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

Carol Spindel

Creative Veracity: Book-Length Creative Nonfiction
One-Week Workshop
June 7–12

Weekend Workout: Stronger Nonfiction Prose in Two Days
Weekend Workshop
June 13–14 

Biography

Creative Veracity: Book-Length Creative Nonfiction
One-Week Workshop
June 7–12

“Veracity is no drawback to the writer; there’s a lot of truth out there to work with,” says Annie Dillard. What an understatement. There’s so much truth out there we get overrun by it. The real world is filled with complicated distinctions and way too many characters. But well-written nonfiction is unified and coherent.

Whether you want to write about history, the environment, or raising children, how do you take that complex subject you are passionate about and streamline it into clear, elegant prose that any interested reader can enjoy? How do you shape the chunks you’ve written into a book?

This class is intended for writers trying to sustain a nonfiction book project. We will not focus on manuscript critiques. Instead, we will explore structure, character development, and the use of scenes through a series of guided exercises. You will be expected to question yourself, write hard, and commit to your fellow writers. Together we’ll seek strategies to maintain momentum so we can write the last line of the final draft.

Weekend Workout: Stronger Nonfiction Prose in Two Days
Weekend Workshop
June 13–14

Want to write essays, movie reviews, or a narrative nonfiction book, but feel that your prose can’t keep up with your ideas? In this weekend workshop, we’ll work on the basics of compressing and enhancing nonfiction writing. Our goal will be prose that flows well and sounds lively, while compressing dense rich meaning and concrete details into every sentence. If you’ve been writing for business or academia, this is a place to rediscover the part of you that loves robust language. The weekend is also an excellent work-out for writers who want to move their prose up to a higher level. A combination of writing exercises, reading, and analysis designed to help you rethink the way you write and edit nonfiction.

Biography
Carol Spindel (M.A., The University of Illinois) is the author of two nonfiction books, In the Shadow of the Sacred Grove, a New York Times Notable Book, and Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy Over American Indian Mascots (New York University Press). Recent essays have appeared in The Writer's Chronicle and Oxford American. She is working on a book about her long-term relationship with a village of subsistence farmers in Ivory Coast, West Africa.

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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