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	Patricia Foster Family Memoir: First Chapters One-Week Workshop June 15–20 Biography Family Memoir: First Chapters One-Week Workshop June 15–20 Anyone who grew up in a family has a story to tell. And yet the hardest thing to write in a family memoir is the first chapter. The first chapter is difficult because it must establish the narrator’s voice, engage the reader’s interest in the story and its characters, and set up the conflict for what is to follow. In this workshop, we will focus entirely on that first chapter, beginning our class by reading first chapters from many writers such as Mary Karr, Geoffrey Wolff, Joan Didion, Michael Ondaatje, and Karen McElmurray. The rest of the class will be spent doing in-class exercises and workshopping your first chapters, focusing on structure and shape, on concrete detail and description, on narrative momentum and the development of character. By the end of the week I hope you’ll have the focus and energy to shape the rest of your manuscript. For this class, you’ll be asked to send a draft of your first chapter (page limit 16 pages, double-spaced) prior to the session and bring copies to share with your fellow memoir writers in the class. Biography Patricia Foster is a graduate of The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a professor in the M.F.A. Program in Nonfiction at The University of Iowa. She is the author of All the Lost Girls (memoir), Just Beneath My Skin (personal essays), and the editor of Minding the Body and Sister to Sister. She won the PEN/Jerard Fund Award, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award, and a Dean’s Scholar Award for nonfiction. She’s published in The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, The Antioch Review, The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review,and Glimmer Train, as well as other quarterlies. She received her Ph.D. from Florida State University.

	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