Tom Grimes had been asked to write an essay about Frank Conroy, the late director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop who’d been in charge of the program when Grimes was a student from 1989-1991. What Grimes ended up with, however, was a full-fledged memoir about his friendship with the man he calls his “literary father” entitled Mentor: A Memoir.
This On the Fly interview was recorded in October 2010 when Grimes returned to Iowa City to read from Mentor: A Memoir at Prairie Lights.
Grimes is also the author of five novels: City of God, Will@epicqwst.com, Season’s End, A Stone of the Heart, and Redemption Song. He is the editor of The Workshop: Seven Decades from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, which features stories and essays by Workshop alums.
Like his mentor before him, Grimes directs an MFA Program in Creative Writing at Texas State University.
