2009-06-30T14:51:14-06:00 ExpressionEngine Copyright (c) 2009, Administrator tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2796 2009-06-30T14:27:01-06:00 2009-06-30T14:51:14-06:00

Photo by Milo Boyle, Santa Barbara CA, 2003 In the latest issue of the online magazine Wag's Revue, the editor talks with author T.C. Boyle, recent inductee into the Arts Academy and Iowa Writers' Workshop alum, about his writing influences, his relationship with Raymond Carver and his sartorial flair. Boyle discusses the process behind his work and connections between his writing and music: "I was a student at Iowa when I wrote 'Stones in my Passway, Hellhound on my Trail.' The entirety of the research consisted of listening to the [Robert Johnson] album twelve million times, reading the liner notes twice, and deciding—seeing, knowing—the true version of Robert Johnson’s death. For period detail I went down to Gabe & Walker’s [now The Picador in Iowa City] where my friend Blue Phil Ajioka was taking a break between sets and asked, 'Phil, what kind of guitar did Robert Johnson play?' Phil said, in his bluesman’s basso, 'That’d be a Harmony Sovereign.' Story over." Read the full interview here: Wag's Revue T. C. Boyle is the author of 20 books of fiction. Among numerous honors, he has received the PEN/Faulkner award for his novel World's End and six O. Henry Awards for short fiction. He corresponded with Wag's Revue fiction editor Will Litton via email.

2009-06-30T14:27:01-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Alumni, Fiction, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2784 2009-06-25T14:34:00-06:00 2009-06-25T19:28:09-06:00

University of Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty member Marilynne Robinson has been awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction for her third novel, "Home," which acts as the companion to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "Gilead." Robinson surpassed five other fiction writers from around the world for the Orange honor, drawing all of the judges to a unanimous decision. Fi Glover, chair of judges, described "Home" as a "kind, wise, enriching novel" that was "exquisitely crafted." Glover added, "We were unanimously agreed -- it is a profound work of art." Read more... In addition to this, a new episode of "Conversations from the Iowa Writers' Workshop" featuring Marilynne Robinson will air this summer on the Big 10 Network. You can watch the full interview with Robinson on the Center for Media website, which houses an archive of all previous UI programs.

2009-06-25T14:34:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Faculty, Fiction, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2760 2009-06-18T17:17:00-06:00 2009-06-29T15:39:21-06:00

Flannery O'Connor in Iowa, 1946 After Flannery O'Connor graduated in 1947 from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, she became a major force in American literature. A new fellowship fund in the late writer's name will now help the Workshop aid other writers with similar potential. The Flannery O'Connor Graduate Fellowship Fund was initiated by a gift commitment to the UI Foundation from the Ralph Schultz Family Foundation of Waterloo, Iowa. The endowed fund will increase the level of assistance available to Writers' Workshop students and affirm the program's commitment to developing promising writers regardless of financial means. "As the model for creative-writing programs worldwide, the Iowa Writers' Workshop has long been the destination of choice for talented writers who wish to hone their craft," Workshop director Lan Samantha Chang said. "To preserve that distinction, we must provide the kind of financial support that will make it possible for the very best writers in the country to keep coming to Iowa." Read more...

2009-06-18T17:17:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Alumni, Iowa Writers' Workshop tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2767 2009-06-16T14:36:00-06:00 2009-06-17T14:06:12-06:00

Iowa Public Radio has donated all of the original recordings of "Live from Prairie Lights" to the UI Libraries. Eighteen years and 1,800 programs were captured on CD, mini disc and reel-to-reel. Stewardship of these materials is part of the libraries' ongoing commitment to record and make accessible the intellectual output of the university. "These recordings document an outstanding series of readings," said Greg Prickman, assistant head of Special Collections at the UI Libraries. "We are grateful to Iowa Public Radio for ensuring their long-term preservation by making this donation." "We are proud to partner with the University Libraries on this project," said Joan Kjaer, Iowa Public Radio director of communications. "This partnership provides an exceptional opportunity for all kinds of people - scholars, writers, readers, fans of the show - to have permanent access to conversations with the world's best authors." Currently 250 of these recordings, including the first reading with Mary Swander and Jane Anne Straw, are available online in the Iowa Digital Library (http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/vwu). Eventually, the entire series will be digitized and freely available via the Iowa Digital Library. Read more...

2009-06-16T14:36:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu "Live from Prairie Lights" Audio Archive, UI Libraries tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2769 2009-06-11T17:22:00-06:00 2009-06-11T20:38:57-06:00

As the first session in a series of moderated Writing University 'Live Discussions', we hosted a chat with Robin Hemley, faculty member of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Robin conversed with readers about a variety of literary topics, including his new book 'Do Over!,' in which he attempts to repair the major embarrassments of his childhood and adolescence, as well as the international action spurred by his McSweeney's article 'The Great Book Blockade'.>> Read the archived live discussion here.

2009-06-11T17:22:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Faculty, Nonfiction, Nonfiction Writing Program tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2765 2009-06-01T15:40:00-06:00 2009-06-01T15:41:37-06:00

Beginning June 7, the 'Elevenses' Literary Hour will open the Iowa Summer Writing Festival to the public, with free presentations of interest to writers by festival faculty at 11 a.m. every weekday that the festival is in session, in Room 101 of the University of Iowa Biology Building East. Elevenses presentations might include aspects of craft, of process, of the writing life or of publishing. There will be a different presenter each day. Fridays in the 'Elevenses' series are reserved for a faculty reading. Week-long sessions of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival begin June 7, with weekly sessions every week through July 20-24, with the exception of Independence Day week. Visit the Iowa Summer Writing Festival website for more information.

2009-06-01T15:40:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Summer Writing Festival tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2759 2009-05-29T20:37:00-06:00 2009-05-29T20:38:05-06:00

Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Srinivas Cheeni Rao's new memoir, In Hanuman's Hands, received a detailed review in a recent edition of the Chicago Reader. Weaving its way through the novel's plot, (which describes Rao's belief that Hanuman, the Hindu monkey deity, helped him through his trials with drug addiction and homelessness), the Chicago Reader explores the tapestry of spiritual events described in the text: "As a toddler, Srinivas 'Cheeni' Rao was snatched out of a car’s path by a stranger who delivered him to the arms of his terrified mother, touched her cheek, and vanished. 'She often says she knew it was a god,' Rao says. 'The moment he touched her, she knew.' "At Lyons Township High School, he was 'an exceptional student, the top of my class, an athlete,' Rao says. But what he describes in his memoir as his 'Indian immigrant high-achiever mask' covered up 'two suicide attempts in high school, my nighttime addiction to breaking and entering houses, [and] that I’d burned my neighbor’s house down in a fit of rage.' Maybe it was Hanuman who miraculously kept him out of jail." read more... Read >> Chicago Reader review: How’s Your Relationship With the Monkey God?

2009-05-29T20:37:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Alumni, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Nonfiction tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2761 2009-05-19T15:44:00-06:00 2009-06-02T18:43:11-06:00

Illustration by Eric Agoncillo Ambata Published earlier this month, Robin Hemley's article 'The Great Book Blockade of 2009', has already become an international news item. In this nonfiction piece, Hemley (faculty member of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Program) describes how the Philippines broke an international U.N. Treaty and taxed imported books in violation of that treaty. Less than two weeks after release, the article quickly transcended from the internet blogosphere into the mainstream media, catching the attention of UNESCO and spurring calls in the Philippine Senate for an investigation. Hemley's interest in the affair began when he spent the better part of a year from 2008 to late spring of 2009 in the Philippines with his family on a Guggenheim Fellowship. He wrote several articles during his time there, including the six-part series 'Dispatches from Manila', but none had sparked as much attention as this piece. Much of the media frenzy began when a timeline of the entire controversy, including Hemley's breaking of the story, was posted on Manuel L. Quezon III's blog, The Daily Dose. It has also been reported in the Manila Bulletin, where Hemley is credited with coining the phrase 'The Great Book Blockade'. You can read Robin Hemley's article on McSweeney's Online Tendency and his comments about it on his blog, RobinHemley.com. UPDATE Since this article was published, Phillipine President Arroyo has lifted the 'blockade.' UNESCO condemned the Philippines for breaking its international treaty obligations. Effective immediately, and in a large part because of the attention that Robin Hemley's article brought to the incident, there will be no taxes on imported books. Read his wrap up article on the Far Eastern Economic Review website.

2009-05-19T15:44:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Faculty, Nonfiction, Nonfiction Writing Program tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2752 2009-05-14T16:59:00-06:00 2009-05-14T20:56:35-06:00

Diana Thow, a graduate of the University of Iowa's Translation Workshop, has been awarded a 2009-10 Fulbright Research Grant to Italy for a project entitled "Amelia Rosselli: Across Language." While in Italy, Thow will work in the archives (located in the north of Italy in a town called Pavia and on the outskirts of Rome) that contain the papers, manuscripts, journals and correspondence of the poet Amelia Rosselli, the subject of Thow's MFA thesis at Iowa. She will continue to translate Rosselli's poetry, and compile an edition of her uncollected English writings. Thow is a graduate of the MFA program in literary translation and former editor of eXchanges magazine.

2009-05-14T16:59:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Alumni, Translation, Translation MFA tag:writinguniversity.uiowa.edu,2009:www.writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/1.2705 2009-05-12T15:36:00-06:00 2009-05-12T15:38:50-06:00

A new issue of 91st Meridian, the International Writing Program's on-line journal, has been released. In the “creativity portfolio” that opens the new issue, Kiran Nagarkar makes a case for Shiva’s Blue Throat as a writer’s most important organ. Kei Miller wonders whether being sit-down poet is better than being the stand-up kind. Polina Kopylova introduces the Lito, Russia’s literary greenhouses for growing new crops of poets, equivalents of the American creative writing workshop. Also in this issue -- fragments from novels by Ameena Hussein and Mazen Saadeh as well as two intimate pieces by the Korean poet Gyeongee Kim. Read 91st Meridian Issue 6.2 here.

2009-05-12T15:36:00-06:00 Administrator lauren-haldeman@uiowa.edu Fiction, International Writing Program, Nonfiction, Poetry