Iowa Summer Writing Festival


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Workshop Descriptions & Instructors Lee K. Abbott Marilyn Abildskov Mary Allen Kate Aspengren Thomas Fox Averill Nancy Barry Timothy Bascom Kyle Beachy Linda Bendorf Venise Berry Bruce Bond Jericho Brown Michael Dennis Browne Thomas K. Dean Amber Dermont Janet Desaulniers Kelly Dwyer Hope Edelman Sarah Fay Hugh Ferrer Geoffrey Forsyth Patricia Foster Cecile Goding Douglas Goetsch Megan Gogerty Eric Goodman Vince Gotera Ann Harleman Christine Hemp Jim Heynen Rick Hillis Charles Holdefer Jeremy Jackson Richard Jackson Rebecca Johns Cheryl Fusco Johnson Wayne Johnson Daniel Khalastchi Carolyn Lieberg BK Loren Dora Malech Peter Markus Malinda McCollum Fritz Mc Donald James McKean June Melby Gordon Mennenga Sharelle Byars Moranville Michael Morse Alicia Rebecca Myers Marc Nieson Shannon Olson Lon Otto Juliet Patterson Kiki Petrosino Mark Jude Poirier Sarah Prineas Elizabeth Robinson Anjali Sachdeva Sarah Saffian Leslie Schwartz Sandra Scofield Mary Kay Shanley Carol Spindel Elizabeth Stuckey-French Ned Stuckey-French Karen Subach Mary Swander Peter Trachtenberg Nick Twemtow Anthony Varallo Mary Vermillion Kris Vervaecke Michelle Wildgen Bart Yates	Great Shapes for the Personal Essay One-Week Workshop June 20–25 “This Too Is Life”: Memoirs of Illness and Health One-Week Workshop July 11–16 Look Who’s Talking: 1st Person Workout Weekend Workshop July 24–25 Biography Great Shapes for the Personal Essay One-Week Workshop June 20–25 What’s the difference between a personal essay and a personal story? If it’s personal, does it have to be about me? These are questions we will explore this week, as we write and revise personal writing sparked by lists, quotations, poems, and just plain contrariness. Good writing comes in so many shapes and sizes. As models, we will read brief essays—on noise, on hateful things, for laziness, and against joie de vivre, to name a few. We will write against the grain of “what happened then” to focus on “what I think now.” While a portion of each day will be devoted to discussion and class exercises, most of our workshop will revolve around your own writing. Plan to bring work-in-progress if you have it (up to 12 double-spaced pages), and to share fresh material produced during the week. Bring a lot of blank pages. Nightly homework and detailed group comments will fill them up, enough to keep you writing the rest of the year. “This Too Is Life”: Memoirs of Illness and Health One-Week Workshop July 11–16 When the body fails us, we are forced to focus on it. How could we not? Yet how many times have you heard this: “For heaven’s sake, others’ physical problems are boring. No one wants to hear about me.” Fortunately, Chinese writer Lu Hsun, who provides the title for this workshop, would beg to differ. Along with many other writers—Joan Didion, Jorge Luis Borges, Richard Selzer, M.F.K. Fisher—Lu Hsun explored illness and health in personal, poignant essays. For veterans of this workshop, I have found new doctors, nurses, and patients to read and discuss. Most of our week, however, will focus on your own writing—as patients, as caregivers, as health professionals. Plan to bring work-in-progress if you have it (up to 12 double-spaced pages), and to share fresh material produced during the week. Bring a lot of blank pages. Nightly exercises and detailed group comments will fill them up, enough to keep you writing the rest of the year. Look Who’s Talking: 1st Person Workout Weekend Workshop July 24–25 A recent survey of first novels revealed that 87% were narrated by an “I.” Of course, the use of the first person is not recent. “I have often wondered,” begins Seneca in 50 A.D. In the personal essay, the “I” seems most natural. Add the memoir, and we hear a huge range of voices: “I, and I, and I.” Writing in the first person—whether fiction or nonfiction—raises unique questions. Why did you, as a writer, choose this starting point, this perspective, this pair of eyes? How can you shape experience, as only she could remember it? During this weekend retreat, let’s have some fun with the first person. We’ll make her exercise for hours, cut out the fat, and shape up. While most of our time will focus on generating new material, there will be a short workshop Sunday afternoon for those who would like to share their work. Biography Cecile Goding (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop; M.F.A., The University of Iowa Program in Nonfiction Writing) is from South Carolina. She lives in Iowa City and teaches poetry, science fiction, and other forms of protest at Mount Mercy College. Her stories, essays and poems crop up here and there, most recently in Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief, Born Magazine, The Fourth River, Kestrel,and The Iowa Review.

	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 4, 2010