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

Marc Nieson

Writing with Sense(s)
Weekend Workshop
June 13–14

Memoir: On Self and Society
One-Week Workshop
June 14–19

The Art of Metaphor
Weekend Workshop
June 20–21

Biography

Writing with Sense(s)
Weekend Workshop
June 13–14

When we say we are moved by a story or poem, what precisely do we mean? Where do we go? Is this place new and uncharted or merely a return?

The best of books or music or art often leaves us speechless. For the moment, we step outside the world of words and intellect and enter the realm of the senses—the world we once inhabited as children, before we read or wrote or even named things.

This highly participatory workshop will focus on sensory perception. Through a host of visual, aural, and tactile exercises, we will re-explore physical environments and landscapes of memory—finding ways to rename them and thus help our writing become fresher and more evocative to both ourselves and our readers, to take it backwards and forwards toward a place that is sensory, sensual, sensible. The class invites writers of all genres.

Memoir: On Self and Society
One-Week Workshop
June 14–19

We all have stories inside of us. In fact, one might argue that we are stories—creating our lives, day to day, every day. The personal memoir is one narrative option and publishing entry for writers willing to embark on journeys of self.

Yet for a memoir to speak with any resonance or relevance, the writer must achieve a fragile balance between the self and others, between content and form. In this workshop, we will critique each manuscript from the standpoint of localizing what in your individual tale has communal and cultural context, then explore the varied narrative means and structures to best convey that tale. We will also consider such questions as: What precisely is the difference between a reflective and narrative voice? Between fact and truth? Between the private and the public? Expect model readings, discussions, and varied written exercises designed to help tap and shape your own life stories. The class invites writers working on book-length memoirs and/or individual essays.

The Art of Metaphor
Weekend Workshop
June 20–21

From Melville’s white whale to Walker’s color purple. Cervantes’ windmills to Woolf’s lighthouse. Carver’s cathedral to Basho’s pond. We all recognize the precision and poignancy of these metaphors. Those crystalline choices their creators made to deeply and simultaneously etch into our minds both image and meaning. As writers, how can we bring that kind of consciousness into the ongoing process of our own work? How can we make a single image signify and resonate throughout our narratives, poems, essays? How can we start recognizing potential metaphors in both our working drafts and our everyday lives? Through varied exercises and readings, this workshop offers a vibrant study and practice of this often overlooked though highly resonant element of our craft.

Biography
Marc Nieson (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop) has lived in New York City, Italy, Iowa and Minnesota. His background includes filmmaking, children’s theatre, building construction, and a season with a one-ring circus. Currently he’s on the faculty of Chatham College and The Loft. An excerpt from Schoolhouse: A Memoir from the Heartland appeared in the Literary Review and short fiction in Great River Review and American Way. His filmscripts include Bottomland, The Dream Catcher, and Superheroes. Currently, he’s living in Pittsburgh and finishing work on a novel, The Myth of Return.

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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