International Writing Program
Encyclopedia
The International Writing Program (IWP) is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa
. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,100 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 120 countries. Its primary goal is to introduce talented writers to the writing community at the University of Iowa
, and to provide for the writers a period of optimal conditions for their creative work. Since 2000, the IWP has been directed by poet and journalist Christopher Merrill
.
and Hualing Nieh Engle
as a non-academic, internationally-focused counterpart to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Under the Engles' guidance, hundreds of writers came to Iowa, particularly from parts of the world where literary and personal freedom was often restricted. During the 1970s and 1980s the program's reach towards nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe expanded significantly. In 1979 the Engles coordinated a "Chinese Weekend", one of the first significant meetings of writers from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora since 1949
.
For their efforts to connect writers worldwide and to promote international understanding, the Engles were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1976.
Hualing Nieh Engle and Paul Engle co-directed the IWP until 1977, after which Engle retired and Hualing continued as sole director. She retired in 1988, and currently serves as a member of the IWP Advisory Board.
Other past directors include Fredrick Woodard (1988), Clark Blaise
(1990), Steven Ungar (1998), and Sandra Barkan (1999).
Literary translation is an integral part of the program's mission. At the time of Hualing's retirement, two volumes of selected IWP writings had been compiled under the title Writing From The World, in addition to another collection, The World Comes To Iowa, and more than a dozen individual volumes in the Iowa Translation Series. Today, the IWP supports 91st Meridian, an online literary journal.
In recent years the program has broadened its efforts to promote international connections among writers by organizing a variety of events, some of which take place outside the United States. Among these are:
In 1973, the United States Information Agency
funded a documentary about the IWP, Community of the Imagination.
Among the program's alumni are:
Many alumni presentations, including audio and video, have been archived.
Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, State of Iowa. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of about 67,862, making it the sixth-largest city in the state. Iowa City is the county seat of Johnson County and home to the University of Iowa...
. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,100 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 120 countries. Its primary goal is to introduce talented writers to the writing community at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
, and to provide for the writers a period of optimal conditions for their creative work. Since 2000, the IWP has been directed by poet and journalist Christopher Merrill
Christopher Merrill
Christopher Merrill is an American poet, essayist, journalist and translator. Currently, he serves as director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He led the initiative that resulted in the selection of Iowa City as a UNESCO City of Literature, a part of the Creative...
.
History
The IWP was founded by Paul EnglePaul Engle
Paul Engle , noted American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program , both at the University of Iowa.-Life:Engle is often mistakenly...
and Hualing Nieh Engle
Hualing Nieh Engle
Hualing Nieh Engle is a Chinese novelist, fiction writer, and poet. She is a professor emerita at the University of Iowa.- Early life and education :...
as a non-academic, internationally-focused counterpart to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Under the Engles' guidance, hundreds of writers came to Iowa, particularly from parts of the world where literary and personal freedom was often restricted. During the 1970s and 1980s the program's reach towards nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe expanded significantly. In 1979 the Engles coordinated a "Chinese Weekend", one of the first significant meetings of writers from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora since 1949
History of the People's Republic of China
The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since October 1, 1949, when, after a near complete victory by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China from atop Tiananmen...
.
For their efforts to connect writers worldwide and to promote international understanding, the Engles were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1976.
Hualing Nieh Engle and Paul Engle co-directed the IWP until 1977, after which Engle retired and Hualing continued as sole director. She retired in 1988, and currently serves as a member of the IWP Advisory Board.
Other past directors include Fredrick Woodard (1988), Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise, OC is a Canadian author.Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he currently lives in San Francisco, California. He has been married since 1963 to writer Bharati Mukherjee. They have two sons. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Blaise was also the director of...
(1990), Steven Ungar (1998), and Sandra Barkan (1999).
Current activities
The primary residency, which takes place each fall, offers writers the opportunity to participate in American literary, academic, and cultural life through talks, lectures, readings, screenings, stage performances, school visits, and travel, while providing time for personal writing and creative work. University of Iowa students can take several classes built around the work and presence of the IWP residents.Literary translation is an integral part of the program's mission. At the time of Hualing's retirement, two volumes of selected IWP writings had been compiled under the title Writing From The World, in addition to another collection, The World Comes To Iowa, and more than a dozen individual volumes in the Iowa Translation Series. Today, the IWP supports 91st Meridian, an online literary journal.
In recent years the program has broadened its efforts to promote international connections among writers by organizing a variety of events, some of which take place outside the United States. Among these are:
- Reading tours of American authors in the Middle East and the Maghreb
- International colloquia on current cultural topics
- Life of Discovery, a multi-year artist exchange program with members of Chinese minority groups
- Between the Lines, a program bringing high school students from Arabic-speaking countries to Iowa to practice creative writing alongside American students
Funding
A major source of funding for writers attending the IWP is the U.S. Department of State, and the program's administration is supported by the University of Iowa. The IWP also administers grants for writers sponsored for their residency by private and public cultural organizations in the United States and abroad.The IWP in literature and film
The IWP itself has been featured in a number of literary works, including:- Memories of Light and Shade—Part 1, a serial novel by Sunil GangopadhyaySunil GangopadhyaySunil Gangopadhyay , is a celebrated Indian poet and novelist.-Early life:...
, published in the Bangla journal Urhalpool - The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English, a novel by Minae MizumuraMinae Mizumurais a critically acclaimed novelist currently writing in the Japanese language. Educated in the US, she wrote her first published work in the English language, a scholarly essay on the literary criticism of Paul de Man. She is often portrayed as a Japanese novelist who questions the conventional...
- "Writing in the Mirror of the River", a short story by Mohamed Magani, published in 91st Meridian
In 1973, the United States Information Agency
United States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
funded a documentary about the IWP, Community of the Imagination.
Alumni
- Ghada Abdel AAl (Egypt)
- Tahereh Saffarzadeh (Iran, 1967)
- Jose DonosoJosé DonosoJosé Donoso Yáñez was a Chilean writer. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United States and mainly Spain. Although he had left his country in the sixties for personal reasons, after 1973 he claimed his exile was also a form of...
(Chile, 1968, 1991) - Luisa ValenzuelaLuisa ValenzuelaLuisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental, avant-garde style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in...
(Argentina, 1969) - Janusz GlowackiJanusz GlowackiJanusz Głowacki is a Polish-American author and screenwriter.Głowacki wrote the screenplay for Andrzej Wajda's Polowanie na muchy and co-wrote the screenplay of the popular Polish movie Rejs , released in 1970.He emigrated in 1981 to New York City in the wake of the imposition of...
(Poland, 1970, 1986) - Arnost LustigArnošt LustigArnošt Lustig was a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.Lustig was born in Prague...
(Czech Republic, 1970) - Marin SorescuMarin Sorescu- Biography :Born to a family of farmworkers in Bulzeşti, Dolj County, Sorescu graduated from the primary school in his home village. After that he went to the Buzesti Brothers High School in Craiova, after which he was transferred to the Predeal Military School. His final education was at the...
(Romania, 1971) - João Ubaldo RibeiroJoão Ubaldo RibeiroJoão Ubaldo Ribeiro is a Brazilian author born in Itaparica, Bahia on January 23, 1941. In the English speaking world his An Invincible Memory has been highly praised...
(Brazil, 1972) - Peter NazarethPeter NazarethPeter Nazareth is a major critic and writer of fiction and drama. He was born in Uganda of Goan and Malaysian ancestry, and was educated at Makerere University and at the universities of London and Leeds in England....
(Uganda, 1973) - Bessie HeadBessie HeadBessie Emery Head is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer.-Biography:Bessie Emery Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a wealthy white South African woman and a black servant when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa...
(Botswana, 1977) - Edwin ThumbooEdwin ThumbooEdwin Nadason Thumboo is an award-winning Singaporean poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore....
(Singapore, 1977, 1986) - Eavan BolandEavan Boland-Biography:Boland's father, Frederick Boland, was a career diplomat and her mother, Frances Kelly, was a noted post-expressionist painter. She was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, Boland's father was appointed Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom; the family followed him to London,...
(Ireland, 1979) - John BanvilleJohn BanvilleJohn Banville is an Irish novelist and screenwriter.Banville's breakthrough novel The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize in 2005. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011...
(Ireland, 1980) - Emmanuel HocquardEmmanuel HocquardEmmanuel Hocquard is a French poet who grew up in Tangier, Morocco. He served as the editor of the small press Orange Export Ltd., and, with Claude Royet-Journoud, edited two anthologies of new American poets, 21+1: Poètes américains ď aujourďhui and 49+1...
(France, 1980) - Earl LovelaceEarl LovelaceFor the peerage, see Earl of Lovelace.Earl Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer....
(Trinidad, 1980) - Wang MengWang Meng (author)Wang Meng is a Chinese writer.Wang Meng was born in Beijing in 1934. During his middle school years, he was introduced to communist ideology and in 1949 officially joined the Communist Youth League....
(China, 1980) - Anton ShammasAnton Shammas-Biography:Anton Shammas was one of six children born to Hanna Shammas, a Palestinian Christian barber and shoemaker,and a Lebanese mother who moved to Fassuta in 1936 to teach French at the local girls' school...
(Israel, 1981) - Ding LingDing LingDīng Líng was the pseudonym of Jiǎng Bīngzhī , also known as Bīn Zhǐ , a Chinese woman author from Linli in Hunan province. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951....
(China, 1981) - Kenji NakagamiKenji NakagamiKenji Nakagami was a noted Japanese writer, critic, and poet of buraku ancestry. Nakagami died from kidney cancer in 1992 at the age of 46.- Life :...
(Japan, 1982) - Liu BinyanLiu BinyanLiu Binyan was a Chinese author and journalist, as well as a political dissident.Many of the events in Liu's life are recounted in his memoir, A Higher Kind of Loyalty.-Early life:...
(China, 1982) - Dubravka UgrešićDubravka UgrešicDubravka Ugrešić is a Croatian writer who lives in the Netherlands.- Background and education:Ugrešić was born in 1949 in Kutina, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia., She studied Comparative Literature and Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, pursuing parallel careers as a...
(Yugoslavia, 1983) - Lorna GoodisonLorna GoodisonLorna Goodison is a Jamaican poet, a leading West Indian writer of the generation born after World War II, currently dividing her time between Jamaica and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she teaches at the University of Michigan.-Biography:...
(Jamaica, 1983) - Sebastian BarrySebastian BarrySebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet. He has been shortlisted twice for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and has won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year....
(Ireland, 1984) - Orhan PamukOrhan PamukFerit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....
(Turkey, 1985) - David AlbahariDavid AlbahariDavid Albahari is a Serbian writer of Jewish origin from Kosovo, residing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Albahari writes mainly novels and short stories. He is also an established translator from English into Serbian. He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
(Yugoslavia, 1986) - Edward Radzinsky (Russia, 1987)
- Li Ang (Taiwan, 1987)
- Bei DaoBei DaoBei Dao is the pseudonym of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai . He was born in Beijing, his pseudonym was chosen because he came from the north and because of his preference for solitude...
(China, 1988) - Slavenka DrakulicSlavenka DrakulicSlavenka Drakulić is a noted Croatian writer and publicist who currently lives in Sweden.Slavenka Drakulić was born in Rijeka, PR Croatia, on July 4, 1949. She graduated in comparative literature and sociology from the University in Zagreb in 1976...
(Yugoslavia, 1988) - Etienne van HeerdenEtienne van Heerden-Biography:Van Heerden was born in 1954, six years after the official advent of apartheid. His mother was an English speaking mathematics teacher. His father, an Afrikaans speaking merino stud breeder, farmed the family farm in the Karoo...
(South Africa, 1990) - Can Xue (China, 1992)
- András Nagy (Hungary, 1993)
- Sue WoolfeSue WoolfeSue Woolfe is an Australian author, teacher, scriptwriter, editor and documentary film-maker.Woolfe was raised in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and completed tertiary studies at the University of Sydney and the University of New England. Her first novel Painted Woman was runner-up in the ABC...
(Australia, 1994) - Ranjit HoskoteRanjit HoskoteRanjit Hoskote is a contemporary Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator.-Early life and education:...
(India, 1995) - Viktor Pelevin (Russia, 1996)
- Tibor FischerTibor FischerTibor Fischer is a British novelist and short story writer. In 1993 he was selected by the influential literary magazine Granta as one of the 20 best young British writers....
(UK, 1997) - Martin RejtmanMartín RejtmanMartín Rejtman is an award winning Argentine film producer, film director, and screenplay writer.He works in the cinema of Argentina.-Biography:...
(Argentina, 2000) - Hwang Ji-woo (Korea, 2000)
- Etgar KeretEtgar KeretEtgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television.-Personal Life:Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child to parents who survived the Holocaust. He lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, Shira Geffen, and...
(Israel, 2001) - Joy GoswamiJoy GoswamiJoy Goswami is an Indian poet. Goswami writes in Bangla and is widely considered as one of the most important Bengali poets of his generation.-Biography:...
(India, 2001) - Su TongSu TongSu Tong is the pen name of a Chinese writer born in Suzhou who is now based in Nanjing. His real name is Tong Zhonggui .He entered into the Department of Chinese of Beijing Normal University in 1980 and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now the vice president of Jiangsu Writers Association...
(China, 2001) - Xi Chuan (China, 2002)
- Edward CareyEdward Carey (novelist)Edward Carey is a playwright, and novelist. He has written several adaptations for the stage, including Patrick Süskind’s The Pigeon, and Robert Coover’s Pinocchio in Venice. His own plays include Sulking Thomas, and Captain of the Birds...
(UK, 2002) - Yu Hua (China, 2003)
- Minae MizumuraMinae Mizumurais a critically acclaimed novelist currently writing in the Japanese language. Educated in the US, she wrote her first published work in the English language, a scholarly essay on the literary criticism of Paul de Man. She is often portrayed as a Japanese novelist who questions the conventional...
(Japan, 2003) - Gábor T. SzántóGábor T. SzántóThe native form of this personal name is Szántó T. Gábor. This article uses the Western name order.Gábor T. Szántó is a Hungarian writer, poet, journalist and essayist .- Life :...
(Hungary, 2003) - Mo YanMo YanMo Yan is a modern Chinese author, described as "one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirated of all Chinese writers". He is known in the West for two of his novels which were the basis of the film Red Sorghum. He has been referred to as the Chinese answer to Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller...
(China, 2004) - Doris Kareva (Estonia, 2006)
- Kiran NagarkarKiran NagarkarKiran Nagarkar is an Indian novelist, playwright, film and drama critic and screenwriter both in Marathi and English, and is one of the most significant writers of postcolonial India....
(India, 2007)
Many alumni presentations, including audio and video, have been archived.