For the first Monday Monologue of the semester, Deb Marquart, distinguished professor in Iowa State’s English department and master of fine arts (MFA) program in creative writing and environment, will read excerpts from her latest work, “The Night We Landed on the Moon: Essays Between Exile and Belonging.”

According to Marquart’s profile page on the Iowa State directory, “The Night We Landed on the Moon,” is a collection of essays that focuses on the twin impulses of loving a place to death while also being morbidly repelled by it.

The profile continued to detail how Marquart’s work greatly focuses on her childhood and growing up among immigrants in a remote and secluded part of the nation. This leads the book to discuss how to handle leaving your home in hopes of creating your own American identity.

According to her directory profile, Marquart’s pursuit of discovering her true identity included leaving her home to tour as a singer-songwriter with her band. Flash forward; this is also what inspired Marquart to start writing years later.

In her profile, Marquart said she started to write when her band lost all of their equipment in a truck fire while touring.

“During this time, while we were stalled out in Fargo figuring out how to replace our lost gear, I began to write out of an intense feeling of loss,” Marquart said. “The writing began as scribbles in a notebook, song lyrics, rants and bad poems.”

Marquart then said she hopes her work has evolved from simply bad poems into masterful and resonant pieces of writing.

“So, my life as a writer also developed out of music, or perhaps out of loss or maybe out of fire,” Marquart said on her directory profile. “I’m still working that question out in my own creative work.”

It seems like Marquart has reached her goal of producing masterful work because she is now a celebrated poet and author. To illustrate, Marquart has received awards such as the “Elle Lettres” award from Elle Magazine, a New York Times Editors’ Choice commendation, a Pulitzer Prize nomination and the Iowa Author’s Award.

All Iowa State students are welcome to attend tomorrow’s free event located on the steps of Parks Library at noon.