In May, 2007, Pulitzer-winning author Marilynne Robinson, author of the "All Iowa Reads" 2006 selection GILEAD, spent an afternoon reading from and discussing her books with offenders in the Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility Library. The event was so well-received by offenders that fine arts/humanities programming has become integral to that library's services.

This October, the Mt. Pleasant Pleasant Correctional Facility was awarded a Humanities Iowa mini-grant to have Iowa poet John D. Thompson give a reading of 99 Voices, 99 Lives: the County Poems of Iowa for an audience of 36 offenders. Mr. Thompson discussed the writing process, answered questions about his county poems project, and shared stories about his visits to the home counties of many participants.

The next project they will undertake is a series of three 10-week writing explorations conducted by a local volunteer writer. Approximately two dozen men will study the fundamentals of creative writing (grammar and style), then forms of poetry, and short story studies.