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	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.

	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