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IOWA CITY — Iowa’s UNESCO City of Literature has all the hallmarks of a town built for prose and poetry.

But the team at The Englert Theatre thinks it has good bones for song writing, too.

After Mission Creek celebrated its last year at the helm of The Englert in April, the Iowa City institution is making one of the first steps in the new direction it has teased for months.

Next month, they welcome a new crowd and artist lineup to the stage with the Iowa City Songwriters Festival’s inaugural event Sept. 4 to 6.

“We have amazing writers who live here, but (song writing) doesn’t have the same kind of attention that other forms of writing have,” said Brian Johannesen, programming director of

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