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	Sarah Fay The Talent of Reading (and What It Means to Writing) One-Week Workshop June 7–12 The Art of the Interview Weekend Workshop June 20–21 Biography The Talent of Reading (and What It Means to Writing) One-Week Workshop June 7–12 How does one cultivate a talent for reading? Although reading is an essential skill for book reviewers (Evelyn Waugh once said that he would never give a bad review to a book he hadn’t read), it is also important to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—not to mention those who are ready to take the book club to a whole new level. During the first half of the week, we’ll fine-tune our methods and approaches to reading and study the book review as a form. For guidance, we’ll look to critics such as Edmund Wilson, V.S. Pritchett, James Wood, Louis Menand, Michiko Kakutani, and John Updike. During the second half of the week, we’ll establish how to translate our new reading skills into creative and critical writing that is adroit and evocative. Workshop will include in-class writing exercises as well as take-home assignments. This class invites writers of all genres. The Art of the Interview Weekend Workshop June 20–21 It seems simple: One person asks a series of questions, and the other person answers them. But every good conversation doesn’t make for a great interview. The interview is an art form. One must know what to ask, when to ask it, how to ask, and how to listen to the answer. Although this workshop will focus on the literary interview—the “long form”— it will also examine how fieldwork interviews serve as the foundation for magazine features, biographies, memoirs, literary essays, short stories, novels, plays, and even poems. We will cover every aspect of interviewing, from preliminary research and prepping questions to the proper recording equipment and editing raw transcripts. This highly participatory workshop will focus on in-class exercises and outside writing assignments. We’ll pay close attention to classic print interviews (literary and otherwise) from The Paris Review, Playboy, The Believer, and The New York Times. This workshop invites writers of all levels and all genres. Biography Sarah Fay is an advisory editor at The Paris Review. Her interviews with Kenzaburo Oe, Javier Marías, Kay Ryan, Jack Gilbert, Pankaj Mishra, and Marilynne Robinson have appeared or are forthcoming in The Paris Review and The Believer. Her interview with Jack Gilbert was recently anthologized in The Paris Review Interviews, vol. I. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, The American Scholar, The Missouri Review,andon the website for Time magazine. She has received grants and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Puffin Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Corporation of Yaddo. She is the recipient of the Poetry Center of Chicago’s 12th Annual Poetry Prize and the Avery Hopwood Award for Literature from the University of Michigan. She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at The University of Iowa.

	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