Iowa Summer Writing Festival


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Workshop Descriptions & Instructors Faith Adiele Mary Allen Kate Aspengren Thomas Fox Averill Nancy Barry Timothy Bascom Linda Bendorf Venise Berry Bruce Bond Michael Dennis Browne Susan Taylor Chehak John Dalton Thomas K. Dean Amber Dermont Kelly Dwyer Hope Edelman Josh Emmons Katie Ford Patricia Foster Laura Fraser Cecile Goding Douglas Goetsch Kevin González John Griesemer Sands Hall Christine Hemp Jim Heynen Rick Hillis Charles Holdefer Richard Jackson Cheryl Fusco Johnson Wayne Johnson Bret Anthony Johnston Daniel Khalastchi Zachary Lazar Carolyn Lieberg BK Loren Fritz Mc Donald James McKean Gordon Mennenga Katherine Min Sharelle Byars Moranville Michael Morse Barbara Robinette Moss Marc Nieson Shannon Olson Lon Otto Juliet Patterson Anjali Sachdeva Sarah Saffian Sam Samuels Leslie Schwartz Sandra Scofield Mary Kay Shanley Carol Spindel Karen Subach Mary Vermillion Ashley Warlick Jan Weissmiller Bart Yates	Hope Edelman Writing About The Unbelievable: The Weird, The Wacky, And The Wonderful One-Week Workshop July 13–18 Creative Creative Nonfiction: Experiments In Form One-Week Workshop July 20–25 Biography Writing About The Unbelievable: The Weird, The Wacky, And The Wonderful One-Week Workshop July 13–18 What happens when an ordinary person tries to write about an extraordinary experience? All too often, readers don’t believe it’s nonfiction, leaving an author to vehemently insist, “but it really happened!” As this workshop will reveal, the best defense against skeptics isn’t just the truth. It’s also colorful, crackling, and utterly convincing prose. In this class, we’ll take participants’ stranger-than-fiction stories of spirituality, coincidence, and transcendence and shape them into plausible tales for the page. We’ll talk about why detail and description are so essential, and discuss the all-important balance between narration and exposition. As we transform our own experiences into memoirs and personal essays, we’ll also read examples from published practitioners such as Carlos Casteneda, Rosa Arvigo, and Elizabeth Gilbert. Because this workshop assumes a certain level of prior knowledge, it is best suited for participants with some writing or workshop experience. Creative Creative Nonfiction: Experiments In Form One-Week Workshop July 20–25 Anyone can tell a story straight through from A to Z. It’s often more interesting for readers, however—and more fun for writers—when it’s told from Z to A. Or when it reads like a series of puzzle pieces, or an instruction manual, or a list. This class is for nonfiction writers of all levels who want to stretch their creativity and have fun with prose. Daily writing exercises will encourage students to think about structure and content in entirely new ways. We’ll look at writings by Annie Dillard, George Orwell, Chelsea Cain, Hillary Carlip, and others to explore various methods of structural subversion and discuss the effects they have on us as readers. We’ll also talk about when, how, and why to depart from linear structure, and about the danger of experimentation for experimentation’s sake. Some class time will also be devoted to a discussion of markets for these types of essays, but most of our time will be spent writing and reading our own work. By the end of the week, you will have one short piece completed and several others in progress. Biography Hope Edelman (M.A.W., The University of Iowa) is the author of four nonfiction books, including the bestsellers Motherless Daughters and Motherless Mothers. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Child, Self, Parade,and Real Simple and in anthologies such as The Bitch in the House, Toddler, and Blindsided By a Diaper. She is currently under contract for a memoir about taking her three-year-old daughter to a Mayan shaman in Belize to get rid of her evil imaginary friend. This is her ninth year teaching with the Festival.

	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 January 10, 2008