On a Sunday afternoon in October, four writers will gather in the Community Room of the West Des Moines Public Library to talk about the things that supposedly lurk in Iowa's cornfields, along its rivers, and in the dark underbelly of its small towns. The occasion is Iowa Weird Vol. 2, the annual anthology from Hayseed Press, a small independent publisher based in Cedar Falls. The event, part of the library's Iowa Files history lecture series, is free and open to the public.
Hayseed Press describes its mission this way: "Be the trumpet for the Midwest's enlightened, bemused, and provocative voices." The press aims to promote authors and artists with strong Iowa connections. Its showcase publications are the Iowa Weird series and a holiday collection called A Very Special Hayseed Christmas.
Aaron Narigon, who will appear at the West Des Moines event, is a co-founder of Hayseed Press. For the first Iowa Weird volume, Narigon contributed an intensive investigation into one of the state's best-known mythical creatures, the Van Meter Monster.
That legend dates to the fall of 1903, when residents of Van Meter, a small town west of Des Moines, reported sightings of a half-human, half-animal creature with enormous bat wings and a glowing horn. According to the Des Moines Register, several of the town's most respected citizens were among those who claimed to see it, and the creature was said to be immune to gunfire. The story has proved durable enough that Van Meter now holds an annual festival celebrating its 1903 visitor.
The first Iowa Weird anthology drew on fifteen writers and ranged widely across the state's folklore. Among its contents were a true ghost story from the Cedar Falls Ghost Tour, an existential battle with Iowa's weather, and a deep dive into the dark underbelly of libraries written by a contributor who happens to be a librarian. Volume 2 follows the same formula: Iowa-based writers contributing what the publisher describes as "true" stories, Iowa myths and legends, and weird stories crafted from the writers' warped imaginations.
Three other contributors will join Narigon at the library. Melinda Wichmann is an Amana-based writer and the author of How to Live with a Ghost, as well as a cozy mystery called Exercise Finished, which is also published by Hayseed Press and follows an obedience trial chairman investigating a murder among members of a Cedar Valley dog training club.
Jenny Fee is a journalist based in Indianola. Her contribution to the anthology concerns the eerie St. Mary's ghost light, a piece of Iowa lore that fits neatly alongside the state's other roadside legends.
Marcea Seible is a local historian and a professor of English and history at Hawkeye Community College, the same institution where Narigon teaches.
The Iowa Files series, now in its eighth year, is a joint project of the West Des Moines Public Library and the West Des Moines Historical Society. Programs run monthly and are held in the library's Community Room at 4000 Mills Civic Parkway. The series is supported by West Des Moines Historical Society members, Bravo Greater Des Moines, Polk County, and the Friends Foundation of the West Des Moines Library. Every program is livestreamed on the Historical Society's Facebook page and later uploaded to its YouTube channel, and all videos are closed captioned.
The pairing of a ghost-story anthology with a historical society lecture series is less of a stretch than it might first appear. Iowa's weird tales are, in their way, local history — stories that communities have told about themselves for generations, passed down and embellished until the line between documented event and folklore blurs. The Van Meter Monster began as a reported sighting by named, respected townspeople. The ghost light attributed to St. Mary's is the kind of legend that attaches itself to a specific stretch of road or a specific churchyard and refuses to let go. The anthology's contributors treat these stories seriously enough to research them and loosely enough to let their imaginations run.
The event runs from 3 to 4 p.m. on October 18, 2026. It is free, requires no ticket, and is open to anyone curious about what might be hiding in the state's quieter corners. Copies of Iowa Weird Vol. 2 are available from Hayseed Press.