An award-winning Irish playwright will spend much of the spring and summer in Iowa, sharing his knowledge and writing style. Mike Finn is a writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa and will conduct readings, lectures and workshops at schools, libraries and senior centers across Iowa.Finn will be in Iowa through July and he hopes to share with his audiences the process of moving from a blank page to performance. He plans to work with groups to develop story lines and characters, then create a short piece to perform.Finn has acted in more than 30 theater productions as well as T-V and films. He’s best known for his play “Pigtown” — which has nothing to do with Iowa. Finn’s hometown is Limerick, Ireland’s third largest city, which was once home to four major pork slaughterhouses. He says the play looks at 100 years of Pigtown’s history through the eyes of a retired butcher.Finn still writes columns for the Limerick Post newspaper. His stories are about Iowa, its weather and its people. He can be contacted through the paper at “www.limerickpost.ie” or through the International Programs at the U-of-I.