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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

Bart Yates

Out Of The Closet And Onto The Page: The Novel Idea Of Three-D Gay And Lesbian Characters
One-Week Workshop
June 8–13

Patience, Caffeine, And Pigheadedness: What You Need To Write Your First Novel
One-Week Workshop
July 13–18

Biography

 

Out Of The Closet And Onto The Page: The Novel Idea Of Three-D Gay And Lesbian Characters
One-Week Workshop
June 8–13

Why do novels featuring gay and lesbian characters seldom make it to the “mainstream” shelves in bookstores? Why are most books by gay and lesbian authors ignored by the general reading public and reviewers? And where are today’s Virginia Woolfs, Thomas Manns, and E.M. Forsters?

If you’re interested in creating fascinating, multidimensional, and unique gay and lesbian characters in your fiction, this class is for you. We’ll start by looking at your own work (a few pages or a chapter of a novel, twenty pages maximum), and we’ll talk about ways of tackling gay and lesbian stereotypes. We’ll also take a look at authors who have escaped the confines of the gay bookstore, and discover how they did it. Why do we care about their characters so much? Why does their dialogue feel fresh and real?

Whether you’re beginning your novel or revising a finished draft, our goal will be to make your characters come alive on the page—not just as gays and lesbians, but as flesh-and-blood human beings. Human beings with surprising things to say, human beings with stories worth hearing.

Patience, Caffeine, And Pigheadedness: What You Need To Write Your First Novel
One-Week Workshop
July 13–18

Every novelist begins with the same challenge: a blank piece of paper, or an empty computer screen. You may have a great idea for a plot, or a main character you think will be amazing, or a promising setting. But you still have to get that first sentence down, and then the next, and you have to keep on going for several hundred pages. Then there’s layer upon layer of revision to wade through, and endless proofreading, and yet more revision.

Is it any wonder most novelists end up looking and behaving a little like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings?

In this class, we’ll discuss the painstaking process of crafting a novel. We’ll start by looking at your first chapter (rough drafts are fine, twenty pages maximum), with an eye on plot, characterization, voice, and setting. We’ll talk about establishing an efficient writing routine, and we’ll do in-class exercises designed to help you avoid The Three Most Common Pitfalls For Neurotic Novelists. Our goal for the week will be to provide you with the tools, inspiration and—most of all—the patience you’ll need to complete your first novel.

Biography
Bart Yates is the author of three novels, Leave Myself Behind, The Brothers Bishop and The Distance Between Us. Leave Myself Behind received a 2004 Alex Award from the American Library Association, and The Brothers Bishop was a main selection of the InsightOut Book Club. The Distance Between Us will be published by Kensington Books in September, 2008. Bart lives in Iowa City and performs in the jazz duo Nica’s Dream.

 

 

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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