Who: Adedayo Agarau with Margaret Yapp
What: Unbound: a form-free writing workshop on the theme of Poetry of Place: Writing About Home
Where: ArtHaus
When: Sunday, 10/26 at 4:00pm
Adedayo Agarau (author of The Years of Blood) and Margaret Yapp (poet and Luther grad) will join the Unbound writing community to lead a writing workshop on the theme of Poetry of Place: Writing About Home on Sunday, October 26th, at 4pm in the ArtHaus studio, located at 107 W. Broadway, Decorah, IA. A suggested minimum donation of $10 per person will go to ArtHaus for use of their space. Copies of his book, The Years of Blood, will be available for purchase through Dragonfly Books. Everyone is invited to this workshop series sponsored by the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation, with support from ArtHaus and Dragonfly Books. Be sure to join us the following evening, Monday, October 27, at 7pm at Pulpit Rock Brewing for a joint reading and Q&A session followed by a book signing.
Poetry of Place: Writing About Home: In this poetry workshop, we will think together about what it means to make a home from our poetry. What does home look like? Who is in it? Is it a physical structure—four walls and a roof? Is it the land beneath our feet, the city streets we walk, or the people who shape our belonging? How do our poems shape home, how do our homes shape poems? Through close reading of poems by poets whose work helps us see the diversified possibility of what home and place can be and do—the interior and the introspected, the exterior and the uneasy, celebration and arrival— we will explore how poets construct home on the page—through memory, language, landscape, and longing. Then, we'll turn to our own writing, using guided prompts to map our personal geographies and craft poems that interrogate, celebrate, or reimagine what "home" means to us.
Unbound is a welcoming monthly writing community organized by the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation, created to support writers of all backgrounds and experience levels. This is a form-free space—whether you write poetry, prose, journaling, or something entirely your own, all are welcome. Each session offers time to connect with fellow creatives, spark ideas, and engage in guided writing. When available, visiting authors join the group to share insights into their craft and creative process, offering participants a deeper look into the writing life. Unbound meets on the last Sunday of each month from 4:00 to 5:30pm at ArtHaus in Decorah. Bring a notebook, your favorite pen, and whatever’s been waiting to be written.
Adedayo Agarau is the author of “The Years of Blood,” winner of the Poetic Justice Institute Editor’s Prize for BIPOC Writers (Fordham University Press, Fall 2025). He is a Wallace Stegner Fellow ‘25, a Cave Canem Fellow and a 2024 Ruth Lilly-Rosenberg Fellowship finalist. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Agbowó Magazine: A Journal of African Literature and Art and a Poetry Reviews Editor for The Rumpus. He is the author of the chapbooks “Origin of Name” (African Poetry Book Fund, 2020) and “The Arrival of Rain” (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020).
Margaret Yapp is the author of Green for Luck (EastOver Press, 2024) and the founding editor of Rampage Party Press. She has an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an MFA in Book Arts from the Center for the Book. She lives in Iowa City.
These events are part of the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation’s robust author event series, which brings top-notch writers of all genres to Northeast Iowa to lead in conversations about literature and writing. To learn more about these and other events with the Foundation or Dragonfly Books, visit www.dragonflybooks.com.
You may also like the following events from Oneota Valley Literary Foundation:
- This Tuesday, 14th October, 07:00 pm, Jane Hamilton | The Phoebe Variations | Reading, Q&A, and Signing! in Decorah
- Next Monday, 20th October, 07:00 pm, Art Cullen in conversation with Chris Jones | Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest | Conversation, Q&A in Decorah
- Next month, 4th November, 07:00 pm, Jeffrey Boldt | Big Lake Troubles | Reading, Q&A, and Signing! in Decorah
Also check out other
Arts events in Decorah,
Literary Art events in Decorah,
Workshops in Decorah.
