Welcome to the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association (RSMA) Website

This website is dedicated to the work of noted Iowa author Ruth Suckow and her husband Ferner Nuhn. She was a famous writer with Iowa roots; this website was created by the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association (RSMA) to celebrate her literary legacy, and to help readers find information about her life and work--as well as provide access to some of her short stories.

To read more about their remarkable relationship, go to the page Ruth and Ferner.

Iowa Interiors (1926)

Centennial Celebration

Saturday, September 12th, 1:00

Public Celebration at the Hearst Center for the Arts, starting at 1:00 pm

304 West Seerley Blvd. Cedar Falls, IA 50613 319.273.8641

2026 Annual Meeting, RSMA at the Hearst Center for the Arts, Saturday, September 12th, 2026.

The Iowa Digital Heritage website is a rich resource! https://www.iowaheritage.org/

You can search for the Suckow collection or type in the title of the short story.

https://www.iowaheritage.org/search/index/page/2?query=Ruth+Suckow

Includes 8 of the 14 short stories found in Iowa Interiors. You can download them and read them for yourself.

Since copies of this book are getting harder to find, here is a list of the Contents of Iowa Interiors. You can read most of it online, and we're going to scan in the other stories.

Thursday, September 10, Hearst Center

Exhibition of Iowa City artist Claudia McGehee's cover and illustrations of the new Centennial Edition of Iowa Interiors

5:30-6:30 Reception

6:30 Reader's Theatre of Mother Bailey, a 1930s play based on Suckow's short story "Uprooted," written by James Norman Hall, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty.

This first public reading of the script will be directed by Greg Holt, Executive Director of the Cedar Falls Community Theatre

When you come, you will be treated to an Exhibition at the Hearst Center of Iowa City artist Claudia McGehee’s cover and illustrations of the new Centennial Edition of Iowa Interiors. (which will run from September 10 through December 6).

This book, from the Final Thursday Press, offers an Introduction by Jim O’Loughlin & Julie Husband and a closing section of Reviews of Iowa Interiors over the years. (You will also be able to buy a copy of this new book with its 14 illustrated short stories!)

Ruth Suckow Memorial Association Annual Meeting

Saturday, September 12, 2026; 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, Iowa

Agenda

I. Call to Order & Welcome

II. Approval of Minutes from the Previous Meeting (printed in Fall 2025 Newsletter)

III. Treasurer’s Report – Mike Dargan

IV. Birthplace News – Lorna Easton

V. Suckow Park at Earlville Report – Jake Harris

VI. Suckow Website (ruthsuckow.org) and Facebook Page – Cherie Dargan

VII. Suckow’s “Uprooted” & Mother Bailey, a 1930’s play by James Norman Hall, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty, the Claudia McGehee art Exhibit – Jim O’Loughlin

VIII. Update on closure of the State Historical Society in Iowa City – Bill Douglas

IX. New Business

A. Suckow Traveling Exhibit Update – Barbara Lounsberry

B. New Suckow editions of Iowa Interiors and The John Wood Case– Jim O’Loughlin & Barbara Lounsberry

C. Program ideas for next year’s afternoon public program? (No centennial to celebrate in 2027)

D. Ways to reach out and encourage membership and support?

E. Election of Officers

F. Other?

X. Adjournment

Afternoon Centennial Celebration of Iowa Interiors

Noon: Old Fashioned Box Lunch on the Hearst Center Outdoor Patio in the Sculpture Garden

1:00 – 1:05: Welcome

1:05 – 1:30: Reader’s Theatre Performance of Suckow’s short story “A Great Mollie” – Jim Schaap & Company

1:30 – 2:00: Keynote Address: “Story & Anti-Story: What You Learn from Publishing Iowa Interiors,” Dr. Jim O’Loughlin

2:00 – 2:15: Break (Centennial carrot cake; coffee/apple cider)

2:15 – 2:35: “Illustrating Iowa Interiors,” artist Claudia McGehee

2:35 – 3:10: Panel Discussion on “Iowa Interiors & on Ruth Suckow as a Short Story Writer” by current Iowa Iowa Short Story Writers Laura Farmer, Keith Lesmeister, and Marc Dickinson

3:10 – 3:25: Q & A from Audience & Close

Who are we?

The Ruth Suckow Memorial Association (RSMA) was founded in 1966 by Ferner Nuhn, Georgia Nuhn, and a group of friends in Earlville, Iowa, where Ruth once lived and launched her Orchard Apiary beekeeping and honey business to support herself as a writer.

We're a small non-profit dedicated to educating the public about Iowa's first feminist author. We have a heart for teachers and are helping digitize Suckow's short stories and novels for free use on the Iowa Digital Heritage site. We offer scholarships to help support teachers and students. We also support publishing new editions of some of her novels, thanks to one of our members, Jim O'Loughlin and his publishing company.

$500 Unit Plan Grant Opportunity.pdf

Cherie lesson plan with Ruth Suckow four small group questions.docx

Have an idea about to incorporate one Suckow's short stories in one of your classes? We're giving scholarships to teachers. Above, left. Here is a very simple example to the right, when I taught Literature classes at Hawkeye Community College and incorporated 'A Rural Community' into the short story unit.

Pictures from the 2025 Meeting. Upper left, The "Nice Girls" Panel. Upper right, Lyz Lenz, speaker.

Upper left, the Radio play version of the ending of Odyssey. Upper Right, Panel discussion on the conclusion of the story.

The Suckow Traveling Exhibit

The Ruth Suckow Memorial Association, with the support of Humanities Iowa, is pleased to announce the creation of a Traveling Exhibit celebrating the life and work of Iowa novelist and short story writer Ruth Suckow, who lived from 1892 to 1960.

We launched the Traveling Exhibit on January 1, 2024, as part of the Centennial Celebration of Suckow’s first novel, Country People. Host sites are now being scheduled for 2026 and 2026.

2026

April 12 – May 17 (five weeks) – Gibson Public Library

Libraries that have expressed interest in hosting and received an Application Form

Albia Public Library *

Knoxville Public Library * Montezuma Public Library *

Ruthven Public Library

Visit the new Suckow Traveling Exhibit page