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

Sandra Scofield

Preparing To Revise A Novel
One-Week Workshop
July 6–11

Hot Spots: Making Major Scenes Pay Off
Weekend Workshop
July 12–13

Revising Short Stories
One-Week Workshop
July 13–18

Biography

Preparing To Revise A Novel
One-Week Workshop
July 6–11

For this workshop, you’ll need to have most of a draft of a novel done. You also need to feel flexible and open to rethinking aspects of the story and structure. In a combination of exercises, small group discussions, and mini-workshop sessions, you will test the bones of your novel and plan aspects of revision. (We won’t workshop chapters.) This is intense, exciting, challenging work. It calls for energy, patience, and a generous spirit. You’ll do daily out-of-class assignments. You’ll learn down-to-earth strategies for writing and revising. We’ll have fun. And by the way, it doesn’t matter where your novel falls on the “literary-commercial” continuum, but we will assume you want a mainstream readership.

Hot Spots: Making Major Scenes Pay Off
Weekend Workshop
July 12–13

In every story, chapter, or novel, there are a few scenes that “explode” the narrative in some way. They build tension, reveal secrets, knock the plot off its anticipated trajectory, intensify engagement. You know. They are the scenes you remember. The ones that the whole story leads to and falls away from.

This is a conventional workshop, except that you will bring only one scene from your story. We’ll look at its energy, rhythm, and structure. We’ll tell you how it makes us feel and what we learn and what we wonder when it’s over. Make this scene great; then take it back to the story.

Revising Short Stories
One-Week Workshop
July 13–18

So you’ve sweated through a solid draft. You’re pretty sure there’s a story in there. You know you could spruce up the prose, pick at the punctuation. But what about the story? This is a class in analysis: of your story and your narrative strategies. Learn to describe your story. Consider ways to deepen character. Look at alternative structures. Prioritize the problems and make a revision plan. Pay special attention to the opening. You will go away with an evaluation template for any story.

You’ll need to bring a story, of course, and we’ll talk about it. But this isn’t a conventional workshop; you’ll be much more involved in the discussion. If this is old news to you, you can wow us and step up to a new plateau. If you are stumped by revision, this will open up a whole new world.

Biography
Sandra Scofield is the author of seven novels, including Plain Seeing, and a memoir, Occasions of Sin. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and a NEA Fellow. She has been a frequent instructor at the Festival, and a mentor for the low-residency M.F.A. programs at Pine Manor College and Seattle Pacific University. She does most of her writing in the winter, when it is cold outside and cozy inside. Her craft book for writers, The Scene Book, was published by Penguin Books in 2007.

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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 January 10, 2008