Join us for the Sunday International Writing Program Prairie Lights Reading Series to hear writers from all over the world read from their work. This week's reading will feature Alisa Ganieva of Russia, Rasha Khayat of Germany, and Keenan Walsh.

Alisa Ganieva (fiction writer, editor, critic, journalist; Russia) is the author of three books, including anovel which appeared in English as Bride and Groom, shortlisted for the Russian Booker, and The Mountain and the Wall [English version], shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana literary prize. Her story collection [Salaam, Dalgat!] won the 2009 Debut Prize, to controversy and acclaim - written under a male pseudonym, her authorship was famously revealed when she stood to accept an award. In 2017, Ganieva was a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A 2012 IWP Resident, she returns to the IWP Fall Residency courtesy of Grinnell College. www.alisaganieva.com

Rasha Khayat (fiction writer, translator; Germany) is the author of the novel Weil wir längst woanders sind [For We Are Elsewhere Now] which has been nominated for the 2016 Klaus Michael Kühne Prize for best first novel, and translated into French and Arabic. Her blog, WestEast Diva, serves as a window into the Arab world for native Germans. A recipient of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Fellowship, the Robert Bosch Foundation’s Research Fellowship, and the Siegfried-Lenz Fellowship, she also writes for the theater and newspapers, mainly on multiculturalism. She participates in the IWP Fall Residency courtesy of the Max Kade Foundation. www.westoestlichediva.com

Keenan Walsh is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His fiction has appeared in The Salon, Brazenhead Review, Deep South Magazine, and elsewhere. Originally from Florida, he now lives and teaches in Iowa City.