The Writing University - The University of Iowa

ONE-ELEVEN CHURCH STREET

Post-Graduate Writing Fellowship Program

Meet the Fellows Open House Poet's Dinner Talk Art

About the Program

The Writing Fellows are four recent graduates of the University of Iowa's MFA programs in Writing and Translation, who have been given living and writing space for a year following their graduation. They live in 111 Church Street, the "Writers’ House." In addition to advancing their own writing projects, they are charged with contributing to the writing environment for UI undergraduates, graduates, and members of the writing community in Iowa City.

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Photo Gallery: Undergraduate Writing Contest reading

Click on the images bellow to go to the Photo Gallery: Undergraduate Writing Contest reading



We received many great entries for the very first Undergraduate Writing Contest sponsored by the Writing Fellows at 111 Church, and we were proud to have invited all entrants and the public to attend a reading given by all six winners at the house on April 16, at 7pm. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear some talented work, meet other writers, and celebrate the vibrant writing community we have here at the University of Iowa.

Thanks to all who submitted, and a very special congratulations to our winners!

First Place, Poetry:

Helene Achanzar, for "Early," "Winter: a lamenta," and "The Story of Yes"
A fire escape barred means we're leaving A pile of dust on the floor means we're never coming back

Runners-Up, Poetry:

Philip Bice, for "Primrose," "Dawn," and "Stirred, lulled, check back later for missing pieces"
...dream of the orange Atlantic where fish only swim downward and the moon is flecked with blue. A caress lingers as a tick becomes a wink becomes a waking.

Ned McCully, for "Compilation," "Escape From Baltimore," and "Windows"
Relax--/ The knife restless,/ Cutouts shakes// Split doubt/ Polarized sanity/ We want worth/ Et tu?...

First Place, Fiction:

Arna Bontemps Hemenway, for "In Case of Ghosts"
The dead in Specialist Abrahms' dreams want him to write a book. In his dreams, he finds them—not alive, he doesn't save them—already dead. The point seems to be to see them clearly, to take in the details their bodies have so acutely acquired in death. Pfc. Moriarty with his ear dangling off the side of his head, his hands hanging from long, thin, pale tendons like mittens pinned to coat-sleeves.

Runners-Up, Fiction:

Mary Harrington, for "The Better Home"
Nathan Tasler was added to the sex offender list in 2001. He slept with what the courts described as a child. As a twenty-five year old, he had sex with a seventeen year old when she showed up at his door... when she invited herself over for another routine night of smoking and sitting and staring at the television screen... The stoned twenty-five year old had sex with the stoned seventeen year old in a bed, in a room, beneath the red-shingled roof of a house they both knew.

Margaret Schafer, for "Inessa's Departure"
When I was fourteen my mother left. I wasn't sorry. Inessa was trouble, even I knew that, but my father cried for seven weeks straight. He had never been able to believe his good fortune of marrying her. My father met her at a Russian circus; she was the woman in a skimpy outfit that rode on the back of an elephant. The first thing he noticed about her, he says, was her nose.

Courses

Telling Stories
Instructor: Katie L Chase
In this creative class, we'll look to traditional and contemporary examples of the tale, along with pertinent theory and criticism, in attempts to answer the questions Why do we tell stories? Where do stories come from? What kinds of stories can we tell that might effect our readers deeply? Read more >>

08C:167:001: Undergraduate Writers Seminar


Exploring the Comedic Through Creative Writing
Instructor: Michael L Anichini
“Excess of sorrow laughs, excess of joy weeps.”- William Blake
This will be a generative course for creative writers, meaning much of the course will be devoted to writing new works of poetry and short fiction. There will be some required reading in the form of handouts, and a couple in-class film screenings. Throughout the semester we will be challenging ourselves with writing excercises, improvisational acting games, and group discussion. We will ask ourselves from time to time, “What is funny in art, what is tragic and why, and how do these perpectives shift with age and with cultural development?” Read more >>

08C:167:002: Undergraduate Writers Seminar


"SPEAK TO IT, HORATIO": Haunted Authors, Haunted Literature
Instructor: Caryl A Pagel
In what way does the reader act as a ghost within a story? Why do we adore the presence of unearthly characters and plots? How can a phantom voice add suspense, energy, and drama to a text? What is it that we are expected to comprehend, apprehend, or identify in these elusive and ethereal figures? In this class, we will investigate the role of phantoms, ghosts, apparitions, and shadows in literature. Read more >>

08C:167:003: Undergraduate Writers Seminar

Ask a Writing Fellow

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Feel free to get in touch with the Fellows by email, at Writing-Fellows@uiowa.edu. They welcome your writing-related questions!