Kali White VanBaale & Yasmina Din Madden (in conv with Alisha Jeddeloh)

Kali White VanBaale will read from her new story collection, Release of Information and Other Linked Stories, and Yasmina Din Madden will read from her story collection, You Know Nothing. Both will be joined in conversation with BRINK editor Alisha Jeddeloh. Described as a collection of stories in which “Midwesterners reveal secrets at pivotal moments in their lives,” Release of Information is praised by Booklist as “Striking and haunting,” while Robin Oliveira, author of A Wild and Heavenly Place, calls Kali Van Balle “Iowa’s Edith Wharton.” Meanwhile, Yasmina Din Madden’s debut story collection You Know Nothing is described as “Questioning the role of women’s bodies and the emotions that drive them.” You Know Nothing was named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by the Chicago Review of Books and is praised by Kelly Luce, author of Pull Me Under, as “a triumph of imagination, heart, and understated emotion.” Kali White VanBaale is the award-winning author of the novels The Monsters We Make, The Good Divide, and The Space Between. She also writes and publishes short stories, personal essays, and articles. Kali is the managing editor-at-large of the nonfiction literary journal and anthology Past Ten  and is a core faculty member in the Lindenwood University MFA in Writing Program, where she was named adjunct professor of the year. She lives in Iowa with her family and is a 2025 Iowa Author Award recipient. Yasmina Din Madden is a Vietnamese American writer whose fiction and nonfiction have been published in Electric Literature, The Idaho Review, The Fairy Tale Review, and other journals. She is the winner of the 2022 Oxford Flash Prize, and she teaches creative writing and literature at Drake University. Alisha Jeddeloh is a writer and editor based in Iowa City. As a writer, she explores community, belonging, and the fault lines in the stories we tell each other and ourselves. As an editor, she enjoys being surprised by characters and prose. She is always on the brink of starting a new book when she’s already reading several others.