Iowa Summer Writing Festival


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Workshop Descriptions & Instructors Marilyn Abildskov Mary Allen Kate Aspengren Thomas Fox Averill Nancy Barry Timothy Bascom Kyle Beachy Karen Bender Linda Bendorf Maudy Benz Venise Berry Bruce Bond David Bouchier Michael Dennis Browne Maggie Conroy Mary Cross Thomas K. Dean Amber Dermont Janet Desaulniers Kelly Dwyer Hope Edelman Josh Emmons Jill Esbaum Sarah Fay Hugh Ferrer Katie Ford Geoffrey Forsyth Cecile Goding Douglas Goetsch Sands Hall Christine Hemp Jim Heynen Rick Hillis Charles Holdefer Richard Jackson Rebecca Johns Cheryl Fusco Johnson Wayne Johnson Daniel Khalastchi Carolyn Lieberg BK Loren Peter Markus Fritz Mc Donald James McKean Gordon Mennenga Sharelle Byars Moranville Michael Morse Barbara Robinette Moss Marc Nieson Shannon Olson Diana Ossana Lon Otto Juliet Patterson Kiki Petrosino Mark Jude Poirier Leslie Carol Roberts Anjali Sachdeva Sarah Saffian Sam Samuels Sandra Scofield Mary Kay Shanley Robert Anthony Siegel Carol Spindel Karen Subach Mary Vermillion Kris Vervaecke Ashley Warlick Michelle Wildgen Bart Yates	Nancy Barry Prose Style: How to Write Out Loud Weekend Workshop June 13–14 Re-Thinking Revision in the Essay Weekend Workshop July 11–12 Get Your Prose in Shape: Revision Strategies for Essayists One-Week Workshop July 12–17 Biography Prose Style: How to Write Out Loud Weekend Workshop June 13–14 This workshop is designed for essay writers who want to make their prose sing. Strong writing usually conveys the power of the spoken voice, but that doesn’t mean we create fluid prose simply by recording our voice on the page. As writers, we need to revise as much for sound as we do for sense, and this workshop will help us sharpen those techniques that create style in prose—sentence length and rhythm, or alliteration and the tonal qualities within word choice. Readers often recognize or hear a writer’s voice emerging from the page, and good writers know that style should always reinforce, not contradict, an essay’s content or theme. Few of us imagine we can change our voice by a few strokes of the pen, but writers do manipulate those features of prose writing that directly impact a reader’s sense of style. In this workshop, we will work through exercises to increase our command of style. A manuscript is not required; writers who desire a critique should limit their essays to 5 pages. Writers of all levels are welcome. Re-Thinking Revision in the Essay Weekend Workshop July 11–12 There is no magic bullet or pristine checklist for the messy process of revision, but good writers develop a systematic series of questions that they ask as they consciously shape work from one draft to the next. This is a short course on revision strategies, and is intended for those writers who know in theory that revision is essential, but who are uncertain whether their own process and habits are sufficient to the task. We will inventory the relationship between composing practices and revision strategies, and then outline a method to break revision into discrete segments. By sharpening our understanding of what features of an essay we pay attention to at different stages of revision—and by asking ourselves different questions of the essay at those different stages—we can improve our drafts in more systematic ways. The course will include lecture and exercises that participants will try out with one essay brought to the workshop. There will be no group manuscript critique, but participants will discuss and exchange small portions of the revision exercises with one another. Get Your Prose in Shape: Revision Strategies for Essayists One-Week Workshop July 12–17 Even though most writers yearn for an essay to emerge fully-formed, perfectly structured, and full of eloquence, we all know this happens only in our dreams. Real writing is created through revision, but what does that mean? And how does a writer know when an essay is truly, finally, finished? This workshop is designed for writers who want to articulate a revision process for themselves—not so much as a template to follow, but as a vehicle for sharpening the form, meaning, and power within their essays. We will inventory our own practice as writers in order to expand our repertoire of strategies to disentangle the layers of meaning, intention and language that constitute an early draft. We will discuss deliberate and discrete stages of revision, and try out exercises to sharpen our sense of what it means to create “the next version” of an essay. Writers should bring one or two essays that need revision (no more than 15 pages total). Class hour will be spent in both revision exercises as well as manuscript critique. Biography Nancy K. Barry (Ph.D., University of Illinois) teaches creative nonfiction, poetry and women’s literature at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Her essays have appeared in Iowa Woman, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun, and she is currently at work on a memoir, Teaching Through Cancer, about sustaining her work as a writing teacher in the midst of cancer treatment.

	Site Map \| Welcome \| Workshops by Session Date \| Workshops by Instructor Workshops by Genre \| Registration & Housing Information \| Registration Form Sponsored by the Division of Continuing Education Iowa Summer Writing Festival C215 Seashore Hall The University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242 Phone 319-335-4160 FAX 319-335-4743 iswfestival@uiowa.edu Last updated on February 4, 2009