I am just back from Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, where I did a couple of readings and had a chance to talk to people about my work. Isaac Hamlet, a budding young journalist with the Daily Iowan, wrote a piece about Girls I Know that can be read here. I lived in Iowa City for eight years, from 1999-2007, and I was reminded of what I liked most about the state when I lived there. Iowans have a sharp, distinct interest in the world that surrounds them, and there are few communities more giving, and receptive, to writers than Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. No wonder so much great writing has come from that part of the Midwest. Oh, and the car I rented only cost me fourteen dollars a day, which isn’t bad either!