Iowa Summer Writing Festival


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Workshop Descriptions & Instructors Marilyn Abildskov Mary Allen Kate Aspengren Thomas Fox Averill Nancy K.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	David Bouchier That’s Not Funny: Writing Humor in Neurotic Times Weekend Workshop July 18–19 Ideas on the Wing: Writing the Spontaneous Essay One-Week Workshop July 19–24 Biography That’s Not Funny: Writing Humor in Neurotic Times Weekend Workshop July 18–19 “Humor,” wrote James Thurber, “is emotional chaos recollected in tranquility.” In this workshop, designed for beginning and intermediate writers with a sense of the ridiculous, we will try to deconstruct and understand the mechanics of humor without ever losing our sense of humor in the process. We will explore the many different techniques of humor: irony, satire, parody, incongruity, absurdity, verbal wit, and as many more as we can discover. Examples will range from Shakespeare and Mark Twain to Steve Colbert, P.J. O'Rourke, and Garrison Keilor, plus the writing you bring to the workshop (five hundred words is the ideal length). Essays, stories, columns, poems and scripts, complete or partial, will all be welcome. Editors and publishers love a writer who can show the funny side of life without offending readers. In our weekend, we’ll consider the delicate question of how to write and sell humor in a politically correct age. Our goal will be to help you discover your unique sense of humor and show you how to use it in any form of writing. Ideas on the Wing: Writing the Spontaneous Essay One-Week Workshop July 19–24 Your flight is delayed yet again; you read a poem on the subway; you hear a siren in the night; you realize that you will never understand the new TV remote, or use your gym subscription, or learn the piano; your childhood teddy bear has gone missing. Every day, and almost every hour, life offers experiences that are worth thinking about, and worth writing about. Tragedy and high drama are not necessary. The personal or intimate essay is the perfect form in which to capture these everyday moments, and to explore how they touch us on a deeper level. David Bouchier, who has written more than nine hundred personal essays for National Public Radio and The New York Times, explains how to turn these fragments of ordinary life into writing that sells. During the week, we will create quick, short essays from our experiences in exotic Iowa City, and these will be discussed and developed in the workshop. Biography David Bouchier is the award-winning essayist for NPR Stations WSHU & WSUF, and for ten years wrote a weekly humor column in the Sunday New York Times. His most recent books are The Cats and the Water Bottles, stories about a year in a French village; and A Few Well Chosen Words (essays). He is also the author of Writer at Work: Reflections on the Art and Business of Writing (2005). Visit David at www.davidbouchier.com.

	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 10, 2009