Iowa Summer Writing Festival


Previous Page \| Registration Form \| Site Map \| Next Page
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	Wayne Johnson Story Structure For The Screen Weekend Workshop June 14–15 Novel Solutions One-Week Workshop June 15–20 All Purpose, Hard Drivin’ Narrative Strategies One-Week Workshop June 22–27 Biography Story Structure For The Screen Weekend Workshop June 14–15 We all love well-made movies—in fact, so much so that we sometimes think of our experience of them as “movie magic.” But how is this magic created? In this class, we’ll take a look at a number of films to examine the basic elements of story structure that burst onto the screen to create engaging movement, riveting visual experience, and emotionally satisfying drama. We will also read and discuss portions of award-wining screenplays such as Chinatownand The English Patient, identifying the techniques and strategies employed by writers of these very successful film narratives. This is an interactive lecture course; participants, through immersion in written and visual media, will gain a greater appreciation for film narratives that will enable them to create their own movie magic. Novel Solutions One-Week Workshop June 15–20 You’ve been working on this thing for . . . how long? Months, years? It’s supposed to look like a novel, but now that you’ve got it in front of you, it looks more like a six-legged cow, or a bus with wings. You’ve begun to wonder what exactly a novel is. Maybe you’re not writing one. You might be writing a cycle of stories. Or a reminiscence. Or a book, with some unifying structural element. In this class, we’ll look at ways of ordering narrative to create a variety of satisfying longer works. We’ll examine traditional linear plot structures, as well as the episodic and cyclic, using examples from contemporary literature. Students will not bring novels to class; rather, they will bring an opening chapter, or a middle chapter. Or even notes, or notions. We’ll consider the possibilities. Always, the structural solution will be novel to the writer, will fit his or her narrative impulses. All Purpose, Hard Drivin’ Narrative Strategies One-Week Workshop June 22–27 Consider just one feature of winning storytelling: Dialogue. Great dialogue is many things, but it is not simply a repetition of what people might say—though, of course, great dialogue is that too. Writing great dialogue requires the author to shape, compress, and amplify, which is true for the storytelling process overall. This class will address dialogue, exposition, tone, effective use of setting, and dramatic structure, among other aspects of narrative. Through class readings, student exercises, and shared participant writings, students will leave the class with a new and sharper sense of narrative craft and the wildly powerful and various forms it takes in any well-wrought story. Biography Wayne D. Johnson (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop) is a recipient of an O. Henry Award, a Transatlantic Review award, a Teaching-Writing Fellowship from The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Story, and other magazines, as well as in various anthologies. Johnson’s first novel, The Snake Game, was a London Times Bestseller. Don’t Think Twice was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and Six Crooked Highways chosen as a “Booksellers Summer Bestseller.” His latest novel, The Devil You Know, was released in 2004. Johnson has been a Chesterfield Film Fellow in Hollywood and has projects with major and independent studios. His most recent book, White Heat: The Extreme Skiing Life, was released by Simon and Schuster in December 2007; a book on motorcycling is to follow.

	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