CNN Travel: Iowa City Named Top 10 Place To Visit In 2026

CNN Travel writes that Iowa City is No. 8 on the list thanks to its literary chops, dynamic downtown and lively local culture.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joseph Cress/Think Iowa City

Iowa City recognized for literary chops, dynamic downtown and lively local culture

CNN Travel named Iowa City on its list of America’s Best Towns to Visit in 2026.

“The chief reason for Iowa City’s bookish demeanor celebrates its 90th anniversary this year; in 1936, the town’s University of Iowa set up the first creative writing degree in the United States, after decades of nurturing creative writing talent as part of wider academic programs, ” CNN Travel writes.

“Today, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop is globally famous, with a roster of former faculty and alumni that reads like a who’s who of modern American letters — Kurt Vonnegut, Curtis Sittenfeld, Philip Roth, Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, to name a few. The Pulitzers and National Book Awards for alumni continue to stack up and in 2008, the town was named America’s first UNESCO City of Literature.”

Read the full article from CNN Travel by clicking here.

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