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

Mary Kay Shanley

Coming Apart At The Seams (And Back Together)—Revision Strategies For The Memoirist
One-Week Workshop
June 8–13

Helping The Beginner Introduce The People In Your Life
Weekend Workshop
June 14–15

Biography

Coming Apart At The Seams (And Back Together)—Revision Strategies For The Memoirist
One-Week Workshop
June 8–13

Just when you think a chapter or even a manuscript has gotten itself together, here comes someone to pull it apart! That’s true for writing in general, but especially for memoir. Writing doesn’t get more personal than this, so it’s easy to make a couple of errors. On the one hand, we know our subject matter so well that we may assume we’re feeding enough information—background, development of character, sense of place, dialogue, emotion—to ensure our readers can stay with us, page-by-page. (Assuming doesn’t always work.) On the other hand, we may become so involved with our personal story that we mistakenly believe readers are dying to know absolutely everything. (Wrong.) Both situations cry for revision. This course is for unpublished writers who are still wrestling with their work-in-progress. Students should plan to submit between 1,000 and 5,000 words ahead of time. This submission will not be critiqued in class. Instead, in- and out-of-class assignments will be pulled from that work, which provide a hands-on understanding of the benefits of revision.

Helping The Beginner Introduce The People In Your Life
Weekend Workshop
June 14–15

Whether your goal is to write memoir or family stories, the people in your life—now and in the past—will be a vital component. Those people will come alive when you paint visual descriptions that transcend the obvious “she-wore-glasses-and-was-always-smiling” copy. Then, add dialogue that advances the story, develops the character and shows emotion—dialogue so real readers feel like they’re part of the conversation. But successful writing goes beyond seeing and hearing. We’ll consider how people act, think, and change over time. To master this, we’ll practice good writing skills that show as well as tell, and that enable you to ferret out rich details. We’ll also tackle that tough question, “What if everything I have to say about a person isn’t all good?” It would be helpful to submit a short piece of writing ahead of time (to help me understand your project and writing style). We won’t critique that piece in class, however. Instead, we’ll generate new assignments throughout the weekend, so count on some out-of-class writing time.

Biography
Mary Kay Shanley is the author of nine books, including the best-seller She Taught Me to Eat Artichokes and her latest, Survival Secrets of College Students (Barron’s). She’s now well into a memoir, so she empathizes with her students. A former newspaper reporter, she writes for numerous magazines and conducts family-story writing workshops for Humanities Iowa and others. This is her eleventh year with the Festival, one of her favorite summer activities.

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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