The original Workshop writes on
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Famous writers visit Iowa City frequently, but not just to go sightseeing. Their visits are largely because of the world-renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Since its founding in 1936, the Workshop has sponsored a plethora of readings by distinguished writers, including Robert Frost and Robert Penn Warren. The program was the first in the United States to offer a degree in creative writing.
Novelist Lan Samantha Chang oversees the Writers’ Workshop as the program’s director, a position she’s held since April 2005.
“As director, I’ve made sustained efforts to raise scholarship and fellowship money in order to give our students the best support possible,” she said. “I’ve also fought to protect the program against budget cuts. Our dedicated faculty and the finest emerging writers deserve to have the support they need to foster their brilliance.”
Steps to achievement
Earning a degree from the workshop usually takes two years, and students must submit theses, which could be a novel, a collection of stories, or a book of poetry. The program is separated into two sections — fiction and poetry — and each has at least three permanent faculty members. There is also at least one visiting faculty member in each division.
Ethan Canin, a Workshop alumnus and professor of fiction in the workshop, emphasized the importance of viewing writing as a mechanical and complex craft to his students.
“I like my students to look closely at their plots, characters, and conflicts in ways that other professors who teach writing might not necessarily encourage,” he said. “But that’s what makes the workshop so successful — students are exposed to writers who each have a distinct style, and they begin to see what else is out there.”
Why write here?
Fellow workshop Professor Mark Levine, who teaches poetry, also praised the Workshop.
“This program has the reality of being the best in its field,” he said. “I’m extraordinarily lucky to teach in a place with such rich history, fine students, and the freedom to explore poetry. Teaching this program is pretty much a dream job for any poet.”
Serving all students
The Workshop does not ignore the UI’s undergraduate population. The program offers an abundance of classes in fiction and poetry writing for undergraduate students.
“The graduate students who teach the undergraduate courses bring a certain intensity to their students,” Workshop poetry Professor James Galvin said. “Because they have a different relationship to literature and they are involved in an intimate way with writing, the undergraduates feel enthusiastic. They know they are learning from the people who are going to significantly affect the literary world in the future.”
The following are some of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop’s distinguished graduates:
Flannery O’Connor (’47)
John Irving (’67)
T.C. Boyle (’74)
Sandra Cisneros (’78)
Curtis Sittenfeld (‘01)
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