What’s the single most important piece of advice you would share with a young Iowan growing up or coming of age in the Hawkeye State? Iowa editor and author Zachary Michael Jack posed this timeless question to more than 100 Iowa luminaries, asking them to respond in a letter to all Iowans. The result … a once-in-a-lifetime collection of common sense and hard-won wisdom penned for young people everywhere by a who’s who of contemporary Iowans, including the likes of Robert D. Ray, Dan Gable, Mary Swander, and Christie Vilsack.

Ranging from the mundane—how to walk a gravel road—to the comically profane—what Iowa men have in common with Iowa pigs—to the sublime—how an ethic of care redeems us—the letters and photographs in Letters To A Young Iowan tell the story of a state known far and wide for its down-to-earth nurture and its highflying dreams. A perfect gift for rites of passage of all kinds, Letters To A Young Iowan is proof positive that one is never too old, or too young, to know wisdom beyond their years.