Michael Tidemann News Today

By Michael Tidemann   So what is Iowa, and who are Iowans? Those are the questions Timothy Fay answers in his charming essay collection, The Wapsipinicon Almanac, recently released by the University of Iowa Press. The book contains a collection of contributions from writers, artists and advertisements over the more than 30-year span of Fay’s literary journal by the same title. Fay published the journal on a letterpress from 1988 through 2018.

Adams’ rediscovery of Wolden’s nearly forgotten columns is a boon for naturalists not just in northwestern Iowa but all of the state and the Midwest.

"The Long Way Home" should inspire all of us to look inside ourselves to find that sense of place Fate so ably defines.

Sandy Moffett, emeritus professor of theatre at Grinnell College, has taken aim at vertically integrated Big Ag like buckshot on an Iowa pheasant.

What does it mean to be a steward of the land? Beyond that, what public policies would ensure land stewardship for rural America?

Novel seamlessly weaves past and present.

While the ending may be unexpected, it shows how the characters help each other reach their ultimate destiny, but in different ways.

Anyone 50 or over will remember the 1980s farm crisis that choked the nation’s heartland.

Young skillfully weaves together high-stakes intrigue, a chain of apparent murders and the victims past to an explosive conclusion.

Book review: Iowa journalist McElwains published collection is a gem Michael Tidemann If you had been a journalist for 50 years, which stories and columns would you select for a collection of 273 pages? That was the challenge Iowa journalist Max McElwain faced in "Sharing a Napkin: Selected Writings 1969-2019." McElwain has succeeded admirably in producing this selection. What first struck me about McElwain’s collection was the sheer audacity, assuredness and intellectual vigor he showed a...