Celebration of Literary Arts

Celebration of Literary Arts Festival

The Celebration of Literary Arts Festival was initiated at DMACC in conjunction with the National Poetry Festival. The purpose of this celebration is to bring noted fiction and poetry writers to DMACC to read their works and interact with students. Central to the festival is the idea that writers can be published and that one can indeed make a living as a professional writer. In addition to reading on campus, writers have evening reading at a local bookstore. Each year the writers read at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines.

2026 Events

Martín Espada

Martín Espada

Thursday, April 16, 2026
11:15 a.m.
Ankeny Campus
Building 2, Room 25B

 

Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His new book of poems is called Jailbreak of Sparrows. His previous book, Floaters, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2021. Other poetry collections include Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006), Alabanza (2003) and Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996). He is the editor of What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (2019). Espada has received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, a Letras Boricuas Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The title poem of his collection Alabanza, about 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. His book of essays and poems, Zapata’s Disciple (1998), was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona. A former tenant lawyer with Su Clínica Legal in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Selected Writing:

2026 Authors

DMACC District-Wide Creative Writing Contest

Students, submit your creative work for the opportunity to win cash prizes (top 3 short stories and poems) and scholarships (1st: $1,000 and 2nd: $500), to be published in Expressions, to work one-on-one with a professional writer, and to present your work at a reading. For more information, please email the Creative Writing Contest or Marc Dickinson.

Contest Information and Forms

Expressions

Expressions is the yearly publication featuring poetry, art, photography and short fiction from students representing each of DMACC's campuses. The publication and distribution of Expressions is timed to coincide with our Celebration of the Literary Arts in April of each year. While it showcases winners of the DMACC-sponsored annual literary awards, all DMACC students are invited to submit original art or writing for consideration."

A panel of faculty select the winners of the contest, and a student editor works with faculty to arrange the entries published in Expressions. The magazine is published with the assistance of the DMACC Graphic Arts Department. For additional information, please contact Michael Bryant, Urban Campus.

Expressions Issues

Skunk River Review

The Skunk River Review was a DMACC publication that celebrated the best writing in composition, literature, and humanities classes at DMACC from 1989 to 2018. Please see the link below for archived editions of the Skunk River Review. ​

Skunk River Review Issues

Previous Celebration of Literary Arts Festivals

2019 Festival

Authors

  • Jericho Brown, Poet
  • Dorothy Allison
  • Jamel Brinkley, Stanford University
  • Maggie Smith, Ohio Wesleyan University

 

Iowa Writers

  • Grant Faulkner, Executive Director, National Novel Writing Month
  • Jennifer Colville, Prompt Press
  • Jacob Dawson, Iowa State University
  • John Domini, AWP: Associated Writing Programs
  • Lauren Haldeman, University of Iowa
  • Kim Magowan, Mills College
  • Lettie Prell, SFWA: Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America
  • Steve Rose, Simpson College, Professor Emeritus
  • Michelle N. Ross, Fiction Editor, Atticus Review

2018 Festival

Authors

  • Pam Houston, University of California, Davis
  • Justin Torres, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Jennifer Chang, George Washington University
  • Matthew Olzmann, Warren Wilson MFA Program

 

Iowa Writers

  • Dean Bakopoulos, Grinnell College
  • Alissa Nutting, Grinnell College
  • Chloe Clark, Iowa State University
  • George Barlow, Grinnell College
  • Claire Kruesel, Iowa State University
  • Jennifer Wilson, St. Martin’s Press
  • Ryan Collins, St. Ambrose University
  • Paula Smith, Grinnell College
  • Michaela Mullin, Nomadic Press
  • Emma Murray, Gold Wake Press​​​​

2017 Festival

Authors

  • Charles Baxter, University of Minnesota
  • Kevin Brockmeier, Iowa Writers’ Workshop
  • Megan Mayhew Bergman, Bennington College
  • Charles D'Ambrosio, Iowa Writers’ Workshop
  • Tarfia Faizullah, University of Michigan
  • Oliver de la Paz, College of the Holy Cross

 

Iowa Writers

  • Devon Walker-Figueroa, Iowa Writer's Workshop/Poetry Editor Iowa Review
  • Ralph James Savarese, Grinnell College
  • Molly McDonald, Iowa State University
  • Rick Christman, DMACC, Professor Emeritus
  • Hai-Dang Phan, Grinnell College
  • Ned Balbo, Iowa State University
  • Calla Devlin, Young Adult Novelist​​​

2016 Festival

Authors

  • Matt Bell, Arizona State University
  • Robin Balck, Rutgers University-Camden, MFA Program
  • Kevin Prufer, University of Houston
  • Ada Limon, Queens University of Charlotte, Low Residency MFA

 

Iowa Writers

  • Tim Bascom, Waldorf College
  • Paul Brooke, Grand View University
  • Meg Johnson, Iowa State University
  • Jennifer L. Knox, Iowa State University
  • Magogodi Makhene, Iowa Writer's Workshop
  • Ralph James Savarese, Grinnell College​​​

2015 Festival

Authors

  • Bret Anthony Johnston, Harvard University
  • Makkai, Sierra Nevada College
  • Roger Reeves, University of Illinois, Chicago
  • Rebecca Hazelton, Oklahoma State University

 

Iowa Writers

  • Barbara Haas, Iowa State University
  • Christiana Langenberg, Iowa State University
  • Kyle McCord, Grand View University
  • Sarah Smith, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa​​

2014 Festival

Authors

  • Laura van den Berg, Emerson College
  • Evie Shockley, Rutgers University
  • Alan Heathcock, Boise State University
  • Ross Gay, Indiana University

 

Iowa Writers

  • Jim O'Loughlin, University of Northern Iowa
  • Kali VanBaale, Drake University
  • Hannah Loeb, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Larry Baker, Kirkwood Community College
  • K.L. Cook, Iowa State University
  • Charissa Menefee, Iowa State University​​

2013 Festival

Authors

  • Kyle Minor, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
  • Ron Carlson, University of California, Irvine
  • Caitlin Horrocks, Grand Valley State University
  • Aimee Nezhukumatathil, State University of New York
  • Matthew Dickman, Vermont College of Fine Arts

 

Iowa Writers

  • Mary Swander, Iowa State University
  • Jeremy Schraffenberger, University of Northern Iowa
  • Heather Derr-Smith, Iowa State University
  • David Wolf, Simpson College
  • Deborah Kennedy, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Winifred Moranville, Simpson College​

2012 Festival

Authors

  • Charles D'Ambrosio
  • Danielle Evans
  • Dorianne Laux
  • Joseph Millar

 

Iowa Writers

  • David Zimmerman, Iowa State University
  • Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa
  • Jennifer Perrine, Drake University
  • Neal Bowers, Iowa State University
  • May Letter, Drake University
  • Vince Gotera, University of Northern Iowa​

2011 Festival

Authors

  • Antonya Nelson, University of Houston
  • Steven Schwartz, Colorado State University
  • Denise Duhamel, Florida International University
  • Dale Young, Warren Wilson MFA Program

 

Iowa Writers

  • Benjamin Percy, Iowa State University
  • Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa
  • B.J. Love, Iowa Writers' Workshop
  • Deb Marquart, Iowa State University
  • Carol Spaulding-Kruse, Drake University
  • Yasmina Madden, Drake University

2010 Festival

Authors

  • Jonas Agee, University of Nebraska
  • CJ Hribal, Marquette University
  • Camille Dungy, San Francisco State
  • Kevin Stein, Illinois ​

 

 

  • For additional information, contact Celebration of Literary Arts Coordinator, Marc Dickinson, 515-964-6221