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	Michael Morse Generating Poetry—Contemplation, Play, and Discovery July 5–10 What We Love about Like: Simile and Metaphor, Image and Idea Weekend Workshop July 11–12 Apprenticeship and Inspiration—(20th Century) Foxes in the Hen House One-Week Workshop July 12–17 Biography Generating Poetry—Contemplation, Play, and Discovery One-Week Workshop July 5–10 Think of this workshop as a poetry triptych—one week, three realms. We’ll begin by contemplating poems both loveable and unfamiliar, with styles ranging from fractured lyrics to more coherent narratives. We’ll engage in serious yet playful exercises and prompts to generate new work, avoiding any set destinations, learning to love the liberating experience of getting lost, and arriving on new shores nonetheless. Finally, we’ll focus on sharing and revising initial drafts into more polished and even surprising pieces. In this workshop for all levels, there will be daily writing exercises, optional take home assignments, readings from our class packet of poems, and supportive group discussions of the work you generate, including topics like voice, image, metaphor, and the interplay between lines and sentences. What We Love about Like: Simile and Metaphor, Image and Idea Weekend Workshop July 11–12 We’re constantly seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching things in the world…and we inevitably compare what we sense with other things. These acts of comparison—seeing one thing as or like another—are the heart of poetic thinking. We’ll enjoy reading model poems and trying our hand at fun exercises that highlight how we move from sensory perception into the realm of thinking and metaphor-making. Day Two will focus on how metaphor sustains different poetic forms, in particular, the sonnet, the pastoral, and the elegy. For each, we’ll discuss figurative strategies that can liberate work with formal parameters, sustain and challenge our ideas of place, and generate, out of absence or the threat of loss, vivid and satisfying poems. This course is for poets of all levels and for fiction writers who want to explore the power of metaphor. Apprenticeship and Inspiration—(20th Century) Foxes in the Hen House One-Week Workshop July 12–17 In an essay from “The Sacred Wood,” T.S. Eliot notes that a sure test of skill is the way in which a poet “borrows”: Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal, bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. This generative workshop will model the works of others as springboards to freshly conceived poems. We’ll closely read poems by five fantastic 20th century poets—T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Etheridge Knight—and, as in the days of guilds and apprenticeship under accomplished artisans, we’ll note what’s of merit in each poet’s work, roll up our sleeves, and try to emulate those masterworks while generating work that’s singularly our own. Elements considered will include structure, music, pacing, syntax, imagery, figuration, and subject matter. An ideal welcome for beginners and writers in other genres who want to dip a toe into the waters of poetry, this course also caters to seasoned poets looking to break down what’s at the heart of terrific poems and bring that knowledge into their own work. Participants are encouraged to bring two poems with them: a model poem by a poet of their choice and a poem in progress “off of” the model poem. Biography Michael Morse has taught at The University of Iowa, the City University of New York, and The New School University. He currently teaches at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. Michael has published poems in various literary magazines, including Antioch Review, A Public Space, Field, The Iowa Review, The Literary Review, Ploughshares, and Tin House. Honors include fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Millay Colony, the Ucross Foundation, Ledig House International Writers’ Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and the Willard Espy Literary Foundation, as well as five Pushcart Prize nominations and the Charles Angoff Award from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He received his M.F.A. in Poetry from The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

	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