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Iowa City influence Shines Through in Elizabeth Collison’s debut novel

Frederick W. Kent
/
Iowa Digital Library

Some Other Town is a debut novel from native Iowan Elizabeth Collison, and the nameless Midwestern town in the book bears striking similarity to Iowa City.

On this Talk of Iowa segment, Charity Nebbe talks with Collison about her life and her work.

Collison grew up in Marshalltown and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Her novel centers on Margaret Benning, a young woman feeling adrift and hopeless in her small Midwestern town until the unexpected promise of love takes her by surprise. Collison remarks on this theme and what she hopes readers gain from it.

“I hope that readers can see the development of love in this particular situation, and that it’s a fragile thing, and it needs to grow,” she says. “I had fun playing with that concept.”

Collison also discusses the autobiographical nature of the novel, and how many themes were taken directly from her own life.