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 Khalatchi
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

Douglas Goetsch

Poetry New & Revised: A Workshop For All Levels
One-Week Workshop
July 6–11

The Poem That Eludes You: A Workshop For All Levels
Weekend Workshop
July 12–13

Biography

Poetry New & Revised: A Workshop For All Levels
One-Week Workshop
July 6–11

Some writers love to compose and hate to revise; others love to revise and hate to compose. But to improve and evolve as poets we must become skilled at both. Participants in this workshop will spend the first half of the week composing new work and the second half revising it under the guidance of a poet who will open the vault to every technique he has time to share. The goal is to generate many pages and ideas, through writing prompts and assignments, and then to develop at least one relatively polished piece by the end. The other goal is to acquire tools of the trade to help become productive artists on your own, outside of workshops.

The Poem That Eludes You: A Workshop For All Levels
Weekend Workshop
July 12–13

As with people, the poems that turn out to matter most are often the ones that have given us the most trouble. The problems frequently involve organization, unity and point of entry, but they can manifest in all aspects of craft. On Saturday you will show us your current draft of a poem that has eluded you. Perhaps it’s one you’ve attempted to write several times; perhaps it’s an idea you’ve always considered but have never acted on, and will attempt to do so between now and the workshop. We will examine your poem, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, determine a “mission” for a revision, and send you off on that mission. On Sunday we’ll take a look at the results. I have found that going after the poem that eludes me has taught me valuable lessons I wouldn’t have received otherwise.

Biography
Douglas Goetsch is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently, Your Whole Life (Slipstream, 2007). His work has appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, The American Scholar, The New England Review, online at PoetryDaily and Garrison Keillor’s The Writer's Almanac, on the air at NPR, and in many anthologies. Doug has been on the writing faculty at numerous conferences and university programs, and is the founding editor of Jane Street Press. He currently teaches writing in the corporate workplace.

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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 11, 2008