Iowa Writers Collaborative brings music, writers retreat to Buena Vista County

More than 30 members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative spent two days in Buena Vista County, and the retreat sent music out into both Storm Lake and Pomeroy. The group used Buena Vista University as its base, then opened the nights to local audiences with performances at the Cobblestone Ballroom and Byron’s Bar, turning the county into a gathering place for writers, songwriters and readers tied together by the same network.

The Iowa Writers Collaborative describes itself as a home for professional, independent writers focused on Iowa stories, commentary and news, and its reach extends well beyond the room in Storm Lake. In the last 30 days, the organization said it drew 84,000 views from 28,000 followers, a sign that this retreat was part of a much larger digital audience built through Substack rather than a single-town arts scene. The group includes more than 60 professional writers and songwriters, and paid subscribers of any members were invited to the April music events connected to the retreat.

Thursday’s show was set for the Mermaid Room of the Cobblestone Ballroom in Storm Lake, with the Weary Ramblers, Chad Elliott and Kathryn Severing Fox on the bill. Friday night, the action moved to Byron’s Bar in Pomeroy for what the group billed as its inaugural IWC Hootenanny. Performers included Jason Walsmith, Dartanyan Brown, Carol Montag, Wolf Wolf, which is Wini Moranville and David Wolf, Chip Albright, Pat Kinney and others. Admission was listed at $20, though paid subscribers could attend free.

The setting mattered as much as the lineup. Buena Vista University regularly hosts conferences, meetings and public events, which helps explain why the Storm Lake campus could handle a retreat built around visiting creatives. The Cobblestone Ballroom adds a deeper layer of local history. Travel Iowa says the original Cobblestone Inn was built in 1929, then a 1945 fire destroyed everything but the ballroom and a few exterior rock walls. The venue later hosted Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Beach Boys before closing in November 1986 and reopening in November 2023 after 37 years.

Byron’s Bar carries similar weight in northwest Iowa. Byron Stuart opened the Pomeroy bar in 1996, and supporters later raised more than $100,000 to save it after Friends of Byron’s first pulled in about $28,000. For Buena Vista County, the retreat showed how Storm Lake and Pomeroy can still serve as cultural hosts, giving residents access to performances and creative voices they would not normally find at those venues on an ordinary weeknight.