Workshop Descriptions & Instructors

Marilyn Abildskov
Mary Allen
Kate Aspengren
Thomas Fox Averill
Nancy 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
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 Swander
Mary Vermillion
Kris Vervaecke
Ashley Warlick
Michelle Wildgen
Bart Yates

Christine Hemp

Poems: Lost and Found
Weekend Workshop
June 20–21

The Artful Essayist
One-Week Workshop
June 21–26

Biography

Poems: Lost and Found
Weekend Workshop
June 20–21

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow but in wonder.—Czeslaw Milosz

The things we lose often return to us in different forms. Your mother’s laugh, the vegetable garden, the way the light hits the piano in the afternoon. The past can be transformed by language—and, in turn, can transform you. Whether you’ve lost your car keys or your sense of peace in the world, this workshop will explore the notion of “found” as well as “lost.” Using work already created and poems generated during the weekend, we will also examine poetic forms and wrestle with what it means to be “found,” the joy of “finding” one’s voice. Both novice and experienced writers are invited since the workshop is designed not only to expand your facility with language, but also to stretch your ability to regain—and transfigure—what you think has disappeared.

The Artful Essayist
One-Week Workshop
June 21–26

Often the subject of an essay is not really what it’s “about.” Like a good poem, the best essays have many layers of meaning, weaving several strands to offer the reader a new way of seeing. In this course, we will use various “ways in” to an essay—looking at paintings, listening to music, eating a meal, and observing birds. In other words, we will invite what poet Richard Hugo calls the “triggering subject,” while discovering the true “generating subject” through the writing itself. Using examples of literary non-fiction that give us a deeper experience of the world—from art reviews to personal essays—we will stir our own work toward clarity, precision, and transformation. This course is for those who wish to nudge their work towards publication.

Biography
Christine Hemp’s essays and poetry are heard on NPR’s Morning Edition and are published widely. One of her poems is aboard a NASA mission to monitor pre-natal stars, and her poetry program, which brokers peace between police and youth offenders, has paved new ground in Britain and the U.S. Recent awards include Harvard University Extension’s Conway Award for Teaching Writing, a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship for Literature, the Society for Professional Journalists First Prize for Radio Commentary, and an Iowa Award for Literary Non-Fiction. She lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

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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 19, 2009