Iowa Summer Writing Festival


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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	Rebecca Johns Let Me Tell You about Me: Challenges in Point of View Weekend Workshop July 11–12 Advanced Novel Workshop One-Week Workshop July 12–17 Biography Let Me Tell You about Me: Challenges in Point of View Weekend Workshop July 11–12 When choosing a point of view, a writer makes a seemingly simple decision to shape his or her piece of fiction according to a particular vision or voice. The choice of a point of view, however, is far from a simple one. The narrator can be, and usually is, a force to be reckoned with. He or she can be like a tall person sitting in front of you in a movie theater: you get a great view of the back of the person’s head, but often at the expense of the movie you came to see. This course will examine the challenges and rewards of different points of view and techniques writers use to manipulate them successfully. Participants will read and discuss published stories and complete writing exercises designed to challenge and inspire strong points of view in their own work. In addition, I recommend students come prepared to discuss Nabokov’s Lolita and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. Advanced Novel Workshop One-Week Workshop July 12–17 Learning to write a novel is not like learning to cook or dance or solve math problems—we can’t memorize the steps before attempting the execution and expect everything to turn out perfectly the first time. There are lessons we can learn, however, once we’ve produced part or all of a draft of a novel. In this course, we will read and discuss excerpts from each other’s work, preferably a first chapter or beginning section of 30-50 pages, concentrating on increasing narrative tension, developing a vibrant setting, sketching interesting character arcs, exploiting narrative time, and developing a strong and consistent point of view. By the end of the week, participants should have a sense of their novel’s strengths and weaknesses and a direction for moving forward with its next stages. Biography Rebecca Johns’s novel, Icebergs, was published in 2006 by Bloomsbury USA and was a finalist for the 2007 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction. A graduate of The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Missouri School of Journalism, she has been an editor at Highlights for Children and Woman’s Day magazines and a copywriter at Penguin USA. Her writing has been widely published in Bride’s,the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Fitness, Mademoiselle, Parents, Self, and Seventeen, among others. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.

	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 19, 2009