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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

Anjali Sachdeva

Fantasy and Science Fiction: Creating and Populating a World Apart
One-Week Workshop
June 7–12

Breaking Through: Strategies and Exercises for Defeating Writer’s Block
Weekend Workshop
June 13–14

The Small Stuff: Description and Detail in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction
Weekend Workshop
July 18–19

Biography

Fantasy and Science Fiction: Creating and Populating a World Apart
One-Week Workshop
June 7–12

All writers seek to create a world and invite the reader in—but what about writers who choose to make that world markedly different from the one we inhabit? In this workshop, we’ll examine the particular challenges that writers of science fiction and fantasy face, with an emphasis on creating worlds and characters. How can we weave a version of reality that is both novel and convincing? How do we help readers care for characters who are superhuman, or not human at all? Through discussion of published fiction and participants’ work, as well as in-class writing experiments, we’ll explore techniques and strategies to answer these questions.

For the purposes of this workshop we’ll define fantasy and sci-fi loosely: surrealism, magic realism, altered/modernized mythology, allegory, and so on. However, as the focus of the workshop is on creating your own new worlds and characters, please do not submit or plan to study fan fiction. Participants should plan to submit up to 20 pages (double-spaced) of their own piece of fantasy or sci-fi writing (preferably a complete short story or first chapter of a longer work).

Breaking Through: Strategies and Exercises for Defeating Writer’s Block
Weekend Workshop
June 13–14

Almost everyone who’s studied the art of writing for a while has spent hours staring at a blank page, or has shredded a recent draft after re-reading it. In this class we’ll explore ways to get over, around, and through writer’s block. We’ll discuss some of the causes of creative frustration, how to create a viable writing schedule, and how to approach common problems in beginning (or finishing) a writing project. We’ll also try a wide variety of writing exercises to help us move past writer’s block. Some of these will require nothing but a paper and pencil. Others will incorporate music, art, and collaborative work in an effort to approach the writing process from a new direction. Participants will be asked to submit an excerpt (up to five pages) from a piece of writing that has proved frustrating or seems to be "stalled."

The Small Stuff: Description and Detail in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction
Weekend Workshop
July 18–19

Writing without detail is like food without seasoning—it gets the job done, but it’s not particularly appetizing. Learning to add effective detail to your writing is not just a matter of changing your writing style, but changing the way you observe the world. In this workshop, which will cover both fiction and creative nonfiction, we’ll discuss ways to use detail to transform the rough outline of plot and character into a richly textured world that captivates the reader. We’ll try some writing exercises to explore these skills, and we’ll discuss strategies for doing efficient research to add detail to certain projects (after all, you can’t write that novel about the life of an ancient Greek astronomer if you don’t know anything about ancient Greek astronomy). Participants should plan to submit a writing sample of up to five pages, which need not be self-contained, and we’ll look at it with an eye toward adding detail.

Biography
Anjali Sachdeva has taught creative writing and English at several institutions, among them The University of Iowa and Augustana College. Her work has been published in Creative Nonfiction and Northern Woman, among others, and has been anthologized in The Barefoot Nuns of Barcelona and Other Stories. She has worked as a journalist in the United States and Ireland, and has an M.F.A. in fiction from The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

 


 

 

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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 10, 2009