Bravo of Greater Des Moines

CULTURAL ASSESSMENT LAUNCH

Every Day Everywhere Art Introduced by Novelist Alissa Nutting

To introduce and demonstrate the power of using artists to communicate new concepts and perspectives, Bravo of Greater Des Moines commissioned an essay and reading performance by novelist Alissa Nutting. Ms. Nutting’s reflections on the value of variety in cultural opportunities from place to place and in their spontaneous availability was, itself, a surprise cultural activity, and one that offered a wholly different way to present the outline-driven goals and findings of Bravo’s Cultural Assessment. The essay was then published with acclaim in Real Simple magazine. You can read that essay here. (pdf, 218 kb)

Alissa Nutting is the author of the novels Made for Love, a New York Times editor's choice selection, and Tampa, the film version of which is in development at HBO, as well as the story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, an expanded/revised version of which is being rereleased in Summer 2018 as part of Ecco's "Art of the Story" series. A nonfiction book of her comedic essays is forthcoming from Ecco in 2019. Her fiction and essays have appeared in publications such as Tin House, BOMB, Elle, Real Simple, BuzzFeed, and many others. She is currently at work on two television projects--one animated in development with Cartoon Network, the other based on her recent novel and being co-written with Dean Bakopoulos for Paramount Studios. She is an assistant professor of English and writer-in-residence at Grinnell College.