Make your travel plans now because some are betting the book released by Iowa City author Jeff Biggers will create an uptick in the otherwise neglected tourist destination.
In our Monday Zoom lunch call this Memorial Day, Bigger appeared to be your typical down-to-earth, Iowa City genius.
Obsessed with baseball as a kid growing up in Illinois, he and his family moved to Arizona in 1970. When his family’s farm in southern Illinois was strip-mined, causing the land to change hands after 200 years of generational ownership, Jeff returned to the region to chronicle the loss of the land and its history. That’s when Jeff became curious about the (bigger?) world around him. This curiosity drove him to write ten books before his newest release, including an eclectic collection of interests. If there is one thread that ties everything together, it is his respect for the history, land, environment, and forgotten people who don’t live in big cities.
Today, he is obsessed with listening to stories that are not often told, which can shift an entire culture's narrative in the ‘restoring’ or retelling.
He admired the storyteller Studs Terkel, and that masterful interviewer’s influence is felt in the books written by Jeff Bigger.
He had not planned on writing about Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy, smack dab in the Mediterranean Sea. Instead, Jeff and his wife, Carla, were looking for a quiet place to go on sabbatical (Carla is a teacher and is originally from the mainland of Italy).
To the surprise of friends, they picked an inland spot on the northern end of Sardinia. They thought surely he would be bored once they were tired of time on the island beaches. Instead, Biggers discovered a land central to the world’s history and began to collect story after story that surprised and fascinated him.
It is not a traditional travel memoir. It’s rich in historical context versus a how-I-spent-my-two-week vacation. However, his new book could increase interest in this lovely island.
Watch the video of our conversation. You’ll see questions from another Iowan who splits her time between Italy and Iowa, Amy Worthen. And our Iowa Writers’ Collaborative member, Mary Swander, has worked with Jeff Biggers on some projects.
Speaking of Swander, she, too, uses multimedia to tell stories of overlooked people. Starting this Friday, her drama about an encounter amid the U.S. white settler land grab will be performed in the Amana Center for the Performing Arts.
Monday, June 5, our Monday Zoom Lunch guest is Hollywood comedy writer Romen Borsellino. The Des Moines native will talk about what it’s like in the ‘writer’s room and his journey to make a career in this field. Subscribers will receive the Zoom link on Monday morning.
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative is comprised of 30 writers who are independent Substack columnists, focussed on stories with an Iowa angle. They are professional journalists and authors dedicated to creating commentary and reporting in this declining legacy media coverage era. For a weekly roundup of columns, please subscribe to the IWC roundup, and if you are able, become a paid subscriber to those you care to support.
Pack your bags...