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	Cecile Goding “This Too Is Life”: Memoirs on Illness and Health One-Week Workshop June 7–12 On Thought: Writing Non-Narrative Essays One-Week Workshop July 5–10 School Daze: Stories from Childhood Weekend Workshop July 18–19 Biography “This Too Is Life”: Memoirs on Illness and Health One-Week Workshop June 7–12 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 Thought: Writing Non-Narrative Essays One-Week Workshop July 5–10 Students often ask me: “What’s the difference between a personal essay and a personal story?” The distinction becomes wonderfully fuzzy when we include our own narratives of what happened to us, doesn’t it? Well, this week we will explore and write personal essays that stem from other sources, including lists, definitions, and just plain contrariness. 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 to me” to concentrate on “what I think I know.” While a portion of each day will be devoted to a number of habit-breaking exercises, 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 homework and detailed group comments will fill them up, enough to keep you writing the rest of the year. School Daze: Stories from Childhood Weekend Workshop July 18–19 “Childhood is so indelible,” writes Eudora Welty in her amazing essay “The Little Store.” Some stories and images from my childhood never fade with time. Though I do see that child differently now. What about you? Why do you recall some moments so clearly, while whole years appear as lost snapshots? This weekend retreat explores such questions, through writing short personal essays and sharing them. After all, Flannery O’Connor believed that “anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life.” Let’s make good use of that material, while it’s still so indelible. Be sure to bring crayons, diaries, and that smart kid you remember. Biography Cecile Goding (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop; M.F.A., The University of Iowa Program in Nonfiction Writing) grew up near Florence, South Carolina, where she once organized neighborhood literacy programs for parents and preschoolers. She now lives in Iowa City and teaches in Cedar Rapids. Her stories, essays and poems crop up here and there, most recently in Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief, Write Your Heart Out, 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 10, 2009