‘Writing Science at the Writing University’ Conference Announced

September 05, 2008

"Writing Science at the Writing University," a new interdisciplinary and cross-collegiate convocation on science writing, will take place this year in Iowa City during the week of October 7-10, 2008. This major conference hopes to combine the University of Iowa’s writing legacy with all forms of science writing for the public. The major participants will feature three Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professors, including journalists, nationally acclaimed science writers, literary science writers in poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and scientists who have become effective writers for public audiences.

Full schedule of events and latest updates

This event is free and open to the public.

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WU Podcast: Marc Nieson—“Making Words Count”

September 01, 2008

Nieson

In this Writing University podcast, Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Marc Nieson discusses free-writing exercises and how they can be used as a disciplined process of seizing inspiration and help with revision later. Nieson talks about how to reconcile the writer's often opposing mindsets of creator and editor, the journey of refining the "poetic impulse" in order to "make each word weight-bearing." Caryl Pagel introduces Marc Nieson and opens the session.

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Marc Nielson presents "Making Words Count"

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Iowa Writers’ Workshop Alumni Win First Book Poetry Awards

August 26, 2008

Jonathan Thirkield

Jonathan Thirkield and Arda Collins, recent graduates of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, have just been awarded prestigious first-book prizes. Thirkield's collection "The Waker's Corridor" won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Arda Collins' "It Is Daylight" won 2008 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition.

Collin's collection was selected by judge Louise Glück and will be published by Yale University Press in 2009. Collins' poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, A Public Space, jubilat and the Canarium. A 2004 graduate of the Writers' Workshop, where she was a Glenn Schaeffer Fellow, she is an editor of the online poetry journal GutCult.

Thirkield was a Truman Capote Fellow at the workshop and graduated in 2003. His collection was selected by Linda Bierds for the 2008 Walt Whitman Award, presented by the Academy of American Poets. His poems have appeared in WebConjunctions, New American Writing, the Colorado Review, 1913: a journal of forms, American Letters & Commentary, Verse and other journals.

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Introducing the Writers of the IWP

August 18, 2008

Thien

As writers from around the world begin to arrive at The University of Iowa to participate in the International Writing Program three month residency, the UI home page will be featuring spotlights on a few writers to provide brief introductions. Today the featured writer is Madeleine Thien, a Canadian-born daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants, whose short story collections and novels have been the recipients of several awards.

Read more about Madeleine Thien in this UI home page special >> Meet the IWP Writers-in-Residence

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Walt Whitman Archive Receives NHPRC Grants

The Walt Whitman Archive is an electronic research and teaching tool co-directed by University of Iowa faculty member Ed Folsom. Recently, the archive received grants to edit Walt Whitman's Civil War writings. Funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) will support editorial work on Whitman's incoming and outgoing correspondence. Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will support editorial work on Whitman's Civil War notebooks, daybooks, literary essays, journalism, poetry manuscripts and the so-called Blue Book (a personally annotated copy of Leaves of Grass that cost him his government job). Ken Price, Folsom's co-director, has received an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Innovation Award to support his role in these editorial efforts.

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Writing University Podcast: Mary Allen

August 12, 2008

Allen

"Bending the Spoon: Writing as a Path to Mindfulness and Other Spiritual Practices"

In this Writing University podcast, Mary Allen discusses "the mysterious thing" that happens when one sits down to write. She describes her process of finding inspiration and suggests ways to break free of strict "ideas" about writing. She presents examples and ideas on how writers can nurture and cultivate their writing process. Caryl Pagel introduces Mary Allen in this edition of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival lecture series "Elevenses."

Listen: Mary Allen: "Bending the Spoon: Writing as a Path to Mindfulness and Other Spiritual Practices"

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‘Between the Lines’ Middle-Eastern Residency Finds Haven in Chicago

August 06, 2008

Between the Lines in Chicago

When the 2008 floods hit Iowa City this June, many University of Iowa programs and departments were suddenly without a home. One of these displacements was the International Writing Program's pilot project 'Between the Lines,' a residency program which sought to bring 12 young writers from Arabic-speaking countries, aged 16-19, to the University of Iowa for a two-week writing workshop. With university buildings closing due to the flood, and the visiting writers already on planes and on their way to Iowa City, IWP staff worked quickly to relocate the accommodations and locations for the entire event. They eventually found safe harbor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Read more >> Flooding forced UI writing programs to become improvisational artists

Also, the visiting writers describe their time in the United States and remark on the cultural, social and educational benefits of the program in this University of Illinois at Chicago article.

Read >> Middle Eastern teens diverted by floods, taken in by Hull-House

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