Lifestyle, 11:00 AM

Global Greens Market - Immigrant Mentorship Program - Lutheran Services of Iowa

A representative of Lutheran Services of Iowa, Immigrants and Refugee Services will speak on the Global Day Market.

Luncheon, 12:00 PM

Literature, 1:00 PM

Writing Historical Fiction - An Iowa View: Ann Hanigan Kotz, Author Presenter

Ann Hanigan Kotz resides in Adel, Iowa, and was a high school English teacher for 33 years, serving 30 of them at Waukee High School. She is originally from Denison, a town in western Iowa where her books are set. She earned her bachelor’s from the University of Northern Iowa and her master’s from Viterbo University in Wisconsin. She retired from teaching in 2001 and picked up her writing career the same year. Her program follows her journey from writing her first book, The Longest Journey—a book she originally self-published—to being signed by BookPress Publishing in 2002 and the re-release of her first novel under the title, The Journey of Karoline Olsen. Ann delves into how she wove her Norwegian family stories—the untimely death of her great, great grandfather; her great-great grandmother’s return to Norway and birth of a child on the ship; and the disappearance of the youngest Olson, Gilbert—into her Olsen trilogy books. Her audience gets a sneak peek at her current project, one which includes her Irish family, and the research she’s been doing on Iowa circuses.  Ann offers her audience an inside look at the publishing world as well as her travels across Iowa, teaching history to patrons at local libraries. Ann finishes her program with a few anecdotes from her life in the public.