Summer Writing Fesitival: The Brilliance of Brevity

Jim Heynen

00L:113/00L:213 Undergraduate/Graduate Independent StudyLAB

This one-week workshop, designed for young adult to adult writers of all levels, will help participants apply their imagination to their life experiences.   Meets July 21 to 25.

The short-short story, the prose poem, the tale—all have found new and wider audiences in recent years.  What these forms have in common is their brevity.  This workshop invites people who want to say what needs saying and to say it in no more words than necessary.

Instructor for the festival is Jim Heynen, a native of Sioux Center in rural northwest Iowa and a widely published writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Mr. Heynen’s most recent collection of short stories, The Boys’ House, was an “Editors’ Choice” book of the year by Booklist, The Bloomsbury Review, and Newsday. His most recent novel is Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice. His 1997 novel, Being Youngest, was a Young Hoosier Book Award winner. Other recent books include Standing Naked: New and Selected Poems, and Fishing for Chickens: Stories about Rural Youth (ed.). Earlier books include The One-Room Schoolhouse and the nonfiction book One Hundred Over 100. He has frequently been featured on National Public Radio reading his own stories and has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in both poetry and fiction.

Participants will meet in a classroom setting on the campus of Iowa Lakeside Lab on West Lake Okoboji for three hours each afternoon, with one individual conference with the instructor during the week. High speed wireless internet is available. The workshop is limited to 12 participants.

You may register for 1 graduate or undergraduate credit through The University of Iowa for the workshop. Grading will be on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis for graduate credit or on a pass/nonpass basis for undergraduate credit. Those who do not desire college credit should register for audit status. Tuition for credit or for audit status is the same ($232 for undergraduates or $361 for graduate students). Please register by completing the online registration/housing form. You will be billed for tuition by The University of Iowa.