WAPSIPINICON ALMANAC #18

February 02, 2012

The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine Conference

The University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine will host "The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine," a three-day conference, April 19th - 21st, focusing on the links between the science of medicine and the art of writing. The conference hopes to foster a collaboration and discussion involving the role of writing in medical education.

Sessions will focus on the benefits of writing throughout a lifelong career as a physician, as well as the role of creative writing in patient care. Participants will be able to take advantage of skill-building sessions on writing, editing and publishing creative work.

Many of the events are open to the public, although registration includes conference materials, access to all sessions, and meals & receptions.

Visit the website for more information on The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine.

February 01, 2012
Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction | Science/Medical Writing

Roger Rosenblatt reading

January 27, 2012

Crossing: A Braided Memoir

POROI (Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry) is pleased to announce Crossing: A Braided Memoir, a Rhetoric Seminar by Russell Scott Valentino. The seminar will take place on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:30am-1pm and the Bowman House on the University of Iowa campus.

Crossing: A Braided Memoir employs the compositional technique of the braid to explore the composite themes of mixture, translation (crossing with something on your back), and transgression (crossing the line). Crossing is both physical, as in movement from one place to another, one shore to another, and metaphysical, as in what happens when you die. It also holds a wealth of figurative associations from the mixing of cultures and languages to religions and races. It is movement across thresholds of various kinds, barriers, borders. It is bastardization when opposed to purity.

Visit the POROI website to download a PDF of the paper.

Ink Mag reading

January 25, 2012

UI expands writing options for undergrads

The University of Iowa's new Frank N. Magid Undergraduate Writing Center now offers an undergraduate writing certificate to all students, regardless of their major.

The center, housed within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, officially began its work last semester following a $1 million commitment from UI graduate Marilyn Magid in honor of her late husband, Frank, a fellow UI alumnus.

But the plans for providing more options for undergraduate students, have been in the works for some time, said Helena Dettmer, an associate dean for Undergraduate Programs and Curriculum and a professor of Classics at UI.

“It occurred to me that one of the reasons students might want to come here is because of the school’s great emphasis on writing,” Dettmer said. “We decided we needed a credential that students could earn as undergraduates.”

Read more...

January 24, 2012
English Department | Teaching & Learning

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole reading

Sara Levine reading

January 23, 2012

Novel conceived at the UI begins week of Writing University streams

Sara Levine's Treasure Island!!!, which she conceived while teaching nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa, will open a week of live literary streams on the writinguniversity.org website.

"I was teaching nonfiction at the University of Iowa and a colleague asked me which essayists I liked, and I mentioned Robert Louis Stevenson," says Levine, explaining how she came to write the book. "I was thinking of Stevenson's essays but he said 'Oh, Treasure Island.'" Thinking it might be fun to write an essay about not liking the book, Levine picked up a copy and found its swashbuckling style enjoyable. -from an The NWI Times article

The events, originating at 7 p.m. in Prairie Lights Books will be: --Levine on Monday, Jan. 23. --Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole reading from Sacred Trash on Tuesday, Jan. 24. --Roger Rosenblatt reading from the memoir Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief and Small Boats on Friday, Jan. 27. Read more

January 17, 2012
Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction

The Iowa Review Awards Now Accepting Submissions

Each January, The Iowa Review holds a writing contest in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction. Judges for the 2012 Iowa Review Awards are Timothy Donnelly (poetry), Ron Currie, Jr. (fiction), and Meghan Daum (nonfiction).

Winners receive $1,500; first runners-up receive $750. Winners and runners-up are published in our December 2012 issue.

Contest rules and submission guidelines

Current students, faculty, or staff of the University of Iowa are not eligible to enter the contest.

Work is ineligible to win the contest if it is slated for publication before December 2012, whether in another magazine or as part of a book, or if it has been named winner or runner-up in any other contest.

Judges are instructed not to award the prize to entrants with whom they have had a personal or professional relationship. Despite reading the entries with author names removed, judges may sometimes be able to guess the identity of the entrant. Even if they can't tell during the judging process, they have the right to change their decision if it turns out that the entrant is someone with whom there is any appearance of conflict of interest. Therefore, the Iowa Review advises entrants not to enter the contest if the judge is someone they know personally or have worked with professionally.

January 12, 2012
Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction | Iowa Review

IWP Announces New Website

The International Writing Program is proud to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website, providing information about the IWP’s many programs and initiatives in a new attractive location.

Through strategic partnerships with many international organizations, and frequently with the support of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the IWP fosters relationships and understanding between international and American writers; provides joint distance learning opportunities for American and international students; and publishes materials that bring established and new international voices to a broad audience.

While the URL remains the same, you’ll notice that the redesigned site makes it easier than ever for an extended network of readers, writers, teachers, and students to explore the cache of literary work, presentations, interviews, films, news items, and collaborations accumulated over the IWP’s 45-year history.

Visit the new website here: IWP website

December 27, 2011
International Writing Program

The Iowa Review Winter Issue Announced

Well-endowed sea captains and housewives, Zen weed-whacking, Venice but not Venice, once upon a time in a darkened room, and eyewitness haiku. The Iowa Review announces their Winter 2011/12 issue, featuring photography by Christopher Beckman and essays, stories, and poems by Lia Purpura, George Eklund, Chris Offutt, Martha Collins, Craig Reinbold, the winners of the 2011 Iowa Review Awards, and more... Add a little Iowa to your fireside reading! Check out The Iowa Review website for online selections and the Editor's Note.

December 20, 2011

Senior Center’s Reading Aloud group

December 12, 2011

Call for Submissions: Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry

Milkweed Editions and the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation are pleased to announce the establishment of the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry.

This annual regional prize—open to poets currently residing in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin—will award $10,000 as well as a contract for publication to the author of the winning manuscript. Finalists for the prize will be selected by the editors of Milkweed Editions, with the winner to be selected by an independent judge who will be named annually and chosen from among the ranks of eminent regional and national writers. The first annual prize-winning collection of poems will be announced in April 2012 and published in November 2012.

This year, the judge will be Peter Campion, the author of two collections of poems, Other People (2005) and The Lions (2009), both from the University of Chicago Press, as well as a monograph on the painter Mitchell Johnson, published in 2004 by Terrence Rogers Fine Arts. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, the Larry Levis Reading Prize, the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches in the M.F.A. program at the University of Minnesota, and lives in Minneapolis.

Milkweed Editions is one of the nation’s leading independent publishers, with a mission to identify, nurture and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it. The Lindquist & Vennum Foundation was established by the Minneapolis-headquartered law firm of Lindquist & Vennum, PLLP, and is a donor-advised fund of The Minneapolis Foundation. This partnership between Milkweed Editions and the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation will celebrate poets for their artistic contributions, and bring outstanding regional writers to a national stage.

For more information regarding eligibility and submission, please visit the Lindquist & Vennum Prize page on our website.

Dori Butler, Katherine House and Wendy Henrichs

December 11, 2011
Fiction

Stephen Longmire reading

December 09, 2011

Kristopher G. Phillips reading

Paul’s Book Club

December 08, 2011

We Wanted To Be Writers: Live from Prairie Lights

In this video, Eric Olsen reads from We Wanted to Be Writers at Live from Prairie Lights. We Wanted to be Writers is a rollicking and insightful blend of original interviews, commentary, advice, gossip, anecdotes, analyses, history, and asides with nearly thirty graduates and teachers at the now legendary Iowa Writers' Workshop between 1974 and 1978.

Among the talents that emerged in those years-writing, criticizing, drinking, and debating in the classrooms and barrooms of Iowa City-were the younger versions of writers who became John Irving, Jane Smiley, T.C. Boyle, Michelle Huneven, Allan Gurganus, Sandra Cisneros, Jayne Anne Phillips, Jennie Fields, Joy Harjo, Joe Haldeman, and many others. It is chock full of insights and a treasure trove of inspiration for all writers, readers, history lovers, and anyone who ever "wanted to be a writer."

December 07, 2011

David Rakoff reading: cancelled

December 05, 2011
Nonfiction | Nonfiction Writing Program

Donovan Hohn reading

Zachary Jack reading

December 03, 2011

Cole Swensen and Cal Bedient reading

December 01, 2011
Iowa Writers' Workshop | Poetry

Robert Sessions reading

November 29, 2011

Mark Wisniewski reading

November 28, 2011

Poetry opened doors wide for Eduardo Corral

"'These people who are characters in my poems, if I wrote them well enough, you can experience what they're living through, what they're going through,' he said. 'It's like a moment of stillness in the chaos, so you can see people's faces, almost in slow motion, as they pass you by.'"

In this Arizona Republic profile on 2011 Whiting Award winner Eduardo C. Corral, he describes his journey becoming a poet, from discovering poetry through a school assignment on Beowulf, to his time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Corral was in Uruguay this fall as part of an international-writers program run by the University of Iowa when he received the e-mail from the Whiting Foundation telling him he'd won the award.

"'I have a dream,' he said, 'of taking my nieces and nephews to the library, going to the bookshelf, pulling [my book] out and saying, 'Who is this?' '"

Read more: Poetry opened doors wide for Eduardo Corral

Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Poetry | International Writing Program

Scott Cawelti reading

November 18, 2011

Iowa and Invisible Man: Making Blackness Visible

Sponsored in part by the English Department and the Center for Teaching, an exciting week of events associated with “Iowa and Invisible Man: Making Blackness Visible” will begin immediately after Thanksgiving break from Tuesday, November 29, through Saturday, December 3. Events will take place at various locations around campus and will include such discussions as 'Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man—A Roundtable on the Literary Past and Theatrical Future of a Great American Novel' and 'Black Hawkeyes: Midcentury Memories of the University of Iowa'. All events are open to the public.

Visit the Iowa and Invisible Man website for more details.

November 17, 2011
Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction | Dramatic Writing | English Department | Theater | Theatre Department

James Tate

      James Vincent Tate was born on December 8, 1943 in Kansas City, Missouri. Tate attended Kansas State College and The University of Missouri. He then enrolled in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and received his M.F.A in 1967. In his first year at Iowa, his early collection of poems The Lost Pilot won the Yale Younger Poets Award, making Tate the youngest poet to ever receive the award. Tate went on to publish over 17 books of poetry and three books of prose. Some of his works include The Oblivion Ha Ha, Absences and Selected Poems which won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the William Carlos Williams Award. His 1995 collection Worshipful Company of Fletchers won the National Book Award.  Some of Tate’s other achievements include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2001, Tate was elected as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Tate’s poems have appeared in several magazines, including The American Poetry Review, Kayak, and The Seneca Review. Alongside his writing career, Tate has held teaching positions at the University of Iowa (1966-1967), the University of California at Berkeley (1967-1968), Columbia University (1969-1971), and Emerson College in Boston (1970-1971). Since 1971, Tate has taught poetry at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Early Life

     When he was less than a year old, Tate’s father, a B-17 co-pilot during the Second World War, was killed on a bombing mission over Germany on April 11, 1944.  “The Lost Pilot” was written for his father, and explores how this event shaped Tate as a writer. This collection is widely considered the most autobiographical of his work. He spent his first seven years living with his mother and grandparents in Kansas City. In an interview with Charles Simic for The Paris Review he remembers that time as “heaven,” recalling the “sweetness” of his grandmother and all of his playmates. When Tate’s mother began a string of unsuccessful marriages they moved out of his grandparent’s home. He looks back on those moments living with his mother as very lonely but “I don’t really want to complain” he says “because it forced me to be very inventive, to daydream.”       Nothing about Tate’s childhood indicates a burgeoning desire to write poetry. “I basically didn’t read anything” he says when recalling his high school days. He admits to never reading a page of Moby Dick, despite his having given a report on it in his Senior English class.  In high school Tate was a member of a gang: “We called ourselves the Zoo Club. I don’t know how much of a gang it was, though. There was always rumbling about, […]But usually nothing ever came of it”  he says. Tate prepared for what he considered “an honorable profession” as a gas station attendant. No one in his family had attended college before him and he wasn’t planning on being the first until he found out that nearly all of his friends from the Zoo Club would be leaving for college the fall after graduation. He panicked and applied to a school that was bound to accept him, Kansas State College. He began his education there in 1961 and “within about two months” Tate says “I wrote my first poem.” After that, Tate consumed literature manically, not just poems, but fiction and philosophy. “It was falling out of my ears” he says “I surely couldn’t understand it all.”  These were the formative years, when a professor who took an interest in him gave him the Wallace and Stevens books that “were the cornerstones of everything” according to Tate.
     Tate spent his summers travelling in Europe, to New Orleans and New York City working in a pharmaceutical warehouse, as a bartender, and almost on an oil rig. Despite all of the adventure, none of Tate’s writing from that time survived. He graduated from Kansas State University with his B.A. in 1965.

Tate and Iowa City

     In an excerpt from The Paris Review’s interview with James Tate, Charles Simic asks Tate how he ended up in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and in Iowa City:

INTERVIEWER

Did you have any ideas about what you were going to do after college? 

TATE

One of my teachers had been to Iowa, and toward the end of my senior year he started saying that I really should go too. I didn’t apply, but I drove up and walked into the office and said, I’d like to go to school here. This was in August and—this is unbelievable, but true—the secretary said, Donald Justice is just back from vacation, I’ll call him and see if he’ll come over. And—can you believe it? —he came over on the spot. I didn’t know Justice at all, but now that I do, I can’t believe he did that. I wouldn’t have done it. So he came over, I handed him ten or twelve poems, and he said, All right, you’re in. 

     So, Tate began his time in Iowa City.  He tells Simic that “the glorious part about Iowa for me was that I’d never met another poet, so in the first few months I was amazed by how many different kinds of people wanted to be poets. I thought, God! I’ve been living out there alone all these years and all of these other people were doing it too.” 
     In his second semester at Iowa, “The Lost Pilot” won the Yale Younger Poets series award. He was twenty-two years old and the youngest poet to date to win the award:

TATE

[…]I got a letter from Dudley Fitts, who was in charge of the prize. I thought nothing that the stationery was from Yale. I read the letter standing in the post office. I didn’t understand it. I read it again. It literally took me three or four times to understand that I’d won. I couldn’t believe it. It was unreal. I was twenty-two.

INTERVIEWER

That must have been big news to tell your friends at school. 

TATE

Yes, but it changed things. I thought about dropping out. Then I thought, Nah, go ahead and get your degree. I moved out into the country. I rented a little shack about fourteen miles away from Iowa City and became a hermit.

    Iowa was the springboard for his career and his time here marked a period of prolific publication for Tate. “When I got to Iowa, everything clicked and I started writing good poems right away – one after the other, at least one a week” he says. He was consistently being published in magazines like kayak and The Atlantic Monthly among others. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Iowa City is not a fixture in Tate’s writing. In a 1998 interview with Mike Magee he discusses the influence of geography in his work:

JT:

I don’t think […] that geography matters to me much. In fact when I was young, I'll tell you this, going back to Kansas City, right after my first book was published there was a review in the Kansas City Star, and the headline was something like, "Will Tate Leave the Midwest" (laughter). And my immediate response was, fuck you!

MM:

They wanted you to be a regionalist!

JT:

Yeah, I mean, there was no way I was gonna be that. Every now and then some Kansas City idea or some Kansas City tone or something might enter a poem, but I'm not interested in regionalism of any sort. And so I don't think that New England has impacted on my writing at all, just as the Midwest barely, barely has, only in a few poems in my whole life.

His Poetry

     James Tate’s writing is often considered “difficult to describe.” Poet and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, succinctly defines Tate as a writer who managed to “domesticate surrealism.” He has been known to play with phrases culled from news items, history, anecdotes, or common speech and later assemble his  material into tightly woven compositions that reveal bizarre and surreal insights into the absurdity of human nature.“Tate is often funny and always fun to read, even in the nihilistic poems that make up a good portion of the volume. Line by line, sentence by sentence, he strives to keep the reader interested and amused.” says Gioia. Tate's poems are increasingly character driven, featuring a narrator's various encounters with a gnome, a goat, an insurance agent. In his interview with Mike Magee, he points to one unifying element in his work: "My characters usually are—or, I'd say most often, I don't want to generalize too much—but most often they're in trouble, and they're trying to find some kind of life."  Read and listen for yourself:

• How the Pope is Chosen
• The List of Famous Hats
• It Happens Like This

Sources and Futher Reading

Tate, James. "James Tate, The Art of Poetry No. 92." The Paris Review. Interview by Charles Simic. Web. <http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5636/the-art-of-poetry-no-92-james-tate>.

Tate, James. "An Interview with James Tate." crossconnect. Intervew by Mike Magee. 1998. Web. <http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/xconnect/v4/i1/g/magee.html>.

Gioia, Dana. "James Tate and American Surrealism." www.danagioia.net. N.p., 1998. Web. 26 Sep 2011. <http://www.danagioia.net/essays/etate.htm>.

"James Tate Profile." www.poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 26 Sep 2011. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/70>.

"UI Pulitzer Prize Winners." www.iowalum.com. The University of Iowa, n.d. Web. 26 Sep 2011. <http://www.iowalum.com/pulitzerPrize/tate.html>

"James Tate Papers, Online Inventory and Bio." An inventory of his papers in the manuscript collection of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. 

Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Poetry

Peter Orner reading

November 16, 2011

Peter Sis reading

November 14, 2011

Michael Martone reading

November 11, 2011

Jeff Sharlet reading

November 10, 2011

Jay Walljasper reading

November 09, 2011

Chuck Klosterman reading

Susan Orlean on the Lit Show

New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean visited Iowa City to read from her new book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend on September 21st. Before her multimedia presentation at the Englert Theatre, she appeared on KRUI's The Lit Show to discuss the book.

In addition to discussing Rin Tin Tin's unlikely path to superstardom, Orlean discussed the origins of the German shepherd breed, the reasons why we love watching animals on screen, and the strange twists and turns in her own life as a public figure.

"Orlean’s book is not only a canine coming-of-age story—it explores the complexities of modern mythmaking," said Lit Show host Joe Fassler, in his introduction. "At first, we follow the successes and setbacks of a dog-in-real-life, Rin Tin Tin, but gradually Rin’s physical presence dissolves into his media presence, diffusing like a drop of food coloring in water. "

Orlean is the author of many books on wide-ranging topics, including Saturday Night, a cultural history of Saturday night, and Red Sox and Bluefish, an exploration of what makes New England, “New England.” Her book The Orchid Thief was adapted into the Oscar-winning movie Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman.

Listen to the Interview

Eula Biss and David Trinidad reading

November 08, 2011

Paul Street reading

November 07, 2011

Eula Biss & David Trinidad, reading and Q&A

The Department of English and the Undergraduate Certificate in Writing Program are pleased to host Eula Biss & David Trinidad for a reading and Q&A session this Tuesday, November 8th @ Prairie Lights, 15 S Dubuque St.
Eula Biss Q&A: 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Eula Biss and Trinidad Reading: 7:00 – 8:00 PM

Eula Biss holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her second book, Notes from No Man's Land, received the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her work has also been recognized by a Pushcart Prize, a Jaffe Writers' Award, and a 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library. Her essays have recently appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Believer, Gulf Coast, Columbia, Ninth Letter, and Harper's. She teaches writing at Northwestern University.

David Trinidad is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Late Show (2007), Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse (2003), and Plasticville (2000), a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his work has appeared in numerous periodicals and several anthologies, including Best American Poetry, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, and Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology. Trinidad currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago, where he co-founded the literary journal Court Green.

For More Information
Contact Daniel Khalastchi
319-384-1328
218 SH
daniel-khalastchi@uiowa.edu

Wole Soyinka reading

November 06, 2011
International Writing Program

Wole Soyinka Award Presentation

International Writing Program

Nick Demske and Johannes Goransson reading

November 05, 2011

UI to Offer MFA in Spanish Creative Writing

The University of Iowa will build upon its superior reputation in creative writing by establishing a new graduate degree in Spanish creative writing. The Board of Regents approved the Master of Fine Arts program today, and the UI will begin enrolling students to start in spring of 2012.

UI administrators say the program will cater to a rapidly growing Hispanic audience and will serve as a beacon for students who wish to pursue creative writing opportunities in their first language.

"Spanish is not a foreign language anymore. It's a national language, and this program will help many bilingual writers express themselves creatively in both languages," says Mercedes Niño-Murcia, professor and chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). "It will also further expose students, faculty, and the community to a wide array of creative individuals from around the world."

November 02, 2011
Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction | Dramatic Writing

Jamie Vollmer reading

November 01, 2011

Sigrid Nunez reading

October 31, 2011
Nonfiction | Nonfiction Writing Program

Sigrid Nunez reading

Nonfiction

Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka to Read at UI

The International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa will welcome Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka to the UI Sunday, Nov. 6. He will take part in two free, public events: He will receive the Rex Honey African Studies Lectureship Award, presented by the UI African Studies Program, at 3:30 p.m. in Shambaugh Auditorium of the UI Main Library; and he will read from his work at 7:30 p.m. in the Englert Theatre.

The African Studies Program, part of UI International Programs, will present the award in memory of faculty member Rex D. Honey to recognize Soyinka's outstanding contribution to world literature and his continuing advocacy of human rights reforms in Nigeria and around the globe. Following the presentation of the award, Soyinka will deliver a lecture.

Soyinka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, is the author of more than 30 volumes of creative work, including plays, volumes of poetry, and collections of nonfiction, as well as two novels. Read more...

IWP/IWW Sunday Night reading

October 30, 2011

Buzz Alexander reading

October 29, 2011
Nonfiction

Colson Whitehead reading

October 28, 2011

IWP Friday Night reading

Josh Rolnick reading

October 27, 2011

UI writing alumni McCrae and Corral win prestigious Whiting Awards

Poets Shane McCrae and Eduardo C. Corral, alumni of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, are winners of the 2011 Whiting Writers' Awards, presented in an Oct. 25 ceremony in New York City. This prestigious, $50,000 award recognizes 10 young writers for their extraordinary talent and promise, and is one of the most coveted prizes for up-and-coming writers.

The Whiting Writers' Awards have been given annually since 1985 and past recipients include Tobias Wolff, Jeffrey Eugenides, Mary Karr, and UI alumni Michael Cunningham and Kim Edwards -- all winners before they were acclaimed, bestselling authors.

Read more

October 26, 2011
Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Poetry

Adam Fell and Matthew Guenette reading

October 25, 2011

Stuart Nadler reading

October 24, 2011

Susan Orlean reading

October 20, 2011

Marvin Bell reading

Lynn Crawford reading

October 19, 2011

Wendy Call & Midge Raymond reading

October 18, 2011
Nonfiction

Susan Orlean Brings New Book to Englert October 20th

The Englert and Prairie Lights Books are excited to host Susan Orlean on Thursday, October 20 at 8 pm. Orlean will read from her new book "Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend".

One of the most creative literary journalists of today, Susan Orlean is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of the best-selling book, "The Orchid Thief" (made into the Oscar-winning movie, "Adaptation"). Her latest work, "Rin Tin Tin", tells the story of the great dog actor’s journey from orphaned puppy to movie star and international icon. Almost ten years in the making, Orlean's first original book since "The Orchid Thief", "Rin Tin Tin" is a tour de force of history, human interest, and masterful storytelling. The multimedia event will combine literature, film, video, music to help illuminate the story of the iconic dog.

Two tickets and a copy of the book can be purchased for $27, single tickets are $15, and students $10. Tickets may be purchased at the Englert Box Office and Prairie Lights.

The Englert Theatre is located at 221 East Washington St., Iowa City. For tickets, the public should call the Box Office at (319) 688-2653. Tickets can also be purchased online at http://englert.org.

The event will be streamed live on the Writing University website.

Rick Ryan reading

October 17, 2011
Poetry

Spanish Literary Recital reading

October 14, 2011
Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction | Translation

Nathan Hoks and Wayne Miller reading

October 13, 2011
Poetry

Paul Engle Award Ceremony

October 12, 2011
Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Fiction | Poetry | International Writing Program | UNESCO

Paul Ingram Book Club

Fiction

Paul Engle Essay Contest Winners

October 11, 2011
Alumni | Fiction

Lily Brown and Travis Nichols reading

October 10, 2011
Poetry

Leaner than Light: 12 Frames of Paul Engle

View Full Screen

"Leaner than LIght: 12 Frames of Paul Engle"
An audio video production of a play by Lisa Schlesinger
Produced and edited by Lisa DiFranza
Audio engineered by Ben Schmidt

View Video

A note from playwright Lisa Schlesinger:
"At the end of his life, Paul Engle was working on a memoir called Paul Engle Country which, he specifies, wasn’t in chronological order. I imagine that this is because as a poet, Paul Engle conceived of the world in images, and moments of meaning connected by associative imagination rather than chronological time. When I began to research Leaner than Light, I was interested in Hualing Nieh and Paul Engle’s mutual love and their dedication to world literature. I was also interested in how they created a place for voices that otherwise would not be heard and a community where they would be welcomed. Not a dramatic thing, really but miraculous and heroic. When I first envisioned this play, I saw spaces opening for IWP writers to walk through. One person I spoke with said Paul Engle sacrificed his career for the work of others. I’m not sure I agree. Perhaps he made a beautiful and successful career of it. I was also interested in paying homage to Iowa, a place often referred to as the middle of nowhere, but a place that has hosted, nurtured and cultivated countless literary voices and works, both local and global. One of the great moments I had researching this play was sitting with Hualing in her house overlooking the Iowa River, eating dried mango and sharing our love of Iowa. People don’t understand, she said, how many writers come here, nowhere else could you gather so many writers in one place. From a literary standpoint, Iowa is far form the middle of nowhere. And yes, it’s the writers who come; but it is also the Iowa landscape and people that welcome them. I am thrilled that we are able to share this internet audio/visual adaptation of the stage play, Leaner than Light, which received its first public staged reading in the wake of the Iowa flood in the October of 2008 and its staged premier in October of 2009. I hope viewers are able to get a sense of the staged production, but more, to get insight into Paul Engle’s life and his amazing gift to Iowa and to world literature."

There are six Paul Engle's poems featured in this streaming version of the play:

American Child I
Heritage
Divination
Question
Dedication
These are the Things

The Leaner Than Light Program (PDF)

View a slideshow of the stage production two years ago

Leaner than Light: 12 Frames of Paul Engle

View Full Screen

"Leaner than LIght: 12 Frames of Paul Engle"
An audio video production of a play by Lisa Schlesinger
Produced and edited by Lisa DiFranza
Audio engineered by Ben Schmidt

A note from playwright Lisa Schlesinger:
"At the end of his life, Paul Engle was working on a memoir called Paul Engle Country which, he specifies, wasn’t in chronological order. I imagine that this is because as a poet, Paul Engle conceived of the world in images, and moments of meaning connected by associative imagination rather than chronological time. When I began to research Leaner than Light, I was interested in Hualing Nieh and Paul Engle’s mutual love and their dedication to world literature. I was also interested in how they created a place for voices that otherwise would not be heard and a community where they would be welcomed. Not a dramatic thing, really but miraculous and heroic. When I first envisioned this play, I saw spaces opening for IWP writers to walk through. One person I spoke with said Paul Engle sacrificed his career for the work of others. I’m not sure I agree. Perhaps he made a beautiful and successful career of it. I was also interested in paying homage to Iowa, a place often referred to as the middle of nowhere, but a place that has hosted, nurtured and cultivated countless literary voices and works, both local and global. One of the great moments I had researching this play was sitting with Hualing in her house overlooking the Iowa River, eating dried mango and sharing our love of Iowa. People don’t understand, she said, how many writers come here, nowhere else could you gather so many writers in one place. From a literary standpoint, Iowa is far form the middle of nowhere. And yes, it’s the writers who come; but it is also the Iowa landscape and people that welcome them. I am thrilled that we are able to share this internet audio/visual adaptation of the stage play, Leaner than Light, which received its first public staged reading in the wake of the Iowa flood in the October of 2008 and its staged premier in October of 2009. I hope viewers are able to get a sense of the staged production, but more, to get insight into Paul Engle’s life and his amazing gift to Iowa and to world literature."

There are six Paul Engle's poems featured in this streaming version of the play:

American Child I
Heritage
Divination
Question
Dedication
These are the Things

The Leaner Than Light Program (PDF)

View a slideshow of the stage production two years ago

Robert Morgan reading

October 09, 2011
Nonfiction

Joseph Dobrian reading

October 07, 2011
Fiction

Shira Dentz and Julie Carr

October 05, 2011
Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Poetry

Glancing through a Chinese window: poets Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan read from their work

As part of a national tour presented by Copper Canyon Press to mark the publication of Push Open the Window, a contemporary Chinese poetry anthology bringing together over a hundred poems by some of China’s most important poets born after 1945, Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan, two of China’s leading poets will be visiting Iowa City for a bilingual reading today, 8 pm, at the Shambaugh House.

Zhou Zan, a native of Jiangsu Province, born in 1968, has published poems, criticism, and a translation of Margaret Atwood’s poetry. Editor of the prominent women’s poetry journal Wings, she was recently a visiting scholar at Columbia University.

Xi Chuan was born Liu Jun in 1963, and is the author of many prize-winning collections of poetry, essays, and translations. The editor of Dangdai Gouji Shitan (Contemporary Poetry International) and a past participant in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, he has been a visiting professor at New York University and at the University of Victoria. He teaches classical Chinese literature at Beijing Central Art Academy.

On Friday October 7th, at 10 AM, professor of modern Chinese literature Jennifer Feeley and poet Christopher Merrill will open up a public conversation with the poets. Both events will take place at the Shambaugh House (430 N. Clinton).

This anthology is part of an international literary exchange between the National Endowment for the Arts and the General Administration of Press and Publication in the People’s Republic of China. More info...

October 04, 2011
International Writing Program

Maggie Nelson reading

October 03, 2011
Nonfiction | Nonfiction Writing Program

Delia Ray reading

October 01, 2011

Lawrence Dorr reading

September 30, 2011
Fiction

Kirsten Kaschok reading

September 29, 2011

Neal Stephenson reading

Justin Torres on the Lit Show

Last week, Justin Torres, a 2010 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, returned to Iowa City to read from his debut novel We the Animals. Before his reading at Prairie Lights, Torres appeared on the University of Iowa radio station KRUI's program The Lit Show to discuss the book and its path to print. The talk took place from 2-3 PM on September 21st.

"The book is a meditation on a pronoun: we," writes Joe Fassler, host of The Lit Show. "Three brothers move as one through a rundown town in Upstate New York, their six arms throwing rocks, hurling open-palm slaps, pulling close in a fighting, biting embrace.

Their parents, Ma and Paps, had them at fourteen and sixteen. Their tumultuous relationship bursts with laughter and sobbing and long, unexplained disappearances. While the boys look on in anguish and wonder, their parents kiss each other with their fists--and with their kisses, they wound."

Torres' fierce vision of childhood has garnered high praise in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, among others. He is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. His fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and elsewhere. We the Animals has recently been reviewed in The Onion's A.V. Club.

Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Fiction

Ed Pavlic reading

September 28, 2011

Alan Jacobs reading

September 27, 2011

Eric Olsen reading

September 26, 2011
Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni

Craig Thompson reading

September 25, 2011

Theresa Weir reading

September 23, 2011

L.S. Klatt and Devin Johnston reading

September 22, 2011

Paul’s Book Club

Live Streaming

Live streaming begins at 5PM CST on Fridays from the Shambaugh House.

Ilya Kaminsky reading

September 21, 2011
Iowa Writers' Workshop | Poetry | Translation | International Writing Program

Justin Torres reading

New ‘On the Fly’ Videos

The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature website features several new 'On the Fly' videos, including 'A Tribute to Christopher Merrill', in which Sally Mason (University of Iowa President), Derek Willard (Special Assistant to the President for Governmental Relations), and Josh Schamberger (President, Iowa City/Coralville Area CVB) discuss Christopher Merrill and the significance of Iowa City's recent designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.

Additional videos feature Horacio Castellanos Moya, Eduardo Halfon, Mona Simpson, James Tate and more. Watch the videos here: On the Fly archives

Humanities Iowa’s Council conducted program produced with the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, features interviews with great American writers connected to Iowa.

Iowa Writers' Workshop | Alumni | Poetry | International Writing Program | UNESCO

Christopher Merrill reading

September 20, 2011
Nonfiction | International Writing Program

Alexander Maksik reading

September 19, 2011

Delia Ray reading

September 17, 2011
Fiction

Kiwao Nomura reading

September 16, 2011
Poetry

Ilya Kaminsky Live Discussion

Mon., Sept. 18th at 10:30 AM CST

The Writing University website hosted Ilya Kaminsky, one of this fall’s Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professors at the University of Iowa in a Live Discussion at 10:30 a.m. (CST) Monday, Sept. 18th. Kaminsky is the author of two volumes of poetry, and his work has been recognized by the Lannan Foundation, PEN America, the National Book Critics Circle, and the Whiting Foundation, among others. Kaminsky, who has been deaf since the age of four, has also received Poetry magazine’s prestigious Levinson Prize for poems from his new manuscript, Deaf Republic. In addition to his creative work, Kaminski is the co-founder of Poets for Peace, an organization which sponsors poetry readings in the U.S. and abroad with a goal of supporting such relief organizations as Doctors Without Borders and Survivors International.

________________________________________

Joe, Iowa City: Ilya,

Can you talk a bit about the editorial process at Words Without Borders? As
the magazine's Poetry Editor, how do you sift and select poetry that, in
each issue, follows a theme, worldwide considerations, and still targets (at
times) at-risk writers? (By the way - you're doing a wonderful job of it!)

Ilya Kaminsky: Thanks, Joe!

I edit poetry in translation for Words Without Borders, and poetry in English, as well as work in translation, for Poetry International.

The journals have very different dynamics and situations, but both give me a wonderful opportunity see a great deal of material being written, and translated, today.

The contemporary poetry in US gives one a sense of a very rich and evolving aesthetic diversity, which is a lucky thinig for any country. Some really amazing--and amazing in completely different ways--things are being written.

Poetry in translation teaches one about new perspectives, new ways to write, new ways to look at what we thought we knew all too well. In a way, reading submissions is a great education for a poet, to be around so much language is a gift.

Now, to answer the specifics of your question:
At Words Without Borders, I am lucky to work together with the team of other editors, most of whom are quite experienced in their respective fields, experts really. So, there is always something new and unexpected. Susan Harris, my co-editor of Ecco Anthology of International Poetry is my main point of contact at Words Without Borders. Susan forwards the poems that Words Without Borders receive in the submission pile, and I respond. Sometimes my responce is a simple yes/no; other times I respond in more detail about specific poems; on other ocasions, I ask to see more work; at other times I ask for a different opinion. It is not unusual for WWB editors to have different opinions or to reffer the work to another editor. My philosophy of it is: everyone at WWB loves literature and lives by it. So, if at least one of us loves the submission, the work should be published.

And, yes, at WWB each issue follows a theme, so, we are more likely to respond right away, or to respond positively if the specific poem fits our ongoing or anticipated theme. And, of course, we pay more particular attention to authors or translators we haven't (yet) published, or authors from the languages or traditions that are under-represented (so far) in the journal.

But we are also open to pieces written on all themes, at all times.

A rejection letter has no judgment value. It is simply an invitation to send work again. So, please do!
________________________________________

Vince Fountain, Iowa, US: I noticed you work, or have worked, as a law clerk and legal aid worker. How does this work--in particular, the language--inform your literary work, if at all? And vice versa: Does your facility and/or experience as a poet make your advocacy more effective? Is it weird to be a poet/lawyer?

Ilya Kaminsky: Hi Vince. I have attended one of the more liberal law schools in the country, and was lucky enough to work at Legal Aid in Bay Area for two years. It was a marvelous place to work with -- intense, yes, very busy, at times a bit dramatic, yes, 80hr a week, yes, but also quite marvelous. I worked in Benefits dept, under a wonderful attorney, who has spent years of his life helping the elderly and the poor, and he was a very quiet man, very detail-oriented, but quite passionate in his reticence. Working at Legal Aid in Bay Area meant meeting lines of people each day, each quite likely speaking with an accent, or telling a story that involves pain or poverty. But one can also see much warmth among people, much empathy. Did it influence my language, or my poems, the say being an attorney influenced Reznikoff's poems? I am hardly a right person to answer that question. But it did influence my being a person. That much I can say.

I no longer practice law -- I got laid off along with numerous other non-profit sector workers in California when a certain body builder began his tenure as a governor of that state. But I am grateful for the experience it gave me. And, no it was not weird even for a minute. It is a lot more weirid to answer interview questions as a poet. What do interviews have in common with poetry? Answering people's questions about the way they can get a doctor felt rather necessary, and relevant.

________________________________________

Joel, IA: I like the way you answered Ben, Ilya. The "I" as the "Other". My question
is hopefully follows the tangent: Just how much do you value displacement in
poetry? I mean, I notice that you still use images, but what's your take on
syntactical syncopation and deliberate language abstraction in contemporary
American poetry? Thanks.

Ilya Kaminsky:
Thanks, Joel.

This is an interesting question. I think the "other" is important presence in any great poem. But I wouln't be too reverent about it, frankly. Catulus has plenty of this sort of a thing, as does Vion, and they have it at their dirties, funniest, most "down to earth, dip your hands in mud" moments. Which is to say: the otherness is all around us, in us, it is, in fact, us. Anyone who is unsure of that should listen to their voice on the answering machine. The other? You bet.

The question is: how does one make art of that? Where is music to be found? How can the statement be different, and memorably so? And how, while being different, can it also be humanly relevant? This is a question for any artist, and we all have a different answer for it at lunch, at dinner, at breakfast, and when we listen to Chopin we say one thing, but when we hum in the shower we say entirely something else.

Which is to say: there are no rules. There are only other works of art that we can admire and (hopefully) steal from.

And, this brings me to your second question: how much should we value displacement in poetry & syntactical syncopation.

Well, we all love Emily Dickinson. So, there is a lot to value in that sort of slant way of looking at language, surely. I personally also find quite a bit to value in lyric poets such as C. Valejo, P. Celan, O. Mandelstam, all of whom, like Dinkinson, changed the way syntax and obstraction worked in the poetics of their respective languages.

To be blunt and frank, I think no great poet ever writes in proper grammar of their native speech. Valejo's "..." in the middle of the line exist because he wanted to jump from one meaning to another, Celan's wild combinations of words exist because he wasn't satisfied with what German, after years of Nazi propaganda, had to offer. And so on. A great poet reinvents the language, and reinvents the way our minds work as we read along. That any great poet teaches us how to read her or his text is an obvious point to make. But consider this: once, when he already lived in self-imposed exile in France, but came to Germany to receive an award, Paul Celan wrote in a letter to his wife: "I don't think the German of my poems is the same to the German they speak here or anywhere".

Now, that is a telling statement. One can easily see Emily Dickinson making that statement. One thinks of that statement when one reads Whitman's numbering of months (the way Native Americans did) instead of naming them in his 19 century lyrics in American English. One also thinks of that statement when one reads eary critical articles about Mandelstam's poems, where reviewers claimed that the poet did not speak in the proper Russian grammar. You bet!

Now, how does this all translate into our very own moment and place in time, that is: contemporary American poetry?

Let me give you a case study. Irony. Just a few years ago (and now, though not as much) most younger poets were absolutely absorbed with the use of irony in poetry. Irony, which is a very valuable tool, no doubt about that, suddenly became *the only* tool available to the whole generation. Of course, if you were a Polish poet writing in Eastern Europe in early 1980s, the fact that irony was your only tool made sense. It was either be ironic, or be shot. But in USA in 1990s? Please. Poems began to look like passages from Seinfields.

So, this is one example.

Your question raises another example. When the whole generation decides to speak in tongues, one wonders about the value of speaking in tongues. Is it a posture? Is it fashion? What is real? What is a homework assignment in the MFA program? And, so on.

And, of course, in moments like that, one tends to ask, well, what is on the other side of the spectrum? On the other side of the spectrum is clarity. Clarity, Darwish taught us, is the first mystery. This perhaps, may be one answer.

As your contemporary (I imagine) I don't really want to take sides in something that has to do with fashion of our contemporaries than with a question of life and death. Fashions pass. I am, in fact interested in the question of otherness and displacement. But to my mind, the displacement of Christopher Smart, falling on his knees in the middle of the busy London street and reciting prayers that were of course his poems, is a great deal more interesting than that of young person in Manhattan publishing another poem in a lit. journal that looks just like another poem in another lit journal.

I hope this makes sense.


________________________________________

Kaila, Iowa City, Iowa: When did you start writing poetry, and what sparked your interest in this
kind of expression?

Ilya Kaminsky:
Hello, Kaila. And, thanks for your question.

Well, you know, everyone starts writing poetry when they fall in love at 14 or 15. Only fools like me keep at it! ;-)

To answer in more detail: I began writing back in the USSR, as most Soviet kids do when they read Pushkin's love poems or Akhmatova's or Mayakovsky's. The Russian langauge is irresistible with its sounds, alliterations, the whole orchestra of possibilities in syntax, sentence structure, etc. You say a word, and another word begs to go in a pair and before you know it you are speaking in lines with rhyme and meter attached, and as you walk on the street you no longer see four boys singing to a dog or a grandmother feeding bread and milk to sparrows or two postmen playing chess on the hood of a car - you see images that are going in your next poem, and the world is suddenly open and you are in it (with syllables in your mouth and some good sort of insanity in your eye).

I began to write in English some years later, after we moved to US; you see, my father passed away about a year after our arrival. I didn't feel it was right to write about his death in the words he taught me. So, I wrote in a language I barely knew, English. No one around me spoke it, so it gave me freedom.

And, before I knew it: I fell in love with English. This is a condition I still find myself in.


________________________________________

Ben, Reinbeck, IA:
Ilya,

Your use of 'I' in "Dancing in Odessa is really intriguing. I'd like to know
where in the spectrum ('I' as the factual poet/speaker and 'I' as fictional
speaker) you believe the speaking 'I' of this book to be.

How close is the 'I' of these poems to the Ilya Kaminsky of real life?

Ilya Kaminsky:
Thanks for your words, Ben!

The "I" of the book is, of course, a fictional "I" - any "I" on any page is imaginary, the way I see it. But so is any "I" in actual human memory of the person writing this answer. The "I" that ate scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning is slightly different in one's mind, from the "I" typing out this sentence. The "I" who run after pigeons on the cobbles in Odessa is, naturally, also quite different. All language is but a poor translation, Kafka taught us, and I am thrilled to hide behind that notion as I type right now. I could, of course, also hide behind Borges' splendid vision in pieces like "Borges and I" or "Everything and Nothing."

To extend your question, though, what is the value of the lyric I? What is the purpose of the I in the lyric text-- how does that pronoun is suddenly able to connect the immages like photos on a wall into something whole, a room?

This is where the purpose of the pronoun becomes more curious to me, that moment when a word in a sentence can stir a sentence, wake it up. What is the purpose of poetry, they asked Zbegnew Herber, and he responded: to wake up!

As for real life biography - that is something which should remain private. Any poet worth the name (to my mind, anyway) is a very private person whose work only attains our interest because the language is interesting enough, beautiful enough, to speak privately to many people at the same time.
________________________________________

Live Discussion with Ilya Kaminsky

The latest installment of the Live Discussion series featured poet Ilya Kaminsky, one of this fall’s Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professors at the University of Iowa. Mr. Kaminsky participated in an on-line chat about his poetry, his humanitarian work, his career as a translator and editor, as well as other literary topics. The chat took place Sept. 19th from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. (Central Time).

Click here to read the Live Discussion

Kaminsky is the author of two volumes of poetry, and his work has been recognized by the Lannan Foundation, PEN America, the National Book Critics Circle, and the Whiting Foundation, among others. Kaminsky, who has been deaf since the age of four, has also received Poetry magazine’s prestigious Levinson Prize for poems from his new manuscript, Deaf Republic. In addition to his creative work, Kaminski is the co-founder of Poets for Peace, an organization which sponsors poetry readings in the U.S. and abroad with a goal of supporting such relief organizations as Doctors Without Borders and Survivors International.

Everyone is welcome to submit questions to Mr. Kaminsky before or during the discussion by accessing this link:
http://www.writinguniversity.org/index.php/main/submit

Immediately following the Live Discussion, a full transcript of Mr. Kaminsky’s responses will be available on the Writing University website:
http://www.writinguniversity.org/index.php/main/live_discussion_archive

Philip Mosely reading

September 15, 2011
Translation

Tom Perrotta reading

September 14, 2011
Dramatic Writing

Cate Kennedy reading

September 13, 2011
Fiction

Ellen Baker reading

September 12, 2011
Fiction

Back to the Main Page