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	Cecile Goding The He(art) Of The Personal Essay One-Week Workshop June 8–13 “This Too Is Life”: Memoirs On Illness & Health One-Week Workshop July 6–11 On The Job: Stories About Work Weekend Workshop July 12–13 The He(art) Of The Personal Essay Weekend Workshop July 19–20 Biography The He(art) Of The Personal Essay One-Week Workshop June 8–13 Okay, you have anecdotes, little stories about you and yours. Certain images you will never forget. You find yourself compelled to tell these stories again and again, if only to yourself. Why? Essayist Phillip Lopate says that “personal essayists are adept at interrogating their ignorance.” How, then, to convey that interrogation to others? This week, as we read and write together, we will search for the “why” behind the tale; in other words, its heart. And then, as we reshape our pieces, we will walk the wavy line between anecdote and essay, to create heart and art. While a portion of each day will involve exploring a handful of the best personal essays of the last few centuries, most of our workshop will revolve around your own writing. So plan to bring work-in-progress (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. “This Too Is Life”: Memoirs On Illness & Health One-Week Workshop July 6–11 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 workshop, however, will revolve around your own writing—as patients, as caregivers, as health professionals. Plan to bring work-in-progress (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. On The Job: Stories About Work Weekend Workshop July 12–13 Where was your first job? Was there a window? A tree? A bathroom? What did the typist in the next cubicle bring for lunch? Remember the summer you waited tables? Remember the restaurant's clunky cash register? Have you ever worked overseas? What was the worst job you ever had? Readers want to know. Let’s mold the rich clay of your nine-to-five days into story form—whether nonfiction (memoir) or fiction. This weekend retreat will focus on producing that clay. And as you complete short exercises, then read your writing aloud, you may find yourself looking back on your worklife—its places, its people, its history—in a new, provocative way. That's what art does! The He(art) Of The Personal Essay Weekend Workshop July 19–20 As in my weeklong workshop with the same title, we will devote this weekend retreat to the “why” behind your personal stories. What happens when we add more to them—more details, more reflection, more drama? Rather than polishing old work, this writing retreat will focus on producing freely and abundantly, in response to unusual prompts. For example, what happens when we tell the same story in three different ways? What happens when you add the “you-now” perspective to what happened to “you-then?” As you complete short exercises, then read your writing aloud, you may discover its true center—the heart within the art. Writers at any level are most welcome. Biography Cecile Goding (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop; M.F.A., The University of Iowa Program in Nonfiction Writing) teaches for Mount Mercy College and The America SCORES Urban Teachers Poetry Workshop. She has worked for Silicon Valley corporations, Saudi Arabian princes, South Carolina nonprofits, Boston libraries, Vermont stonecutters, and Iowa neighborhood centers. Her stories, essays and poems crop up here and there, most recently in the 2007 Southern Poetry Anthology by Texas Review Press.

	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