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	Laura Fraser Writing From Experience: Personal Essay Weekend Workshop June 14–15 Magazine Writing One-Week Workshop June 15–20 Breaking Into Publications Weekend Workshop June 21–22 Biography Writing From Experience: Personal Essay Weekend Workshop June 14–15 Our best writing comes from what we know best. In this weekend workshop, we’ll learn how to take the raw material of our lives and turn it into personal essays that strike at universal themes. We’ll discuss various forms of personal essays—reported, humorous, very personal—and how to structure them into readable, publishable, memorable works. Magazine Writing One-Week Workshop June 15–20 This workshop will explore the strategies to write and sell great magazine articles. We’ll start by looking at what makes a story, how to do interviews and report an article, and then focus on the narrative elements of a feature-length piece: scene, character, beginnings and endings, structure, and lively details. We’ll talk about different types of magazine writing, with examples of each: profiles, travel, science and medicine, personal essay, reported features. During the week, we will dissect award-winning magazine articles to see what makes them work, particularly focusing on structure. We’ll workshop students’ pieces and help them get to the point, pare out the clutter, reorganize, and bring them to life. Over the course of the week, we will also get into some of the nuts and bolts of magazine writing—how to write queries, which editors to pitch, how magazines work, when to negotiate, and what to expect in the editing process. Breaking Into Publications Weekend Workshop June 21–22 For many people, there seems to be a wall between writing well and writing for publication. In this weekend workshop, we’ll talk about the nuts and bolts of getting your work into print—coming up with ideas, targeting magazines, writing queries, negotiating with editors, creating a niche, and massaging ongoing relationships with editors. Please bring in two magazines that you’d like to write for that are NOT The New Yorker, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, The Economist, or other A-list magazines; scour your bookstore for a magazine you might realistically be able to break into first. Biography Laura Fraser has been a freelance writer for 25 years, and has never had a full-time job. She is currently a contributing editor for More magazine, and writes for O, The Oprah Magazine, Gourmet, The New York Times, Plenty, Town & Country Travel, Travel & Leisure, and many other national magazines. She has taught magazine writing at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Aspen Summer Words, San Francisco State University, UC Extension, MediaBistro, the San Miguel de Allende Writing Workshops, and the Grotto Writing Workshops in San Francisco, which she helped found. She is the author of the best-selling travel memoir, An Italian Affair, as well as an exposé of the diet industry, Losing It.

	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