2012-02-01T22:20:46-06:00 ExpressionEngine Copyright (c) 2012, Administrator tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2012:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3103 2012-02-01T22:18:00-06:00 2012-02-01T22:20:46-06:00

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.

2012-02-01T22:18:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Science/Medical Writing tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2012:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3742 2012-01-27T16:09:00-06:00 2012-01-27T16:17:16-06:00

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.

2012-01-27T16:09:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2012:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3741 2012-01-25T01:57:00-06:00 2012-01-25T02:13:50-06:00

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...

2012-01-25T01:57:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com English Department, Teaching & Learning tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2012:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3739 2012-01-17T18:16:00-06:00 2012-01-17T18:26:16-06:00

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

2012-01-17T18:16:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2012:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3738 2012-01-12T20:02:00-06:00 2012-01-12T23:24:44-06:00

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.

2012-01-12T20:02:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Iowa Review tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3737 2011-12-27T16:21:00-06:00 2012-01-01T01:12:58-06:00

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

2011-12-27T16:21:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com International Writing Program tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3736 2011-12-20T20:21:01-06:00 2012-01-01T01:08:50-06:00

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.

2011-12-20T20:21:01-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3731 2011-12-12T20:26:00-06:00 2012-01-01T01:05:37-06:00

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.

2011-12-12T20:26:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3722 2011-12-07T15:12:00-06:00 2011-12-07T15:15:07-06:00

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."

2011-12-07T15:12:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3719 2011-11-28T17:45:00-06:00 2011-11-28T19:32:26-06:00

"'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

2011-11-28T17:45:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Poetry, International Writing Program, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3717 2011-11-18T00:06:00-06:00 2011-11-22T20:00:00-06:00

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.

2011-11-18T00:06:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Dramatic Writing, English Department, Theater, Theatre Department tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3713 2011-11-09T14:51:00-06:00 2011-11-09T14:59:09-06:00

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

2011-11-09T14:51:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3705 2011-11-07T22:44:00-06:00 2011-11-07T22:47:43-06:00

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

2011-11-07T22:44:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3689 2011-11-02T14:11:00-06:00 2011-11-02T14:25:34-06:00

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."

2011-11-02T14:11:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Dramatic Writing tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3681 2011-10-31T20:33:00-06:00 2011-10-31T20:53:51-06:00

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...

2011-10-31T20:33:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3677 2011-10-26T17:16:00-06:00 2011-11-02T14:20:17-06:00

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

2011-10-26T17:16:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3673 2011-10-18T13:40:00-06:00 2011-10-18T13:47:45-06:00

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.

2011-10-18T13:40:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3666 2011-10-10T21:57:00-06:00 2011-11-22T19:32:36-06:00

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

2011-10-10T21:57:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3664 2011-10-04T19:39:01-06:00 2011-10-06T17:51:57-06:00

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...

2011-10-04T19:39:01-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com International Writing Program tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3647 2011-09-29T16:55:00-06:00 2011-09-29T17:17:55-06:00

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.

2011-09-29T16:55:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3642 2011-09-21T17:19:01-06:00 2011-09-21T17:21:43-06:00

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.

2011-09-21T17:19:01-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Poetry, International Writing Program, Iowa Writers' Workshop, UNESCO tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3629 2011-09-16T17:59:01-06:00 2011-09-21T14:43:27-06:00

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

2011-09-16T17:59:01-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3628 2011-09-12T16:38:00-06:00 2011-09-12T20:00:00-06:00

Strange things are happening in our UNESCO City of Literature Sister City, Edinburgh. Mysterious book paper book sculptures have been popping up in the Scottish Poetry Library: "One day in March, staff at the Scottish Poetry Library came across a wonderful creation, left anonymously on a table in the library. Carved from paper, mounted on a book and with a tag addressed to @byleaveswelive - the library's Twitter account - reading: It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.…| ... We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… | a book is so much more than pages full of words.…| This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)." Read more about the mystery and see the beautiful book sculptures here

2011-09-12T16:38:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com New Media, UNESCO tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3627 2011-09-07T15:03:00-06:00 2011-09-07T15:22:00-06:00

In this E-Channel post by Charles Johnson, Jerald Walker's Dragon Slayers is discussed, as well as James Alan McPherson's influence on Walker's work: "Walker says that in his courses on black American literature, he betrays 'the belief that blacks are primarily victims...a common view held by both races. I, too, held it for many years. When I was in my early twenties and making my first crude attempts at writing fiction, I'd sit at my word processor and pound out stories brimming with blacks who understood only anger and pain. My settings were always ghettos, because that was what I knew, and the plots centered on hardship and suffering, because I knew that, too.' It was one of his distinguished teachers in the Iowa Writers Workshop, Pulitzer-prize author James Alan McPherson, who helped Walker see that what he was doing was easy art..." Read more...

2011-09-07T15:03:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Faculty, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3622 2011-09-01T14:00:00-06:00 2011-09-01T19:22:41-06:00

Legless uncles, subcutaneous horns, chow chow and picadilly relishes, meatballs at the Trout Cafe, ghosts on a bridge, Dante for today, and muezzins for tea: The Iowa Review announces the release of their Fall 2011 issue, featuring new essays, stories, poems, photos, and translations by the likes of Lia Purpura, Mary Jo Bang, Andrew Feld, and Brett Fletcher Lauer. Visit the TIR website to read their online selections and the Fall 2011 Editor's Note. The Iowa Review's reading period opens this month as well. Check out their submission guidelines and send them your best new work!

2011-09-01T14:00:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Iowa Review tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3611 2011-08-22T19:51:00-06:00 2011-09-01T17:19:12-06:00

Poet Dean Young, a former faculty member of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, received a life-saving heart transplant on April 15, just a few days before the publication of his collection "Fall Higher." To show their affection and support for Young -- and to help offset the tens of thousands of dollars of his annual medications that are not covered by insurance -- UI poets will read at a special benefit event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31, in Prairie Lights Books. Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty members James Galvin, Mark Levine and Cal Bedient will be joined by Robyn Schiff, director of the UI Undegraduate Creative Writing Program, International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill and Prairie Lights' owner Jan Weissmiller to read from Young's work. A reception will follow the reading in the Prairie Lights Café following the reading. Poet and novelist Joseph DiPrisco, chair of the Dean Young fundraising efforts, explained that Young's out-of-pocket expenses will be about $50,000 a year. For more than a decade Young -- now a faculty member at the University of Texas -- suffered from congestive heart failure as a result of a heart defect, idiopathic hypotropic cardiomyopathy. For several years his condition was stabilized by medications, before deteriorating dramatically -- with his heart eventually pumping at eight percent of normal volume. As his condition reached a critical state, poet Tony Hoagland wrote, "If you know Dean, you know that his non-anatomical heart, though hardly normal, is not malfunctioning, but great in scope, affectionate and loyal. And you know that his poetry is what the Elizabethans would have called "one of the ornaments of our era"--hilarious, heartbreaking, courageous, brilliant and already a part of the American canon." While he was an Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty member, his "Elegy on Toy Piano" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Learn more about Young, and hear him read from his pre-transplant poetry at http://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136358656/the-heart-of-dean-youngs-pre-transplant-poetry And learn more about his case and find out how to donate at http://www.transplants.org/donate/deanyoung Please be sure to write "in honor of Dean Young" on the memo line of your donation. The Writers' Workshop is a program in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College.

2011-08-22T19:51:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3606 2011-08-11T17:39:00-06:00 2011-08-11T17:50:48-06:00

Philip Levine at the Workshop's 75th anniversary alumni gathering in Iowa City earlier this summerThe Library of Congress named University of Iowa Writers' Workshop alumnus and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine--whose work addresses the joys and sufferings of industrial life--the 18th U.S. Poet Laureate on August 10th, 2011. Levine, who recently participated in the Iowa Writers' Workshop 75th anniversary alumni reunion, will take up his duties as Poet Laureate in the fall, opening the library's annual literary season with a reading of his work at the Coolidge Auditorium in Washington D.C. on Oct. 17. (Read the official announcement at http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2011/11-143.html) Levine succeeds W.S. Merwin, and a number of previous Poet Laureates with ties to the workshop as visiting lecturers or students, including Louise Glück, Robert Hass, Rita Dove and Mark Strand. Read more...

2011-08-11T17:39:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3605 2011-08-09T17:58:00-06:00 2011-08-24T19:48:16-06:00

UNESCO has designated Reykjavik as the fifth UNESCO City of Literature. They join Edinburgh, as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, and Melbourne, Iowa City and Dublin. In total there are now 5 UNESCO designated Cities of Literature in the 29 strong UNESCO Creative City Network. Reykjavik’s designation as a City of Literature will help people everywhere appreciate the city’s fascinating literary heritage - as home to Icelandic medieval literature, including the Sagas of the Icelanders and the Poetic Edda – as well as celebrating the festivals and literary activity in the city year-round. Read more...

2011-08-09T17:58:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, UNESCO tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3598 2011-07-28T17:15:00-06:00 2011-07-28T17:33:50-06:00

During the third annual Iowa City Book Festival, University of Iowa alumni (from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Nonfiction Writing Program) shared their work in readings all over Iowa City, as dozens businesses hosted authors and similar reading events, capping the three-day celebration of the written word in this UNESCO-stamped City of Literature: "Two doors down North Linn Street from the poetry reading, a sizeable but quiet crowd crammed itself in a corner of a coffee shop, T'Spoons, where members of UI's undergraduate nonfiction writing program read aloud essays. It was standing room only -- a common situation throughout the weekend, said Jeanette Pilak, executive director of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature." Read more...

2011-07-28T17:15:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Nonfiction Writing Program tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3576 2011-07-20T18:01:00-06:00 2011-07-20T18:01:56-06:00

Poets & Writers Magazine features the Iowa Writers' Workshop 75th Anniversary this month in the article, Writers’ Workshop at Seventy-Five: "This year the oldest graduate creative writing program in the United States turns seventy-five. In June the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, alma mater of writers ranging from John Irving to Flannery O’Connor, Jorie Graham to Michael Cunningham, celebrated the anniversary with a reunion of faculty and alumni that brought together some of the most recognized names in literature today. T. C. Boyle, Robert Hass, Margot Livesey, Francine Prose, Marilynne Robinson, and Jane Smiley, among other Pulitzer Prize winners, poets laureate, and Fulbright scholars, converged on campus in Iowa City..." read more

2011-07-20T18:01:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3583 2011-07-15T14:48:00-06:00 2011-07-15T15:22:56-06:00

Iowa City Book Festival's twitter novel unfolds this weekend! Follow @NovelIowaCity or help write the book with #icbfn tweets. Novel Iowa City begins at noon today -- multiple authors writing a single novel, 140 characters at a time, simultaneously using Twitter. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the novel -- simply tweet your contribution and use the tag #icbfn. Watch the novel unfold on Twitter at @NovelIowaCity, or online at the Novel Iowa City website.

2011-07-15T14:48:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, New Media, The Experimental Wing, UI Libraries tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3582 2011-07-14T13:43:00-06:00 2011-07-14T13:53:05-06:00

The 2011 Iowa City Book Festival (ICBF), presented by the University of Iowa Libraries, will celebrate reading, writing, and books Friday–Sunday, July 15–17, with best-selling authors, hands-on book arts, kids’ activities, music, and more. The ICBF will begin Friday, July 15, with a fund-raising dinner in the Main Library. Saturday, July 16, is festival day in Gibson Square with booksellers, music, children’s activities, food vendors, book arts demonstrations, and readings and panel discussions. Sunday, July 17, will be “A Day in the City of Literature.” Local businesses of all kinds throughout Iowa City will participate by hosting readings and special activities all day. Novelists Elizabeth Berg, Jane Hamilton, and Stephanie Kallos and science-fiction writer Joe Haldeman are among a rich lineup of writers who will take part in the ICBF for its third year. read more...

2011-07-14T13:43:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, UI Libraries tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3579 2011-07-07T17:11:00-06:00 2011-07-08T01:48:33-06:00

Thomas Fox Averill, an alumnus of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and a faculty member of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, will launch a week of live literary-reading streams on the Writing University website at 7 p.m. Monday, July 18. The readings, originating in free events at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City, will also feature: --Novelist Donald Ray Pollock reading from "The Devil All the Time" at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 21. --And poets Anne Shaw and Traci Brimhall, at 7 p.m. Friday, July 22. read more...

2011-07-07T17:11:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Summer Writing Festival tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3578 2011-07-05T14:55:00-06:00 2011-07-07T17:15:27-06:00

Iowa Summer Rep 2011, “About My Family,” will continue Tuesday–Sunday, July 5–10, with performances of Paul Zindel’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lyrical drama The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and the evergreen two-person musical comedy I Do! I Do!. The Effect of Gamma Rays… will be held at 8 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday, July 5 and 7, in the David Thayer Theatre of the University of Iowa Theatre Building. I Do! I Do! will be staged at 8 p.m., Wednesday, July 6, and Friday–Sunday, July 8–10, in Theatre B of the UI Theatre Building. more information

2011-07-05T14:55:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Playwrights Workshop, Theatre Department tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3573 2011-06-14T18:35:00-06:00 2011-06-14T19:03:53-06:00

"The Iowa City Book Festival began as a thank-you to local residents, who in 2008 showed up by the hundreds at the University of Iowa Library to rescue the collection from rising flood waters. Iowa City is home to so many influential literary institutions, it is known as the Athens of the Midwest..." Read more >> O Magazine: "4 Great American Summer Book Festivals"

2011-06-14T18:35:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3525 2011-06-13T17:32:00-06:00 2011-06-13T17:32:59-06:00

(Iowa City, IA)— Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and three Johnson County public libraries unveiled 25 unique BookMark statues June 3, 2011, kicking off what is believed to be the first public art display in the world to celebrate reading and writing. These gigantic statues were created by artists from throughout the Midwest and will be on display now through the end of October in Coralville, Iowa City, North Liberty, and at the Eastern Iowa Regional Airport. Two to four additional statues will debut in July 2011. This public art partnership is expected to attract many visitors, and shows our community’s spirit for reading, writing, literature, and living in the only City of Literature in the United States. Each BookMark statue is an original collaboration between generous sponsors and talented area artists and designers. A complete list of sponsors, artists, statues and their locations is attached. A separate map of the statue locations is also included with this information and is available at the BookMarks website (www.bookmarksiowa.org). Iowa City artist Tam Bodkin Bryk, who created two of the BookMarks, is working on a third, and designed another statue that was crafted by another artist. Artist and owner of Lucky Pawz, Jim Kelly, produced two statues including the one sponsored by his business, while his wife created another. Artist Jo Myers-Walker is at work on her second sponsored BookMark.

2011-06-13T17:32:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, New Media, UNESCO Visitors and families are invited to experience the BookMarks project by touring all of the statues and uploading photos of themselves with each statue at the Flickr Photo Sharing page of the BookMarks website (http://www.bookmarksiowa.org), or on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Book-Marks-Iowa/128608547192443). In addition, the public can vote for their favorite statue through an online ballot starting June 20, 2011 at the Iowa City Press Citizen website (www.press-citizen.com). Winners of the “People’s Choice Award” will be announced at the Iowa City Book Festival's Day in the City of Literature on Sunday, July 17, 2011.

BOOKMARKS™ Book Art of Johnson County will benefit the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and the public libraries of Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty, when no fewer than 24 of the statues are sold during a public auction in November. The City of Literature USA is designating its share of the proceeds of this public art project to enhance outreach activities that attract visitors to the area such as the annual Iowa City Book Festival. Iowa City Public Library will direct its share of the contributions to increase its early childhood literacy efforts. The Coralville Public Library will utilize the proceeds to enhance Library programming and augment high-use collections. The North Liberty Community Library will use their portion of the funds toward the expansion and renovation project currently underway. The three public libraries in Coralville, Iowa City, and North Liberty have 95,000 cardholders who visited the libraries more than 1.2 million times last year.

The rest of the world became aware of the area’s literary culture two years ago when Iowa City received the UNESCO invitation to join the Creative Cities Network as one of only three Cities of Literature in the world.

Susan Craig, Director of Iowa City Public Library, made the claim that this community cares as much about literature as it does about football. Once she said it aloud, she envisioned the BookMarks project as a way for everyone in the community to celebrate all forms of reading and literature. Her vision of BookMarks statues—modeled after the highly successful “Herky on Parade” in 2004—was met with enthusiasm by all. ]]> tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3462 2011-06-09T19:57:01-06:00 2011-06-09T19:59:14-06:00

The Iowa Writers' Workshop celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend! The Writers’ Workshop is the oldest graduate creative writing program in the country, and, since its founding in 1936, the program has been home to thousands of remarkable writers of fiction and poetry. The program will observe this milestone throughout the year by bringing writers together to read, talk, and celebrate. To learn more about the 75th Anniversary Reunion, or to see the schedule of events, please see their website: http://iww75th.uiowa.edu.

2011-06-09T19:57:01-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3516 2011-05-26T16:44:00-06:00 2011-05-27T18:11:53-06:00

New archived readings from Live from Prairie Lights have been added to the Virtual Writing University Archives. The recordings include readings by Mark Levine, Emily Wilson, Michelle Glazer, Peter Orner and many more! Click on the links below to listen: Emily Wilson and Mark Levine reading, Live from Prairie Lights, April 21, 2011 >> listen Michele Glazer reading, Live from Prairie Lights, April 14, 2011 >> listen Clark Blaise and Alexander MacLeod reading, Live from Prairie Lights, May 3, 2011 >> listen Laura Caldwell reading, Live from Prairie Lights, April 29, 2011 >> listen Kristin Kelly reading, Live from Prairie Lights, April 28, 2011 >> listen Geoffrey G. O'Brien and Cyrus Console reading, Live from Prairie Lights, May 5, 2011 >> listen Peter Orner reading, Live from Prairie Lights, March 30, 2011 >> listen Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola reading, Live from Prairie Lights, April 26, 2011 >> listen >> Search the Digital Libraries website for more readings.

2011-05-26T16:44:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Faculty, International Writing Program, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Nonfiction Writing Program tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3512 2011-05-20T17:25:00-06:00 2011-05-20T17:26:21-06:00

Iowa City's Literary Walk, the stretch of downtown sidewalk plaques that pays homage to the town's rich writing tradition, will be bookended this summer with a number of new pieces in the Northside Marketplace. Iowa City-based writers whose works will be quoted include Samantha Chang, Stephen Bloom, Sarah Prineas, Roberto Ampuero, Lori Erickson, Carl Klaus and Christopher Merrill, among the dozens of others who at one time lived or worked here. Read more...

2011-05-20T17:25:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Alumni, Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Faculty tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2011:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.3510 2011-05-17T17:01:00-06:00 2011-05-17T17:08:28-06:00

University of Iowa's Center for the Book faculty member and Kolarik studio head Julie Leonard is one of 43 creative talents featured in Masters: Book Arts: Major Works by Leading Artists. Just out from Lark Publishing, the volume showcases innovators at the forefront of the contemporary book arts world. The inclusion is just one sign of Julie's incredible range, with her work cutting across historical structures, graphic design, and artist bookwork. Read more...

2011-05-17T17:01:00-06:00 Administrator writinguniversity@gmail.com Faculty