The Virtual Writing University (VWU) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary initiative sponsored by the Graduate College and the Office of the Provost at the University of Iowa. The project launched in fall, 2006, with the mandate to create a virtual space for the University of Iowa's writing community. Its primary venue is the Writing University website (www.writinguniversity.org), a portal to the programs, news, and events associated with writing at Iowa, and a platform for special VWU Projects, such as LitCity, The Undergrad Writing Portal, First-Year Seminars and the Eleventh Hour Podcast.

People
Support for the Virtual Writing University comes from many different areas of the University of Iowa community. We are grateful for the many staff and faculty members who have contributed their creative, technological, and administrative expertise to this initiative.

Virtual Writing University Advisory Panel

Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop
Ed Folsom, Professor, Department of English
John Keller, dean of the Graduate College
Joan Kjaer, Strategic Communications Officer, International Programs Communications and Relations
Amy Margolis, director of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival
Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program
Paul Soderdahl, director of Library Information Technology, UI Libraries
Harry Stecopoulos
Jon Winet, director of the School of Art and Art History Intermedia Program

 

Virtual Writing University Director

Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program

 

Virtual Writing University Archive


Thomas Keegan, Director, Digital Library Services
Mark Anderson, Digital Initiatives Librarian

 

 

LitCity Project

Thomas Keegan, Director, Digital Library Services
Jim Cremer, Consultant, Computer Science Department
Loren Glass, Faculty, English Department
Nicole Dudley, Lead Database Developer

 

History of Writing at Iowa

Robin Hemley
Michael Allen Potter, Graduate Assistant

 

Technological Support

Wendy Brown, Web Production, University Relations Web Unit
Ken Clinkenbeard, Instructional Services, Academic Technologies
Ann Freerks, Designer, University Relations Web Unit
Josh Kaine, University Webmaster, University Relations Web Unit
Andrew Rinner, Research Services, Academic Technologies
Paul Soderdahl, director of Library Information Technology, UI Libraries

 

Biographies of VWU Project Leaders

 

Christopher Merrill, Director, Virtual Writing University

Christopher Merrill’s books include four collections of poetry, Brilliant Water, Workbook, Fevers & Tides, and Watch Fire, for which he received the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; translations of Aleš Debeljak’s Anxious Moments and The City and the Child; several edited volumes, among them, The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature and From the Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe as Icon; and three books of nonfiction, The Grass of Another Country: A Journey Through the World of Soccer, The Old Bridge: The Third Balkan War and the Age of the Refugee , and Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars. His work has been translated into sixteen languages. He has held the William H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of the Holy Cross, and now directs the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa.