The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

(MFA) degree in Creative Writing. It has been cited as the best graduate writing program in the nation, counting among its alumni 17

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

winners.

History

*The program began in 1936 with the gathering of poets and fiction writers under the direction of Wilbur Schramm. *The workshop's second director, from 1941 to 1965, was Paul Engle, a

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

, native. Under his tenure, the Writers' Workshop became a national landmark. He successfully secured donations for the workshop from the business community for about 20 years, including locals such as Maytag and Quaker Oats, as well as

U.S. Steel United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in severa ...

and '' Reader's Digest''. Between 1953 and 1956, the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

donated $40,000.

Henry Luce Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time'', ''Life'', ''Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the America ...

, the publisher of '' TIME'' and '' Life'' magazines, and

Gardner Cowles Jr. Gardner "Mike" Cowles Jr. (1903–1985) was an American newspaper and magazine publisher. He was co-owner of the Cowles Media Company, whose assets included the ''Minneapolis Star'', the ''Minneapolis Tribune'', the ''Des Moines Register'', ''L ...

(1903–1985), who published ''

Look To look is to use sight to perceive an object. Look or The Look may refer to: Businesses and products * Look (modeling agency), an Israeli modeling agency * ''Look'' (American magazine), a defunct general-interest magazine * ''Look'' (UK ma ...

'' magazine, provided publicity for the workshop's events. *From 1965 to 1969, George Starbuck directed the Workshop. * John Leggett was the director from 1969 to 1986 and attracted writers such as T.C. Boyle, Ethan Canin, Michael Cunningham, Gail Godwin, Denis Johnson, and Jane Smiley. *From 1987 until his death in 2005, Frank Conroy directed the workshop and was Engle's longest-lasting successor. * Lan Samantha Chang became the director in 2006.

Organization

The Program in Creative Writing, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. Graduates earn a

(MFA) degree in English. Iowa has the oldest creative writing program in the country offering an MFA credential.

Faculty and alumni

''See category: '' As of September 2020, the workshop's faculty are Jamel Brinkley,

Charles D'Ambrosio Charles Anthony D'Ambrosio, Jr (born 1958) is an American short story writer and essayist. Life The son of Charles D'Ambrosio, Sr (1932-2011), a professor of finance at the University of Washington, D'Ambrosio grew up with two brothers and four ...

, Margot Livesey in fiction; Ethan Canin in English and creative writing; James Galvin, Mark Levine,

Tracie Morris Tracie Morris is an American poet. She is also a performance artist, vocalist, voice consultant, creative non-fiction writer, critic, scholar, bandleader, actor and non-profit consultant. Morris is from Brooklyn, New York. Morris' experimental so ...

Elizabeth Willis Elizabeth Willis (born April 28, 1961, Bahrain) is an American poet and literary critic. She currently serves as Professor of Poetry at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Willis has won several awards for her poetry including the National Poetry Serie ...

in poetry; Marilynne Robinson; and Program Director Lan Samantha Chang. Visiting faculty are

Alexia Arthurs Alexia Arthurs is a writer who grew up in both Jamaica and the United States of America. She writes about the variability of experiences of black identity of immigrants from African countries, Jamaica, and other countries of the West Indies from r ...

Tom Drury Thomas Jay Drury is an American writer. Drury was born in Iowa, in 1956, grew up in the small town of Swaledale and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1980. For the next five years, Drury worked at a se ...

and Amy Parker.

Curriculum and courses

The program's curriculum requires students to take a small number of classes each semester, including the Graduate Fiction Workshop or Graduate Poetry Workshop itself, and one or two additional literature seminars. The modest requirements are intended to prepare the student for the realities of professional writing, where self-discipline is paramount. The graduate workshop courses meet weekly. Before each three-hour class, a small number of students submit material for critical reading by their peers. The class itself consists of a round-table discussion during which the students and the instructor discuss each piece. The specifics of how the class is conducted vary from teacher to teacher and between poetry and fiction workshops. The ideal result is not only that authors come away with insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their own work, but that the class as a whole derives insight, whether general or specific, about the process of writing.

Pulitzer Prizes won by graduates and faculty

, faculty and graduates affiliated with the Iowa Writers' Workshop have won 29

s, including 18 won by alumni since 1947, as well as numerous National Book Awards and other literary honors. Eight U.S. Poets Laureate have been graduates of the workshop. Graduates and faculty of the University of Iowa have won over 40

Fiction

* Robert Penn Warren, 1947 Pulitzer for '' All the King's Men'', former faculty member. * Wallace Stegner, 1972 Pulitzer for ''

Angle of Repose The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope fac ...

'', MA, 1932; PhD, English, 1935. * James Alan McPherson, 1977 Pulitzer for '' Elbow Room'', MFA, 1969; former faculty member. *

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...

, 1979 Pulitzer for '' The Stories of John Cheever'', former faculty member. * Jane Smiley, 1992 Pulitzer for '' A Thousand Acres'', MA, 1975; MFA, English, 1976; PhD, English, 1978. * Philip Roth, 1998 Pulitzer for ''

American Pastoral ''American Pastoral'' is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle cla ...

'', former faculty member. * Michael Cunningham, 1999 Pulitzer for '' The Hours'', MFA, English, 1980. * Marilynne Robinson, 2005 Pulitzer for '' Gilead'', emeritus faculty member. * Paul Harding, 2010 Pulitzer for '' Tinkers'', MFA, English, 2000. *

Andrew Sean Greer Andrew Sean Greer (born November 1970) is an American novelist and short story writer. Greer received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel ''Less''. He is the author of ''The Story of a Marriage'', which ''The New York Times'' has ...

, 2018 Pulitzer for '' Less'', former visiting faculty member.

Journalism

* Tracy Kidder, 1982 Pulitzer in general nonfiction for '' The Soul of a New Machine'', MFA, 1974.

Poetry

* Karl Shapiro, 1945 Pulitzer for ''V-Letter and Other Poems'', former faculty member. *

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...

, 1947 Pulitzer for ''Lord Weary's Castle'', 1974 Pulitzer for ''The Dolphin'', former faculty member. * Robert Penn Warren, 1958 Pulitzer for ''Poems 1954–56, Now and Then'', 1980 Pulitzer for ''Poems 1976–78'', former faculty member. *

W. D. Snodgrass William De Witt Snodgrass (January 5, 1926 – January 13, 2009) was an American poet who also wrote under the pseudonym S. S. Gardons. He won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Life Snodgrass was born on January 5, 1926, in Beaver Falls, ...

, 1960 Pulitzer for ''Heart's Needle'', BA, 1949; MA, 1951; MFA, 1953. * John Berryman, 1965 Pulitzer for '' 77 Dream Songs'', former faculty member. * Anthony Hecht, 1968 Pulitzer for ''The Hard Hours'', attended Workshop but did not graduate. * Donald Justice, 1980 Pulitzer for ''Selected Poems'', alumnus and former faculty member. * Carolyn Kizer, 1985 Pulitzer for ''Yin'', former faculty member. * Rita Dove, 1987 Pulitzer for ''Thomas and Beulah'', MFA, 1977. * Mona Van Duyn, 1991 Pulitzer for '' Near Changes'', MA, English, 1943. * James Tate, 1992 Pulitzer for ''Selected Poems'', MFA, 1967. * Louise Glück, 1993 Pulitzer for ''The Wild Iris'', former faculty member. * Philip Levine, 1995 Pulitzer for ''The Simple Truth'', MFA, 1957; former faculty member. * Jorie Graham, 1996 Pulitzer for ''The Dream of the Unified Field'', MFA, English, 1978; former faculty member. * Charles Wright, 1998 Pulitzer for ''Black Zodiac'', MFA, 1963. * Mark Strand, 1999 Pulitzer for ''Blizzard of One'', MA, 1962; former faculty member. * Robert Hass, 2008 Pulitzer for ''Time and Materials'', frequent visiting faculty member. *

Philip Schultz Philip Schultz (born 1945 in Rochester, New York) is an American poet, and the founder/director of The Writers Studio, a private school for fiction and poetry writing based in New York City. He is the author of several collections of poetry, incl ...

, 2008 Pulitzer for ''Failure'', MFA, English, 1971.

References

External links

Iowa Writers Workshop website
accessed 5 October, 2021 * *
Historic photos of the Iowa Writers' Workshop from the UI Archives 1950–1969
accessed 4 April 2014 {{Coord, 41.667, -91.535, display=title American writers' organizations Creative writing programs University of Iowa National Humanities Medal recipients 1936 establishments in Iowa