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Good morning, Fearless readers:
Regardless of your personal feelings about the election results, exposure to divisive political campaigns can be exhausting, especially for those of us in Iowa, where we endure campaign ads for longer than most places in the country. Outside of politics, it’s also a time of change with the seasons and sunlight, and that too can affect our mood. Give yourself grace and rest. If you need a little boost, here’s a piece from Psychology Today about how to find joy in the everyday.
Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served or are serving our country!
In this week’s Fearless e-newsletter, you will find:
- A column from Macey Shofroth about Julie Gammack and the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
- A feature new to the Fearless e-newsletter. We’ll occasionally be sharing some of Iowa PBS’s Iowa Life stories featuring incredible Iowa women. Earlier this year, the show featured Dana James and Black Iowa News.
- In the headlines: Iowa has elected its first transgender lawmaker to the Statehouse, and two women will represent Iowa in the U.S. House.
- In case you missed it: Will you get a raise in 2025? A survey says it’s likely.
- Lots more!
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Column: Julie Gammack fuels storytelling through Iowa writing opportunities
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BY MACEY SHOFROTH, FEARLESS STAFF WRITER
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In the mid-1980s, Julie Gammack walked into a record store on Ingersoll Avenue in search of an idea.
At the time, she wrote a daily column for the Des Moines Register. Filling 8.75 newspaper inches a day with something new and interesting was a challenge. The record store’s "Iowa musician’s section" led her to Carol Montag, a musician based in Cedar Rapids.
Julie wrote about her music, which she described as being "just as good as Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell," and the musician found a new audience.
And in doing so Julie found her mission to help every person she could tell their story — a mission that has carried her through a storied career as a journalist and entrepreneur, and led her to founding two writing entities in Iowa that are ensuring as many voices as possible have the chance to be heard.
These are voices of people like Montag, or former University of Iowa professor Chris Jones, or a grandmother who wanted to keep her family’s stories alive for generations.
Or me, a young writer whose fledgling career has found its footing thanks to Julie’s Okoboji Writers’ Retreat and the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
"I really believe there’s a story in everyone," Julie said. "All of this talent has been here all along. It’s just, how do you get it out there? I think of all the things I’ve done in my career, the [Collaborative] and this retreat feel like a signature piece in my life."
A community of writers
The events of 2020, especially the murder of George Floyd, shifted Julie’s perspective around how people were treating one another.
"You saw this man being murdered in front of our eyes, and there was this huge outpouring of, ‘What can we do to create human understanding?’ I thought, ‘What if I gathered writers together so people could experience being with someone of a different culture in a situation where they are there to learn from them?" Julie explained.
She landed on the idea for the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat. In September of 2021, she gathered writers from across the Midwest in a one-room lodge in Okoboji to learn how to write their stories. She originally hoped to get at least 45 participants. But 115 people signed up.
I was one of those participants, and at the time I was a shy 23-year-old who had just left a job as a medical receptionist and felt too intimidated to call myself a writer. I sat next to folks who had retired from decades-long careers and decided to pursue their writing dreams. I met the legendary Iowa columnist Chuck Offenburger, who spoke with me as if I were his peer. I listened to Storm Lake Times Editor Art Cullen share how he wrote his way to a Pulitzer Prize with his small, northwest Iowa newspaper.
I left that conference thinking, "Maybe I can do this writing thing."
I had the opportunity to return to the conference this past September. In the past three years, Julie had grown from 115 participants to 300. She moved to the larger Iowa Lakeside Laboratory after the first year, and expanded next door to Lakeshore Center after she included songwriting in the conference’s fourth agenda. A couple traveled from Sweden to attend.
The conference attendees have diversified, too. Julie has been intentional about that. She knows that better stories, and a better Iowa, will come from it.
"If we’re just in our own little bubbles, we may project judgment or have a lack of understanding of people who have had a different set of experiences," Julie said. "People are learning ideas and life experiences from and about people that they never would have been exposed to otherwise."
The Iowa Writers' Collaborative
In the summer of 2023, I reached out to Julie inquiring about the scholarships she offered emerging writers to attend the conference.
She kindly offered me a scholarship before I realized the conference began the Monday after I got married. Once I let her know that I couldn’t attend after all, she responded with an unexpected question.
"Have you ever been interested in column writing?"
Shortly after founding the retreat, Julie also founded the Iowa Writers Collaborative on Substack. The Collaborative is a collection of over 50 writers and journalists who publish via Substack and direct their subscribers to check out each other’s work. Established Iowa media folks like Doug Burns, Kyle Munson and Business Publication Corp.’s Suzanna de Baca are just a few of the writers reaching and expanding their audience through the publishing site.
Julie had been writing her own Substack column for fun since 2020. She used funds from her paid subscribers to raise money for scholarships for the retreat.
"I had been so concerned about the shrinking of [newspapers], and it dawned on me that if people would pay money for my little column, I bet they’d pay money for Art Cullen’s column," Julie said. "I was thinking, ‘How can I help these Iowa newspaper writers?’"
Newspaper writing is in her blood. Julie’s father was a columnist for the Des Moines Tribune and the Sunday Register. He was a war correspondent in World War II and the Korean War. The contractions in the news industry frightened her.
As small Iowa newspapers across the state shut down, the Iowa Writers Collaborative has offered both a revenue-making option for Iowa writers and a place for readers to get high-quality commentary. Julie explained that because writers in the Collaborative are independent, they’re able to perform watchdog journalism in a way that keeps government entities accountable.
It’s also offered writers like me a chance to get their foot in the door in the writing world.
I launched my column, The Midwest Creative, in January of 2023. I share features, personal essays, interviews and reviews that explore what it’s like to live a creative life in the Midwest when it’s stereotyped as a place where artists can’t thrive.
I didn’t expect writing this column to open up the opportunities for me that it has. I’ve built relationships with Midwest artists across the region. I got to cover the Iowa State Fair for a regional arts nonprofit. It led me to writing this very column for Fearless and working on fun features for dsm magazine.
That’s what Julie cares about the most — providing opportunities for writers, of any genre and at any stage of their careers, to find the audience they seek.
"With the change of the market in terms of traditional, legacy media, so many stories are getting lost," Julie said. "There are new ways of storytelling popping up. If people are given an opportunity to learn how to tell their stories, that’s a piece of the fabric of building community."
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FROM IOWA LIFE ON IOWA PBS
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Dana James. Photo courtesy of Iowa PBS.
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New to the Fearless e-newsletter, we’ll occasionally be sharing some of Iowa PBS’s Iowa Life stories featuring incredible Iowa women. Earlier this year, Iowa Life featured Dana James sharing more about Black Iowa News. Read on to see the feature and learn more about Iowa Life. Special thanks to Iowa PBS for allowing us to share these stories in Fearless.
Founded by Dana James of Des Moines, Black Iowa News is an independent news platform designed to highlight Black perspectives, showcase the Black community and amplify the voices of Black Iowans. In the summer of 2023, Dana decided to launch a print edition.
"I really want Black Iowa News to be that unifying force within the Black community. To be a way to bring us all together. I want to give Black Iowans the opportunity to really be seen and for the stories to really be stories that can help them improve, help elevate, and help their issues be seen," James said. "I want to put out the most high-quality, best paper that I can for Black people, because we really deserve it. We deserve that representation and we deserve great high-quality journalism, and that's what it's about."
Learn more about Dana James and Black Iowa News on Iowa Life.
Iowa Life is an Iowa PBS production that seeks to uncover the diverse tapestry of Iowa's people, cultures and stories. Through compelling interviews, scenic visuals, and authentic storytelling, each episode explores the extraordinary lives of individuals who call Iowa home. Watch episodes Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. or anytime on the Iowa PBS website or PBS app.
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"ALTHOUGH THE WORLD IS FULL OF SUFFERING, IT IS ALSO FULL OF THE OVERCOMING OF IT."
HELEN KELLER
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Aime Wichtendahl becomes Iowa’s first transgender lawmaker: After winning her election in Iowa House District 80, Aime Wichtendahl will become Iowa’s first openly transgender state lawmaker. She has previously served on the Hiawatha City Council since 2015, when she became the first openly transgender elected official in Iowa. Democratic Rep. Art Staed vacated the seat to run for the Iowa Senate, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Two women will represent Iowa in the U.S. House: Incumbent Republican Ashley Hinson again won her seat for Iowa House District 2. In District 1, incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks led her Democratic challenger, Christina Bohannan, with 50.1% of the vote, but the race remained too close to call as of Nov. 7, according to the Des Moines Register.
Melissa Vine joins Queck Capital Management: Melissa Vine has been hired as the vice president of business development and chief legal officer at Queck Capital Management, a real estate and finance company. Vine was previously the executive director at the Beacon. During her tenure, Vine "doubled revenue, client success rates, staff and affordable supportive housing units for women coming out of trauma," according to a press release.
Woodhouse named new YWRC executive director: The Young Women’s Resource Center appointed Rachel Woodhouse as its new executive director. She has served as the interim executive director since July. Woodhouse has over 10 years of experience in philanthropy and nonprofit work, most recently as the program manager for the Principal Foundation and Principal community relations.
For the birds: In 1999, Jenni Boonjakuakul had one bird: a baby crow named Clover that she raised over the summer while she was in grad school in California. Since then, she’s had more than 11,000. Now in Beaverdale, Boonjakuakul is the founder and executive director of Iowa Bird Rehabilitation, a nonprofit that rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured and baby birds across Iowa, Dan Ray writes for dsm magazine.
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Child care is becoming more affordable in some big US cities (Bloomberg). More women than ever will serve as U.S. governors (The 19th). Delaware lawmaker wins house seat, becoming first openly transgender member of Congress (New York Times). Two Black women will serve together in the Senate for the first time (NPR). Kay Koplovitz wants to see more entrepreneurs who look like her (New York Times). Trailblazer: A conversation with Kentucky Supreme Court Justice-elect Pamela Goodwine (Kentucky Lantern).
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Will you get a raise in 2025? Survey says it’s likely
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BY KATHY A. BOLTEN, SENIOR STAFF WRITER
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Ninety-seven percent of employers who responded to Palmer Group’s annual salary survey plan to increase employees’ compensation in 2025, an increase from a year ago and a signal companies want to retain workers, David Leto, the company’s leader, said.
Palmer Group, in collaboration with the Greater Des Moines Partnership, released its annual salary survey on Nov. 1. Nearly 200 employers responded to the survey, which was launched in 2013. Respondents were from companies of varying sizes and sectors, said Leto, president and CEO of the employment group. Read more
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At its core, Fearless exists to help empower Iowa women to succeed in work and life. We believe that everyone has a story to share and that we cannot progress as a society unless we know about one another. We share stories through featuring women in our reporting, featuring guest contributions and speakers at our events.
We are always looking for new stories to share and people to feature. Get in touch with us!
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