunning.

We have Mississippi River, we have the Missouri River, we have miles and miles of corn fields and alfalfa fields and soybeans, and we also have the Driftless Area of Iowa.

- So there's these Loess Hills that are, were formed from all the silt that was left.

And then in the northeast there's some, some rolling hills and some limestone caves.

But generally the state is pretty flat.

- People think of Iowa as a flyover state, and I guess they don't realize that if you were to land you'd really be in the middle of a really great bookish space.

We have incredible libraries and bookstores and booksellers and authors.

- Well, Iowa, for a lot of its history, was a very progressive place.

It was a place that had, you know, many firsts.

The University of Iowa here in Iowa City, it was the first public university to admit students regardless of race.

It was the first place to confer a master's degree in the fine arts.

And so I think it really became a hub for creative people and folks who had, you know, great ideas that they wanted to pursue.

- It is really worth seeing different corners of the state because it is a little microcosm of our country in that you will find different colloquialisms, different cultures, different foods, different perspectives depending on what corner of the state you're in.

And our diversity of perspective has always historically been our strength.

- I think you have to drive around and look for yourself because it's an interesting place to drive around in.

Like most places, every town is different, and so it's fun to wander around, and look at the different towns and see what's going on.

- The people of Iowa, I've found to be generous, supportive, always there for you when you need them.

And we're called Iowa nice for a reason.

- I absolutely love driving the bookmobile and waving to people on country roads or waiting for the tractor to pass me.

I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world, to be honest.

(bright music) - So how did Iowa earn its revered place in the literary arts?

Well, it's done so through a timeless devotion to stories, carried by voices that were speaking even before statehood took shape.

- So as we think of past iconic works from Iowa, one thing that comes to mind, considering the literary history of Iowa, we can know an early contributor that predates the state itself is the autobiography of Black Hawk.

And Black Hawk was a leader of the Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and Ho-Chunk peoples who lived along the Mississippi and fought in battles in the Midwest on the side of the British in the war of 1812, but also in the Black Hawk War.

And he told his story to Anton LeClaire, who was a government interpreter.

- And so Black Hawk told his story, LeClaire wrote it down.

It was edited by a local newspaper reporter and published as his account of the first Native American tribes, and some of the conflict and strife that they went through.

It's a document that is still read today.

- And I think one of the powerful things about this autobiography, which was dictated, was that it really spoke to the other side of this idea of manifest destiny.

And what this colonialism and this move west and this westward expansion was doing to a group of people who were often and whose voices were often silenced at the time and are often still silenced.

- And it really surprised me when I started to see, like, indigenous and BIPOC stories being raced because in a way, as an Iowan, Black Hawk story felt like it was our story because these were the people who came before us.

And before I understood intersectionality and communism, this was a leader that I venerated like I did other American leaders, right?

I think more stories about him and indigenous people help us understand ourselves because if we understand our past, we can really understand our present better, why we got here.

And I think it actually will give us clues on where we're going.

- Another one of know is Millie Benson, and you might not know her by that name, and if it doesn't sound familiar, you might know her as her pen name Carolyn Keene, which she used from 1929 to 1953 when she contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew Mysteries.

- And Millie was one of the authors really that brought a love of mysteries to me, and really set off a passion for me later in life to write my own mysteries.

And for me, she really was a seminal part of my childhood.

And some people might not know that Millie, at a very young age, announced to her family, she said, "I'm going to be a great writer."

And that she was.

- She received a flat fee for each book with no royalties and had to keep her identity a secret.

Benson also wrote many other series, both in her name and under pseudonyms from the 1930s to the 1950s.

And she ultimately wrote under a dozen names and published more than 130 books.

- I think she just opened the door for mysteries for Children in a way that no other author had.

And when I became older and I was trying to research what university I wish to attend, I remember finding out that my favorite author was actually a journalist.

- She came to the University of Iowa to study journalism, for the most part, and worked at the student newspaper and the yearbook and became the first person to earn a master's degree in journalism from the university in 1927.

But of course there's been an awful lot of scholarship about the work that she did and the groundbreaking work of being a young woman writing so prolifically and so successfully.

- And the pay that she got, I think was relatively low for how successful those books were.

And you can read a whole lot more about that and the syndication of it and all of those pieces, but it's an interesting piece of history to look at from somebody who was so prolific in her life as a writer.

And I think we can see that from many women authors and many authors of colors, and that's sort of the nature of ghost writing.

But in terms of somebody writing in the thirties, I believe, and moving forward to see her get that recognition is really powerful in a world like today.

- Another lesser known historic figure, but certainly one with an impact on literacy and libraries was Forrest Spaulding.

He was a library director at the Des Moines Public Library.

And it was during this later tenure that as concerns regarding censorship mounted, Spaulding wrote a Library Bill of Rights in 1938 and he presented it to his board, and the board passed it as a proclamation that they would not give into pressure to censor their collections.

And it was adopted by the American Library Association in 1939, the following year.

- But really thought that ideas needed to be shared, that libraries should be a space where people can find books and ideas and that they should be able to themselves decide, you know, what they wanted to believe, what they wanted to dig into and what was appropriate.

And I wrote it down 'cause he is famously quoted when somebody challenged "Mein Kampf" by Hitler, being in the library and Forrest Spaulding said that, "If more people had read "Mein Kampf", some of Hitler's nepotism might have been prevented."

And I think there's a lot of power in that in terms of the long arc of history.

And as citizens being able to read widely and learn widely.

- Because I think often folks think that the Library Bill of Rights is some former charter that belongs to an association of professionals and information technologists.

And it's this distant star that guides our professional values.

It is very close to home.

It is a compass in our hand that guides our professional values.

And the American Library Association accredits library schools and information schools all around the planet.

So it's literally become the international standard of free people reading freely.

And that's an Iowa value.

And I think it's an incredible talking point when we talk about what our founders intended when we talk about making America great.

This standard that's almost been here for 90 years has served us very well and is a legacy I hope we continue.

- Well, I was a great state for book lovers, mainly because Iowa City has the honor of being designated as the UNESCO City of Literature.

It's one of the few cities in the world that has that designation in the first in the US, and that's largely part of its renowned Iowa Writers Workshop.

- So, you know, the Iowa Writer Workshop was founded in 1936, and it was built on classes that actually started as earlier as the 1910s.

And it was about teaching young people, for the most part, how to write, and by doing so through what they call the workshop method.

- Well, I loved being in the writer's workshop.

I met a lot of people who were just as interested in writing as I was, and they were all quite different from one another.

I really learned a lot there, learned a lot about teaching, I learned a lot about paying attention to my fellow students, revising what I was writing.

It was really great place.

- It is a fantastic program with a long list of notable alums.

John Irving, T.C.

Boyle, Rita Dove, who's the former Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo.

- Graduates have claimed nearly every major literary award, almost too many to mention, but there's Pulitzer Prize winners like Marilynne Robinson, Philip Roth, Tracy Kidder.

National Book Award Winners, Dennis Johnson, John Cheever, John Irving.

There's National Book Critic Circle Award winners, MacArthur Genius Grant recipients.

- So it is a prestigious place.

It is harder to get into the workshop than it is to get into Harvard Medical School or Harvard Law School based on percentages of applicants who get in.

And it has also spun off a lot of other writing programs.

It's just a very centralized hub for writing, not only in our state, but really across the country and around the world.

(bright music) - The Iowa Writers Workshop has honed countless authors who have gone on to create much success in their writing careers.

One of them is Jane Smiley.

- As far as literary voices of today, one that comes to mind and might be recognizable is Jane Smiley.

She's connected to Iowa, not by birth, but through its educational institutions.

She received her MA, MFA, and PhD, all from the University of Iowa.

And then she was a professor of English at Iowa State University from 1981 to 1996.

"A Thousand Acres", it's Smiley's best known novel.

In 1992, it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

It won the National Books Critic Circle Award, and it was adapted as a film by the same name in 1997.

- Well, I mean, part of my inspiration was "King Lear", which we read over and over in high school and college and graduate school.

And I'm very fond of Shakespeare's plays and I always call Shakespeare Uncle Bill.

But I felt with "King Lear" that he needed a little correcting because he did not give Goneril and Regan enough time to say what was going on with them.

And I wanted them to be able to speak up and tell their side of that story.

And so that's why I wrote "A Thousand Acres".

So I had two themes.

One was what was going on in the farming world.

And I will say that when I told my agent in New York that I was going to write a book about farming, first words out of her mouth were, "Farming, who cares about, no one cares about farming."

And I said, "Well, I'm gonna write it anyway."

Because I thought that what was going on in Iowa, in the farming business, was really interesting, and other people needed to know about it.

I wanna share my sense of curiosity.

I suppose that's my main goal.

So like "A Thousand Acres" and "The Last Hundred Years Trilogy", I wanted them to be interested in what was going on in agriculture.

So that's my main real thing, curiosity.

But I really liked writing books and telling stories and exploring and learning stuff about things I didn't know about.

And it's been a real treat for me to do that.

- Another author is Denise Williams, who brings a modern perspective of inclusion and respect to her bestselling romance novels.

- Denise lives and works in central Iowa.

She's known for her humorous, relatable romance novels that offer a little bit of spice, and she doesn't shy away from incorporating real life complexities.

Several of her books, "Just Our Luck" and "The Redo List" are set in Des Moines, Iowa.

She's done programs at area libraries and sells out at indie bookstores all over the area.

- You know, romance is the genre of hope, and that sounds a little bit cheesy, but there's really only two rules in the genre, and that is that it's a central love story and it ends happily, emotionally satisfying.

And I think there's something so powerful at that in this day, in any day, to know you're gonna write a story and at the ending we'll be happy and emotionally satisfying.

But I also love this genre because in terms of representation, the job that we get to do as romance authors is to show you the reader, no matter who you are, that you deserve an epic love story.

You deserve the flowers and the grand gestures, and you should have that, and we get to put that on page.

So representation is really important to me in my work.

And more than representation, my goal is to show the world as I see it.

And so, sometimes my characters are, they're very often women of color, at least sometimes men of color.

They're very often fat or plus size characters.

I am that, I wanna see that on page.

But there's a number of queer characters.

There's characters with disabilities, there's characters who are very wealthy, or who are struggling financially and the gamut.

And those may be side characters, they may be in the background because to me that's the world that I see.

Again, folks may be surprised that I see that in Iowa, but I do every day.

And so that's the world I wanna represent on page.

And that goes back to, again, everybody seeing that they belong in a love story.

Sometimes that's the plot and it's driving the story forward, but oftentimes it's the character, and it just shapes how they're moving through the world or a situation.

But also what I love about writing in Iowa, because I get to show that and show that there's these different identities here and in the Midwest more broadly.

And to me, that's why this is my genre.

That's what I love to write.

And it fills, still fills my cup, 11 books later.

- Representing Iowa from the opposite side of the genre spectrum is thriller novelist, Heather Gudenkauf, - Another Iowa author is Heather Gudenkauf.

She grew up in Mason City, Iowa, and she's the Edgar Award nominated in New York Times bestselling.

Author of 10 novels, including The Overnight Guest", and her most recent, "Everyone Is Watching".

- You know, I write thrillers all with a connection to Iowa in some manner.

And I write about regular, everyday people put in these frightening, often traumatic situations.

But there's always a mystery to be solved, a villain to be brought to justice.

And it, you know, how did I come to this, you know, a third grade teacher from Iowa, turning into a, you know, scary thriller writer.

Where did that come from?

Well, I'm happy to say I had a wonderful upbringing in Iowa.

It was a great place to grow up.

My parents gave me the room and the freedom to be creative, and that's what my childhood brought to me.

And living in Iowa with its varied landscape, and, you know, my love of the outdoors and my love of mysteries and thrillers, you know, from a very young age, it really played into my imagination.

And I take pieces of what I know and what I love, and the things that aren't scary in my life.

And I'm able to transform them a little bit into something scary and a little bit more thriller-ish for readers.

So for example, my first novel, "The Weight of Silence", which is a story of two little girls who disappeared to the woods behind their homes.

Those woods are based on the woods and an area in Dubuque that I would hike with my dog.

And as I was hiking and walking, I thought to myself, "You know, there's nobody out here.

I'm all by myself except for my dog.

What would that be like if two little girls were in that same situation?"

And then this whole story kind of emerged from that one hike and my first novel was born out of that.

Yeah, so I hope that readers who pick up a Heather Gudenkauf novel are entertained, number one, and find themselves immersed in this twisty, fast-paced, dark mystery.

In addition, I hope that readers get a fresh new look at the state of Iowa.

And ultimately, when they close the book, it's with a sense of satisfaction.

And no matter how dark and twisty my books are, I always like to end on a note of hope.

And I hope that readers come away with that as well.

(bright music) - Another reason Iowans have such deep care for literacy is thanks to their access to libraries across the state.

From grand institutions on university campuses to bookmobiles venturing into the farmlands, Iowa libraries take care of their communities.

- Iowa's got a great library scene.

There are 544 public libraries in Iowa.

It's ranked eighth in the nation per capita for registered borrowers.

So for being a fairly small state population-wise, that's pretty impressive.

People made more than 12.6 million visits to Iowa public libraries during fiscal year '24.

So people are using their library.

- So close to my heart is honestly Parks Library, which is at the Iowa State Campus.

It's a beautiful classic building.

It's been added onto, there's Grant Wood murals there, and so there's a lot of history.

There's Christian Peterson statues inside.

And if you get a chance to come to Ames, it's just a really incredible and beautiful facility where a lot of really modern, wonderful technology things are happening.

And you can still feel like you're in the twenties, in the thirties while you're in that space.

But I think the most important thing they, and any university library are doing, is preparing that next generation of scholars and leaders and politicians and business professionals to understand literacy.

- The University of Iowa Library System is really extraordinary.

There are eight libraries across the entire system in specific disciplines.

There are all open to the public, as well as to students and faculty and staff.

And so the University of Iowa's main library is the kind of gem of that entire system with more than 5 million volumes in unbelievable holdings.

They have special science fiction collections, including set of Spock's ears from "Star Trek".

You know, the list of those things goes on and on.

- The State Law Library in Des Moines, Iowa is absolutely stunning.

I think Victorian style architecture with gorgeous, these gorgeous intricate details, everywhere you look from, like, floor to ceiling, it's beautiful.

And there's wrought iron spiral staircases on either end, and nearly a hundred thousand titles lined the shelves.

- It is one of my favorite places on planet earth, and I've written many a press release about legislative bills there and, you know, taken a lot of time to just take it in, pretend that I'm Bell for "Beauty and the Beast", and then hop back home.

What I really like about our libraries is that I've never seen two that looked alike.

- The Des Moines Public Library has a number of branches, but in Des Moines, their central facility is a beautiful building.

It has like a gold facade on it that kind of catches the sunset, and it's right next to a sculpture park in a really, kind of happening part of downtown Des Moines.

And so when I think about being part of the community, it can make a whole day of going to the library.

Even if you weren't from here, didn't have a particular reason to go there.

They host incredible events, they bring in wonderful speakers.

I really can't say enough about the Des Moines Public Library, both from their main branch, and then all of the branches they have spread around town.

- The Ames Public Library is a beautiful mix of old and new incorporating exposed brick from the original 1904 Carnegie.

You see that as you enter the lobby and it's got a two-story ceiling with a lot of natural light.

The youth area is colorful and modern and encourages a lot of imaginative play.

There's a favorite spot that's called the Little Theater, and it's kind of, it almost looks like a wooden fireplace, but it's got an insect glass case that features dioramas of children's book scenes.

The Ames Public Library also has a book mobile, and it features the illustrations from a late children's author, Derek Anderson.

And it stops at schools and parks and the farmer's market.

So it's just a fun way to take the library out on the road.

- Because we have open access through the state of Iowa Library, which is half, you know, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which means I can have a library card at 544 public libraries, and at least two university libraries as an Iowa taxpayer.

I think I have 137 so far, and it's just delightful because you walk in and in the first 15 feet you can find six community driven initiatives.

And it just reminds me that libraries are the community anchor institution no matter who they're serving, where they're serving, or how they're serving.

And that drive from the community to lean in and support each other and share resources is fundamental to the American way, and probably why libraries have always been a part of America's story.

(bright music) - A vibrant book scene also depends on its bookstores.

And Iowa's independent shops offer plenty of havens for readers of all ages.

- So Iowa has a great indie bookstore scene.

There's the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour that was started by CoriAnn Theroux.

She's the owner of The Green Dragon Bookshop in Fort Dodge, and it's covers the whole state, so it's a great way to, you know, get with your book-loving friends, and go on a road trip.

Some of the stores highlighted on that tour are Dog-Eared Books in downtown Ames.

They host author visits and other fun literary events, and over 10 monthly book clubs.

- Dog-Eared Books in Ames, I have to talk about first, I have the honor of being the first book on their shelves.

No matter what time of day I go in there, it is thriving.

There are people shopping, there are people reading, they do programs for kids, they have a bookstore dog who helps with that.

Story is the name of the dog.

They have a loft space and they really welcome students to come in and study, to use the space, even if they're not shopping.

They have a coffee shop and things like that.

And so it's a really wonderful place, but I think what's more powerful, and this is a theme of all of our local bookstores, is they advocate for what the needs are in the community, and I'm not quiet about it.

And I love that, I work with them for every book release, and they're just lovely, wonderful people.

- There are so many of my favorite bookstores, it's gonna be really hard to narrow them down.

But I do wanna start with River Lights 2nd Edition in Dubuque, Iowa.

I have a log and storied connection to that bookstore.

Before I was a writer and I was an elementary teacher, my students would write their own books, and River Lights would open up their store to my students and display their books on the shelves and host author teas where family members and community members could come in and pick their handmade books up off the shelf as if they were, you know, authors with their books and bookstores.

And it was such a fun experience for my students and for me.

And later when I became an author, they, you know, they're my ultimate hometown indie.

They host my first book event for every book that I have coming out, and they're truly like family to me.

- Another fabulous bookstore is Prairie Lights Books.

It's been an Iowa City institution since 1978, and it's known as one of the nation's top independent bookstores.

It's housed in an 11,000-square-foot space that holds approximately 80 to a hundred thousand books across three and a half stories.

The building also houses the Times Club Cafe on the upper level and creates a welcoming space to browse and relax.

The store's facade designed to resemble a human base as a local landmark.

And as it's part of the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop, it continues to be deeply integrated into the literary community there.

- We also have a wonderful used bookstore here in Iowa City, The Haunted Bookshop, which is in an historic old house, old building on the city's north side, and a remarkably well curated collection there.

And it's a nice compliment to Prairie Lights, and what's going on in other places because people buy their books new at Prairie Lights, they read through them, they take them to Haunted Bookshop.

And so you can get some good deals there on things that a very literate community has had passed through their hands at one time or another.

- Another great bookshop is The Green Dragon Bookshop.

It's a charming, independent bookstore in downtown Fort Dodge.

The shop specializes in fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and romance.

And despite being just under 300 square feet, it's designed to create a magical atmosphere that transports you into a fantasy world.

They sell not only books, but arts and trinkets, and they provide personalized recommendations and help customers find the stories where they really feel seen and represented.

- My favorite one though is in my hometown, Burlington, Iowa.

It's called Burlington By The Book.

And it's from a local resident who had worked at a chain bookstore in our local mall.

And as economic depression happened, he recognized that there would be a gap in our community if we still didn't have a bookstore.

So he decided to invest his life into building this beautiful downtown homegrown bookstore.

And collaborates with the library is always the first booth out there for, like, our festivals downtown on the main drag, really personalizes service, which is what I think local bookstores do.

And so I love that I can go home, I can go to my local bookstore, and then I can go pick up a local paper that was printed in my hometown.

(bright music) - Our reading road trip wouldn't be complete without highlighting a few literary landmarks.

Make sure to bookmark these stops for the next time you roll through Iowa.

- So some fun literary landmarks.

You know, Iowa City is an UNESCO City of Literature, and they have a literary walk, which celebrates works by acclaimed poets and playwrights, novelists, journalists always ties to Iowa.

- It was done in two phases.

There's the main downtown plaques in the sidewalk that was from 1999.

And then a little more than a decade later, the north side of the Iowa City downtown took on different artwork.

There are pedestals with stacks of books that have the names and authors on the spine.

So all in all, there are 89 authors who are represented there.

And it makes for a fun time walking through downtown and seeing people stop and look and read what's in front of them on the sidewalk.

- So another spot for literary destination seekers would be to visit Dubuque, Iowa.

And let me tell you why.

George R. R. Martin once taught journalism and English at Clark College, which is now Clark University.

He said that his time in this steamboat Gothic river city with its freezing winters, icy streets in the famous steep Fenelon Place Elevator directly inspired elements in his books.

So for example, the brutal cold and snow he experienced helped shape the massive wall in the Game of Thrones.

Even the Fenelon Place Elevator, which I mentioned inspired the cage elevator system used to scale the wall in the books.

And those historic Victorian homes along the Mississippi, they're slightly scary, ominous charm, is said to have influenced the atmospheric tension-filled settings that Martin is known for.

- I know that it feels touristy, but it's absolutely not.

If you can make it to the American Gothic Museum, it's stunning and it's really humbling to see yourself in front of the house and sort of stand where the portrait would be.

The university had a wonderful display about a couple years ago, but to go to the museum and really kind of learn about the Sears catalog and how consumerism was starting to influence art and that juxtaposition between the rolling hills of Iowa, and manufacturing and industry that was coming in, is a really fascinating snapshot of who we were at that time.

- If you're also somebody who wants a little adventure, you know, Google, like, the world's smallest, the world's largest, the world's first.

Drive across Iowa and there are tons of interesting things to see in small towns across the state in addition to, again, their museums and great restaurants and things along those lines, but it's a neat state to check out.

I would just encourage fellow authors to consider visiting Iowa.

I guess that's just a plea to my own industry that if folks are looking and building their tours, come visit Iowa and meet the people here because I think there are so many folks in this state who are hungry for literature and good things to read and to talk about all these different topics that we're writing about.

(bright music) - Today's literary journey is part of a bigger celebration, 2026 marks the United States 250th birthday.

To celebrate PBS Books is exploring the stories, authors, and books that define each corner of this nation in partnership with the Library of Congress and local centers for the book.

- You might know that the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, but what you might not know is they've established a local center for the book in all 50 states and six territories.

Their mission, to make the Library of Congress and its resources even more accessible to all Americans.

- I'm Le Ann Potter, the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is the Congressional library, and the National Library of the United States, and the largest library in the world with more than 181 million items.

From photographs to maps, from motion pictures to sound recordings, from newspapers to manuscripts and more.

Oh, and yes, there are books, millions of them.

In this series, American Stories: A Reading Road Trip, you'll hear about many books and authors and poems and short stories and more.

And how together they make up our nation's literary heritage.

As you do, I hope you will keep in mind that while they are all unique and come from different parts of our vast country, they all have something very important and common.

They all live in the collections of the Library of Congress.

We'll also hear about the library's affiliated centers for the book.

There is one in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

These centers promote reading, libraries, and literacy, and they celebrate and share their state or territories literary heritage through a variety of programs that you'll hear about in this very special series.

- Today we're joined by the Iowa Center for the Book, which holds its home in the Ames Public Library in Des Moines.

- The Iowa Center for the Book at the Ames Public Library is one of the few centers for the book that's connected with a public library.

As many of the centers are affiliated with state libraries or humanity offices, public libraries have those close community connections that really give that daily flow of people and energy.

So it's kind of a unique opportunity to expand the mission of the center for the books in a more concrete way with the general public.

Of course, like all centers of the book, we feature our great reads from great places book selections to tie into the Library of Congresses national Book Festival that takes place in DC every September.

We hold discussions and offer events.

And for our youth authors, we usually invite classes and take our authors out to the schools, which is a fun treat.

Another fun program we do at the Iowa Center for the Book is our Battle of the Books.

So each year our youth staff create a curated list of books targeted for fifth and sixth graders, and features a variety of authors, genres and topics.

And children from around Central Iowa form teams of four.

And they spend the school year reading all those books and getting to know them.

And then in March and April they come, the teams come together at the Ames Public Library and they answer trivia questions about the book.

Winners receive a traveling plaque, and their team name in school engraved on it.

It's a favorite program for the both the staff who get really excited to write the questions.

And if you're in the library that day, there's a ton of people here 'cause all the parents and siblings come, but you could hear a pin drop because those rooms are so quiet as the kids are very intent in answering all their trivia questions.

It's just nice to be able to celebrate, like a fun competition around books.

So we love that.

We've also done the Author Fair, recognizing a need to amplify local authors voices.

Ames Public Library created the Author Fair event in 2023, running annually.

Authors from around central Iowa gather, and they table and showcase their published works for attendees to browse and purchase.

Again, give self-published and small press authors a chance to present their original work and talk directly with the readers.

Another Iowa Center for the Book program that we have is with the Ames Writers Collective, and they do a generative writing series for adults that's really popular, and they do an ongoing writer's workshop for children too, for youth.

And that's, they do a monthly one, but then in the summer they do a more intensive.

So it's a great way to kind of inspire young, new writers, and that's what the Ames Writers Collective.

- If you'd like to learn more about their annual battle of the books, or check out their great reads from great places picks, visit online@aimspubliclibrary.org/Io.

- We've learned so much on this journey through Iowa's literary scene.

Thank you to the Library of Congress and the Iowa Center for the Book for partnering with PBS Books as we journey across the country, exploring the books, authors, and places that define America's story.

- Have you had a chance to visit any of these places?

Are there other books you would recommend?

Or if you're a local, tell us your favorite spots that out of town book lovers should visit in the comments.

- And if our reading road trip has sparked your curiosity about the landmarks, authors, and literary treasures in your own state, the Library of Congress is a great place to start.

Visit in person in Washington D.C., search its vast digital collections online, or connect with your local center for the book.

- For more information on the authors programs and places featured in this episode, visit us at PBSBooks.org/readingroadtrip.

- And don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss an exciting episode from PBS Books.

And be sure to share this video with all of your friends to start planning your next reading road trip.

- Until next time, - happy reading.

- Happy reading.

(bright music)