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	Katie Ford The Art of Emotion: Poetry Weekend Workshop June 13–14 Subject Matters: Advanced Poetry One-Week Workshop June 14–19 The Shape of Your Poem Weekend Workshop June 20–21 Biography The Art of Emotion: Poetry Weekend Workshop June 13–14 “No one who has ever come close to the arts has failed to see the difference between things written that way, with cunning and device, and the kind that are believed into existence, that begin in something more felt than known.” —Robert Frost There is a craft to emotion. It might sound cold, it might sound calculated, but it’s a writerly fact: language brings us into a place of heightened emotion because a subject that began in the guts of the writer has been rigorously shaped upon the page. How? This weekend course will look at the techniques—linguistic, imagistic, musical, intellectual—that conjure emotion both in subtle and jolting ways. We will discuss emotion as I believe it ought to be discussed—as an element of craft. It’s not an accident, nor is it a gushing forth of language. The weekend will start with a quick tour of theories of emotion, and then we will look at masterful examples of poems that yield emotions of all kinds—joy, confusion, sadness, and simple happiness. How was this done? we’ll ask. We will then practice what we find by doing poetry exercises, all with an eye toward emotional dips, lifts, whimsies and bombs. You will be asked to bring your own work not for peer critique but for development and revision. All skill levels are welcome. Subject Matters: Advanced Poetry One-Week Workshop June 14–19 Historically, the poem has taken up many tasks. It’s been political, elegiac, comforting, and meditative. It’s sounded warnings and wooed the beloved. It’s been a historical witness and a cultural voyeur. It’s been a vessel of memory and a nervous ship that can’t see what’s ahead. It’s spoken of animals and plants, humans and galaxies, valentines and cuisines. In this class, we will discuss a poetic subject each day, focusing on the love poem, the elegy, the political poem, the philosophical poem, and poems about animals. A rich selection of published poems will be our guide, and we’ll do exercises in class and draft “subjected” poems each night according to our theme. This course will have no workshopping in it. However, it is an advanced class, and assumes that each participant has read and written poetry for at least three years. The Shape of Your Poem Weekend Workshop June 20–21 Do the terms “dropped line” and “organic form” intrigue or disturb you? Do you like the idea of stealing from traditional forms without obeying all of their rules? Do you like to write long, winding lines, or experiment with fragments scattered across a page? In this weekend workshop, we’ll learn how the physical shape of your poem can organize, emote, dishevel and please. Looking at a wide array of published poems, we’ll explore how to shape our poems in ways that can open our imaginations and lead us more deeply into a poem’s subject. This is not a class on how to write in traditional form. Instead, it is concerned with the physicality of words on a page and how a poem’s subject and form can come into dynamic relationship. This is not a workshop. We will read poems, do writing exercises, and share our work out loud. Writers of all levels are welcome. Biography Katie Ford (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop; M.Div., Harvard University,) is the author of two collections of poems, Deposition and Colosseum (Graywolf Press). Individual poems have appeared in the The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and Poets & Writers. In 2008, she received a Lannan Literary Award. She teaches at Franklin & Marshall College and lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Josh Emmons. Their dachshund no longer fits in a Festival bag because of the new flap-and-zipper design.

	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