Sharing stories of Iowa and Iowans with talented writers and storytellers.

We sit down with members of the growing Iowa Writers Collaborative on this edition of Iowa Press.

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For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond.

Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, December 30th edition of Iowa Press.

Here is Kay Henderson.

On this edition of Iowa Press, we have assembled a group of word assemblers.

They are part of the Iowa Writers Collective.

I'm not going to use my words to describe it.

I'm going to let them describe it to you.

Here are our guests for this edition of Iowa Press.

Teresa Zilk is a mental health advocate and the founder of Stories To Tell My Daughter.

Ed Tibbetts is a former reporter and editorial page editor for the Quad City Times.

Chuck Offenburger is the former Des Moines Register Iowa Boy columnist and founder of offenburger.com.

And Julie Gammack is also a former Des Moines Register columnist.

She was a host of a program on WHO Radio.

She's a business coach, and she is the founder and producer of the annual Okoboji Writers Retreat.

Welcome to you all.

Let's start with you, Julie.

Explain what the Iowa Writers Collaborative is.

The Iowa Writers Collaborative is a group of now 21 individual columnists.

We started in July and just July and have grown to this point.

We use a platform called Substack, which is digital.

It's online, and it allows each of us to be independent columnists.

We're not associated other than by where we're writing under this umbrella name called the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

Everyone has their own individual subscribers.

But what we do is recommend the other, because there's so much news and information out there on the Internet to have a trusted columnist that you know recommend somebody that you might not know is a benefit to all of us, both the writers and the readers.

I want to hear from the rest of you.

But I mean, what is the ultimate goal here?

The ultimate goal is to fill a void that has been created slowly and now a little more rapidly in the availability of commentary.

As newspapers have lost staff and lost news hold and not all newspapers in Iowa, but many, including the Des Moines Register, have cut back on commentary and cut back on covering stories.

And I think the state is poorer as a result of that, because when we know one another's stories, maybe we'll buy the pies that somebody is making out of the American Gothic house or whatever.

And without those stories, if we don't know them, we can't buy their pies or read their stories.

You know, a lot of amazing changes in Iowa have happened as a result of editorial page commentary and without that there is a void.

Teresa, I want to turn to you.

So why are you doing this?

And what would people see if they subscribed to you?

I am doing this because I am a lover of stories and I think I have a voice that people will want to hear.

I think I have opinions and observations that I think would resonate with people.

And I've been following Julie on social media for some time, and she is actually kind of her energy is kind of what drew me to it.

And it was something that I really wanted to be a part of.

So I my column is, is talking good and that is really about kind of my observations of things happening here in Iowa.

The people that I've met, the conversations that I've had, the stories that I've heard.

And it's just something that I want to share with people.

I've only done one story, but I'll be coming out with more.

And I'm looking forward to all the support that people have shown a lot of support, but I'm just really looking forward to everything that the collaborative has to offer and what we can bring to Iowa.

I think we bring something new and exciting.

Ed Tibbetts, I mentioned that you are a newspaper man.

So what would people learn if they subscribed to you?

Well, my newsletter is called Along the Mississippi.

And what I say that I offer is news, commentary and ideas from along the river.

And I write a lot about the kind of stuff I wrote about at the Quad City Times.

I write about Iowa politics.

I write about a congressional delegation.

I also do original reporting.

I've written recently about the area's struggles to mitigate lead paint hazards.

I think that if people came to my newsletter, they would see reporting, commentary and ideas.

I write about elections.

I write about the caucuses.

Those are the kinds of things I offer.

Chuck, what do you write about?

The column is called Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger and the tagline on it is Iowa's people, small towns and saddles loose and saddle shoes being one of my trademarks.

But I intend to roam around Iowa, as I've been doing for 50 years, and just tell the stories of the people in the state and my observations of them.

And I've been doing this for a long time, and I like that this has put me in touch with a whole new group of people.

I mean, it's got me back out in the state traveling around, and I really enjoy doing that.

And this is a fun group.

Theres 21 already on board and we've got four more coming on board soon among these columnists.

And we pretty much cover the state, and that's important to me.

Really, thank goodness for Iowa Public Television and Iowa Public Radio.

You all are the statewide media now.

And, you know, but you don't do as much commentary as we can do on the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

And so that's what we're going to do.

We're going to offer some commentary, but also original reporting like Ed has been doing.

And so I think that is needed.

Julie?

What's interesting to me as an observer of putting this together for the last few weeks and months is there's this need for understanding what's going on around the state.

I have no idea what was going on in Davenport regarding the things Eds covering.

And I think as our local newspaper has come inward and covered more of the Golden Circle than what's going on out state, we've really lost some community, some statewide thread that that holds us together.

And in our collaborating, we have Art Cohen up in Storm Lake talking about what's going on there.

We have other people writing about agriculture, things that I just as a city kid in Des Moines, didn't really know that much about.

But they read these stories from our writers about the the personal challenges of being a farmer today and being a kind of alternative farmer.

And we even have a one of our writers who was with Successful Farming magazine for 20 years, and all of these different voices are very informative.

People may know the business model of a newspaper or a Radio Iowa radio station.

What's the business model here?

How do I become a subscriber?

Do I have to subscribe to all 21?

How do I find out if some new material is there?

Do you send me a link on my on my smartphone?

This is a very good question.

If you subscribe to an individual member of the collaborative, you get their column into your inbox.

And many of us, I guess we all offer free subscriptions.

There's an option to pay.

So if you want to, you may become a paid subscriber, but you don't have to.

About 10% of the subscribers are actually coming in as paid because there is I think, a belief that they want to support the writers that are that are doing this.

On the other hand, from a writers perspective, we don't want to not have the ability to have subscribers read our content.

So any business model there is, is individual.

We are independent.

Now there is the Iowa Writer's Collaborative column that I compile every week, which links to all of the columnists.

Some can pay to subscribe to that.

It's not necessary to get the weekly round up, but those funds then go to market and promote the group as a whole.

Teresa, we live in a digital age and people who are probably younger than the people sitting at this table are not going to subscribe to a newspaper.

How do you connect stories to digital consumers in your view?

In my view, I think, well, I love Facebook, so I'm going to always say Facebook is a really good option.

But of course, there's Instagram, but kind of the gold standard right now is Tik Tok among young people, among the younger population.

And I think that is probably a wonderful venue to try out.

Of course, I haven't done that.

I do have a Tik Tok account, but I think Tik Tok is probably going to be the way to go to reach younger audiences.

So Chuck, whats your Tik Tok?

I don't have Tik Tok yet.

I wish I did and I decided I really should.

When I saw this week that the Governor wants to have state employees not have Tik Tok accounts, I thought maybe I better have one.

If you subscribe to the New York Times via its app, you don't have to read the stories anymore.

Someone will read it to you if you click on a link there.

I mean, as a writer how do you connect with people with words when they want to hear?

Well, let me say that as an older writer and I'm pretty savvy on social media, I've made myself learn it.

But as an older writer, I say the best word, best way to connect them to stories, connect younger people to stories is write stories about them.

And I enjoy doing that.

I love getting to know younger people around the state and people who seem to be difference makers on the way up.

I especially like that, but, you know, make it accessible.

And Teresa is right on using all the different social media platforms to connect with them.

And I mean, our columns are going to come to you via email, but like I also my own columns I'm writing on Substack and on my own website.

I've always used Facebook and Twitter.

I kind of live on Twitter, but I have always used that to promote anything I'm writing about.

So you just have to get on all those platforms to get people where they're spending their time online.

Kay, I might I might say that on the Substack platform, you can put podcasts, audio content in your newsletters.

And some of our members of the collaborative actually do that.

I don't.

But that is an option.

But I think Chuck is right.

I think that lively writing and reporting that people haven't seen elsewhere is is a good way to get people to come to our site.

So Julie mentioned that, you know, there's been kind of a scale back of opinion sections in newspapers across the country and in Iowa.

Ed, how do you sort of bridge the pushback that people now have about opinion and encourage them to read things that they may not agree with?

Well, that's a trick.

I have people who subscribe to me who I know are conservatives and liberals.

And I guess I just try to be who I am.

When I do reporting, I try to make sure that it is it is balanced and it is informative and as truthful as possible.

In terms of commentary, I think that people in the Quad Cities who have seen my work as editorial page editor, they know where I'm coming from.

They know that I tend to be left of center, and the commentary that I offer reflects that.

Julie, how do you connect with people who don't share political views?

And is this a platform to do that?

You know, it's interesting.

I was in Winterset Wednesday night and I asked the editor of the Madisonian to put together a group of 12 people she feels are influential in the area.

And we met at the Covered Bridge Winery, which is lovely, and it was a bipartisan group and all we did was talk about what's great about Winterset and Madison County and what are the challenges.

We didn't talk about, well, this is a republican point of view.

There was a shared view of what the issues were.

And there was such.

I was inspired, and that's the word that other people used at the end of the evening.

I think that the issues in Iowa are not necessarily as divisive as one might think when people actually get together and start talking about it.

I don't know if that answers your question.

Id like to weigh in on that, just if I can.

I think that, you know that the polarization that we've seen in Iowa and really across the country, part of that has been fed by the slow death of newspapers and the challenges other media have faced, that we're not, you know, we don't have a mass media that is tying people together where they can get a diversity of viewpoints.

And so as a result, all of us tend to go off and and tie into the particular media outlet that reflects our own personal biases.

And we don't spend enough time listening to other views.

So I think that's one of the things that we have to do in our group, is make sure that we have representation from across the political spectrum and of course across the cultural spectrum too.

Teresa, I want to circle back to you, because when I introduced you, I said you were a mental health advocate.

And I've been covering policy makers at the Statehouse who say we need more people on a path to become mental health counselors.

You're on that path.

What does your story do to inform policymakers about how to encourage people to take the path you're taking?

As I understand it, you're in grad school, right?

I am.

I am.

Thank you.

Mental health, I guess, is such a, we talk about being in this pandemic, that this virus has, you know, impacted us all.

But kind of the backdrop of that in the background is mental health.

So many people are suffering with mental health issues.

And if you are trying to get into a therapist's office right now, it is really hard.

Across the board they are booked up.

So, yes, we do need more and more counselors in the field.

I guess one of the things that I would like lawmakers and politicians to understand, mental health is more than just depression and all the other labels that it gets.

Mental health is housing.

Mental health is having adequate food.

It is having, you know, equal opportunities for education and jobs.

Mental health is all of those things.

And I'd like them to know that when you are, when they have their platforms and their, you know, speaking to their constituents, keep that in mind, because all of those things impact a person's mental health.

All of those things.

Julie Gammack, we have about 5 minutes left.

Quickly, tell us what the Okoboji Writers Workshop is.

Thank you for asking.

Yes.

Well, it's now annual.

I didn't expect it to be annual when I held the first one a couple years ago, but everybody wanted to come back.

It's mid-September.

Writers from all over the country actually are coming.

Chuck was the first one and as long as we're doing it and as long as he's willing, he'll be in every one of them.

Who's turning down a few days at Lake Okoboji?

Exactly.

So is the goal to read one another's work and provide feedback or what's the goal?

The goal is for people to understand there's a story in everyone, which is one of the ways to reconnect.

And some of the people who attend are professional writers.

They come as participants, but some are people who were thinking about maybe writing a memoir and they don't know where to start.

And about half of the people who are participants are well beyond that.

And the other half are coming and they don't know why they're there.

But maybe they'll get started.

Just like the woman Chuck was talking about earlier.

She had a trauma in her life and thought she might write about it.

She came to the first writer's retreat, decided to get going on it, and the next year, last year, she reported that the book was at the printer and it's about to come out.

So that's kind of exciting.

She really benefited from that.

And there are countless stories of people that were so inspired, but some just came for the fun of it.

And that's fine, too.

Chuck, many people say, oh, I can't write.

What would you say to them?

You know, if you just work a little bit at it and you just tell your story and urge yourself, push yourself to just get it on screen, get it on paper, get it out there, and then sit down with a writer who may be a little more experienced and they can show you how to shape it up quickly.

I think it's, you know, it may be important for the public to have that.

It's really important for your family.

And if, you know, if you can tell personal stories and just get them on record so that your heirs have it, it's invaluable.

And so, you know, I encourage people to do that.

Plus, you know, we probably have more writing going on in our society today than we've ever had at any time in history.

And it's just, a lot of it's just real different.

And some of it's, you know, some of it's Twitter and some of it's Facebook and some of it's acting out on TikTok and Instagram, but people are writing a lot and I just encourage it.

It's fun.

Teresa, what is Stories About My Daughter?

Stories To Tell My Daughter -- its my baby.

But it is a storytelling experience is how I like to describe it.

And I started it to give black women and women of color and our Des Moines community.

And now we open it up to other parts of Iowa as well to to have a voice to be seen and heard and to have control of the narrative that they speak about.

So people tell stories about things like spiritual awakenings, people tells stories maybe about leaving a domestic violence situation.

The stories run the gamut, but kind of the whole point to it is that women tell stories about issues and things that have occurred in their lives and kind of how they got through that.

And so we look at it as kind of sharing wisdoms and their healing stories.

And the stories are able to knit the community together.

We have a fabulous audience that shows up every time.

Ed Tibbetts, let's start with you and then go around to everybody.

Is there something that you've written on this Substack and this collective in the past year that you want the viewers of this program to see or someone that you're reading that you would recommend that they read as well?

I would say I'm proud of the reporting I've done on the threat of lead poisoning, about the local impact of a big rail merger in the Quad Cities.

I like to think I offer common sense commentary on politicians in Iowa to try to keep them honest.

In terms of other writers I love what Bob Leonard does.

Suzanna de Baca is wonderful.

I think that if people look there and actually looked at all the roster of writers that we have, they'd they'd find something to, you know, find something rewarding to read.

I wrote two pieces in Substack in recent months that I really liked.

One was at harvest time, I kind of did a look at the changes of agriculture over the 50 years or more that I've been covering Iowa, and I thought that came off pretty well.

I enjoyed doing it at any rate.

And the other one was, Deb Marquart, the Poet Laureate of Iowa, was coming to Jefferson to do take where I live and take part in a program.

And so I got together with her a couple of days ahead of time, had lunch and did a profile of the poet laureate of Iowa, Deb Marquart.

And she is a hoot.

And so it was a darn good story.

Well, I'd like to recommend to folks to read Suzanna de Baca and Dana James with New Black Iowa, and really all of the writers that we have on the roster, they're wonderful.

We have just about a minute left.

Julie, last point to you.

Well, I'm having a lot of fun doing a Monday Zoom call for paid subscribers of the potluck column.

Proceeds to go to fund scholarships to the Okoboji Writers Retreat.

And I'll have, I've had Governor Branstad, I've had the chief justice of the Iowa State Supreme Court.

Last week I had Mary Swander, who is a columnist in our collaborative.

She was a poet laureate for many years.

She's written several books, and currently she is doing so many amazing things, including connecting artists and writers to farmers in Iowa.

And she'll place them on these various farms.

And of course, it's a huge a-ha for them.

And the farmers are getting a kick out of it too.

How would I have known about that if I hadn't have this experience of interviewing Mary Swander?

So we're having fun.

I love them all.

I can't single out anyone else.

Well, I want to thank you all for sharing these stories with our viewers of Iowa Press.

Thanks for having us, Kay.

This is this is really great.

You can watch every edition of Iowa Press Online at iowapbs.org.

For everyone here at this table and at Iowa PBS, Happy New Year.

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the publics partner in building Iowas highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

Small businesses are the backbone of Iowas communities and they are backed by Iowa banks.

With advice, loans and financial services banks across Iowa are committed to showing small businesses the way to a stronger tomorrow.

Learn more at iowabankers.com.