• Now in its 21st year, the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts is hosting a variety of prominent authors for monthly reading events throughout the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters.

  • All DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts events are free and open to the public.

  • Award-winning novelist Benjamin Percy is the Celebration’s featured author for the month of November 2023.

The DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts is pleased to welcome award-winning author Benjamin Percy to campus as its featured writer for the month of November 2023. Percy will read from his work and participate in a Q&A with audience members at 11:15 a.m. on Tues., Nov. 7, in Bldg. 2, Room 25B, at the DMACC Ankeny Campus.

This hour-long event is FREE to attend and open to the public, as are all DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts events held throughout the year. The Celebration, now in its 21st year, spotlights a variety of local, regional and nationally known authors each month during the fall and spring semesters at DMACC, which is one of the largest undergraduate institutions in Iowa.

About the author: Benjamin Percy

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels, most recently “The Sky Vault.” He is also the author of “The Unfamiliar Garden,” “The Ninth Metal,” “The Dead Lands,” “Red Moon” and “The Wilding,” as well as three books of short stories: “Suicide Woods,” “Refresh, Refresh” and “The Language of Elk.” His craft book — “Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction” — was published by Graywolf Press in 2016 and is now widely taught in creative writing classrooms. Percy broke into comics in 2014 with a two-issue Batman story arc for Detective Comics. He currently writes Wolverine, X-Force and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His work has appeared in Esquire, GQ, The Paris Review, The New York Times, Ploughshares and Tin House.

Percy also co-wrote the feature film, “Summering,” and is currently working on a series for the Paramount+ network. His honors include a NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writers’ Award, two Pushcart Prizes, the Plimpton Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. He has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop.

For more information about the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts, visit cla.dmacc.edu or contact Marc Dickinson, DMACC English Professor and Coordinator of the DMACC Celebration of Literary Arts, at (515) 964-6221 or madickinson@dmacc.edu.

Select writings by Benjamin Percy: