Iowa City, Iowa —
The tables and shelves have been pushed to the side upstairs at Prairie Lights Books. On rows of plastic seats, an audience of mainly young people waits expectantly as “Lucky” by Britney Spears pumps out of the PA. The song ends and, after noting that it’s the first time in the store that an author has been introduced by a DJ, the emcee invites Candice Wuehle up to the mic.
Wuehle reads from her latest novel, “Ultranatural,” a dark tale of a Britney-esque pop star’s rise and fall. The writer holds attention with descriptions of the “nerves and teen sweat” of talent auditions — narrating an early chapter that presages her character’s suffocating descent into the glistening bowels of show business.
Then, after a short discussion with another author, Camila Urioste, come the questions. And that’s when the magic of this place really becomes apparent.
While Prairie Lights could be any independent bookstore up and down the country — albeit bigger, better stocked and more internationally renowned than most — the audience particularly sets it apart. Many of them, as their questions reveal, are aspiring writers, eager to dig into the mechanics of Wuehle’s craft and learn from someone two novels into her career.
