Iowa City native Tim Johnston will return to Prairie Lights to read from his new novel, Descent. Described as literary fiction that is “the best of both worlds” by the Washington post, Descent has received high praise from authors including Mary Roach, who missed her flight to La Guardia because she was so absorbed.

"Descent is the best novel I've read in a long time. Unlike most books that fall into the category of Page Turner, this one also falls in the category of Writing- So- Good- You- Can't -Even- Believe- It. Johnston has a superhuman gift for watching and listening to the world and rendering, on the page, its beauty and savagery with such detail and power that the story feels almost more like memory than something read." —Mary Roach

Tim Johnston is the author of the prize-winning story collection Irish Girl. He holds degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and  currently teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Memphis.