The Eleventh Hour Lecture Series is comprised of hour-long presentations at 11:00 a.m. each weekday of the Festival. The series features issues of special interest to writers, including aspects of craft, process, the writing life, and publishing. Fridays in the Eleventh Hour are reserved for a faculty reading.

The Eleventh Hour Series is free and open to the public. In 2023, the series is held in Phillips Hall, Room 100. 

 

To listen to past lectures, visit the Eleventh Hour Podcast on the Writing University webpage.

 

Recent Lectures in the Eleventh Hour Series: 

 

In Praise of Terrible Ideas: Revision Strategies for Prose. Rachel Yoder, Presenter

Author Kelly Link says in a Fail Safe podcast interview, “The really terrible ideas are much, much closer to interesting ideas than ideas which are good enough.” With this in mind, we'll take a look at the revision process and how to deploy what may seem like terrible ideas to your advantage, among other revision strategies. In addition to looking at the creative processes of a number of authors—examining their first and final drafts, the changes they made, and their thinking behind the process—we'll go over the basics of line editing. At the end of the lecture, you'll have some revision techniques to try out with your own writing as well as a better understanding of what works for your own creative process. To fully take advantage of this lecture, participants should have a completed short story draft in hand to use during exercises.

 

Prepping for Publication: How and Where to Submit Your Manuscripts. Kelly Dwyer, Presenter

You’ve written and revised a novel, memoir, story, flash fiction, or poem, and now you want to submit it for publication. As she navigates the publication of her third novel, Ghost Mother (Union Square & Co., 2024), author Kelly Dwyer will take us through the process. We’ll discuss where you might consider sending your shorter works and how to send a novel or memoir to an agent. Kelly will provide tips on how to write an appealing query letter and synopsis, as well as touch on contemporary issues around self-publishing and AI. This presentation is for writers at all stages, from beginning writers who have never submitted their work, to published authors who are looking to finetune their submission process. By the end of the hour, we’ll all be this much closer to seeing our writings in print!

WATCH THE VIDEO

 

Good Sound: Poetry for Prose Writers. Diana Goetsch, Presenter

We should require of prose what we expect of poetry: vividness, compression, and good sound. The last of these is often neglected by prose writers, as though they were working in a silent genre, or sound was merely a decorative concern. Wrong. What Duke Ellington said of music—“If it sounds good it is good”—holds true for writing. So does the converse: if it isn’t music, it can’t be wisdom. This Eleventh Hour talk will present how central good sound is to fiction and nonfiction writing—providing examples and techniques for improving sound in prose.

 

Crafting “Excess.” Darius Stewart, Presenter

For this talk, we—together, you and I, audience and speaker—will explore maximalist writing as an aesthetics of excess that, according to Will Hertel, strives to “submerge readers with informational deluges, utilizing a variety of subject material and literary techniques and genres to maintain attention.” However, chief among our discussion will be the question: what if one is a writer who only wants to use this technique occasionally, and elsewhere engage in a less elaborative style? Can this be achieved by crafting excess—that is, attending deliberately to pacing, use of figurative language, and/or a robust narrative voice? I believe so. Writers of any genre and experience can benefit from our discussions, which will include examinations of prose works from Richard Wright, Gloria Naylor, Don DeLillo, and Maxine Hong Kingston.

 

Exploring the Power of Image Through Haiku. Robert Anthony Siegel, Presenter

One of the key elements in successful writing is imagery—the word-pictures that directly transmit what the writer sees. But while fiction and nonfiction students typically get a lot of help with things like plot and structure, imagery often goes unmentioned, in part because it is so very hard to talk about how to make better images. Therein lies the value of haiku for prose writers. The super-short, imagistic form of poetry imported from Japan offers a strikingly clear (and very fun) way to practice making images. Over the course of the hour, we will read and write haiku together, using the experience to deepen our understanding of the role of imagery in our own writing, and to enrich our visual imaginations.

 

What’s Hidden Beneath: A Writer’s Exploration of Form, Genre and Grief. Juliet Patterson, Presenter

Part-lecture, part-artist-talk, this session will unveil one writer’s process in, through, and about grief. Poet Juliet Patterson, author of Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide (Milkweed Editions, September 2022), will discuss the challenges and pitfalls of writing memoir connected to ancestral trauma, considering methods of research, creating scenes, and crafting a narrative. How do we integrate research and history into our work? How can we use form as a method of inspiration? How can we embody our memories more authentically? And how do we manage our emotional body in the process of writing? These are some of the questions we’ll address in this talk through a variety of short exercises and discussion.

 

A Woman of Genius: Remembering Lynda Hull. Susan Aizenberg, Presenter

In the years between 1980 and her death at age thirty-nine in an automobile accident in 1994, the late Lynda Hull composed a body of work that marks her as one of the great lyric poets of our generation, including two prize-winning collections, Ghost Money (1986) and Star Ledger (1991), and a posthumous third collection, The Only World (1995). In 2006, all three collections were brought together in a single volume, Lynda Hull: Collected, in Graywolf’s RE/VIEW series edited by Mark Doty. During her life, Hull was teacher and mentor to many poets, one whose devotion to her students and to the art of poetry demonstrates, as Mark Doty has written of her, “how transformative the exchanges between teacher and student might be.” In this Eleventh Hour, we’ll remember Lynda Hull and celebrate her enduring legacy as both a brilliant poet and a generous and remarkable teacher.

 

Under Review: A Panel on Pitching, Submitting, Community, and the Future of Literary Journals. Lynne Nugent, Nina Lohman, and Hannah Bonner, Presenters

With the shuttering of publications like Tin House, Astra, Catapult, Bookforum, and The Believer (albeit briefly), it’s a strange time to cut your teeth as a writer. Midsized journals are abandoning experimentation and innovation in order to secure funding. Meanwhile, massive journals like The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Atlantic have shifted toward fleeting think-pieces, celebrity clickbait, and hate-reads to attract corporate advertisers. It feels like the floor could drop out at any moment, and yet, whenever we look around a room full of writers, we know there’s still so much brilliant art being created. So where’s this art to go? Good news is: for every sad headline, there are two or three working editors who’ve carved out new venues and are opening doors—these opportunities just might be a bit trickier to find. Join editors Lynne Nugent, Nina Lohman, and Hannah Bonner as they provide an insider look into the present, past, and future of literary journals. Yes, we’ll cover tips and tricks for pitching your work (as well locating the right places to pitch), but we’ll also explore how to cultivate a community of readers and collaborators in an ever-changing landscape. Hope can be a dangerous word, but where’s the fun in art without a little risk?

 

Upcoming Eleventh Hour Lectures

Hook, Line, & Sinker: Using Spoken Word Techniques to Capture & Hold an Audience

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Caleb Rainey
Scheduled
No
When a poet steps to the microphone, truth on the tip of their tongue and vulnerability in their voice, you listen. But what writing techniques does a performance poet use to hook their audience? From the syntax of the first line, to the structure of the whole poem, spoken word artists have found multiple ways to keep the audience’s attention. You may be a master at creating images, a poet who can capture passion and pain, even a talented storyteller, but if you cannot hook your audience, they won’t stick around long enough for you to prove it. Designed for novice and experienced poets, memoirists, and storytellers, this workshop will focus on the hook by examining the spoken word artists that have found a way—in just a minute—to capture the attention of millions of viewers online. In our sessions, we will study the techniques employed by artists such as Neil Hilborn, Javon Johnson, Sabrina Benaim, and Blythe Bard, and we’ll use them to create our own hooks. Then we will engage in a workshop, constructively critiquing old or new works. We will finish our time together by presenting our final, polished hooks. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend; workshop writing you bring from home.

After Poems and Afterthoughts: The Art of Response in Poetry and Prose

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Clarisse Baleja Saïdi
Scheduled
No
Poetry is rich with the tradition of the homage poem, a poem in conversation with or inspired by another poem or person. In this space, we’ll honor “honoring” in both poetry and prose—and kick things up a notch. We will amplify this tradition with “afterthoughts,” applying similar gestures to prose. Has a piece of fiction or nonfiction stayed with you? An author’s daring conceit or choice of subject inspired or infuriated you? Do you wish to write back, or forward? Let’s. Together, we will exchange and read affecting work, and then write in response to our fellows—in praise, imitation, and/or criticism. Expect energetic and playful in-class prompts, open-mic opportunities, brief lessons on intertextuality, and pointers on how to reimagine or interact with original works in order to make your own contributions. We’ll start out in conversation with strangers and learn how to follow our own influences, questions, and fears. On the craft level, our focus will be on tone and voice, by way of allusion, citation, imitations, and transmutations. Genre will be a secondary consideration. What we have to say precedes how we say it. This is in part a class designed to help poets lean into prose and to get the poetry-curious turning to verse. Genre dedication and genre experimentation are both welcomed. Reading selections will be provided. Here’s to writing responsively, responsibly, and courageously! In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

Playing with Playwriting: What Can It Add Across Genres?

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Zach Savich
Scheduled
No
How can playwriting give us new insight into fiction, poetry, and more? This workshop explores experiments in playwriting—for writers from across genres. It’s designed for anyone who’s curious about how techniques from theater can inform their work in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, scripted forms, a personal writing practice, and more. Come refresh your dialogue, come explore how theatrical formats can inspire your poems and essays, come revise a piece by considering ideas from theater and performance studies. We'll take inspiration from works that distinctly approach dialogue, character, staging, performance, pacing, format, and other elements. And we’ll ask how those techniques can help us generate and revise our work. This workshop supports the generation of new writing and/or the revision of older work, all in a supportive and close-knit environment. Activities will include in-class writing and discussion, review of one another’s work, and analysis of published sources. No previous experience with playwriting or theater is required, and the course warmly welcomes writers who have no interest in being performers themselves. For two days, we’ll ask what playwriting can inspire for our writing, helping everyone gain insights that can energize their work and help it come to life on and off the page. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend; workshop writing you bring from home.

Fearless Fiction: Moving the Big Idea into Bold and Daring Prose

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Leslie Schwartz
Scheduled
No
What is theme? How do I structure a novel? How can I discover and write exciting characters? What’s the difference between writing scene versus exposition, and how do I do it? If you have asked any of these questions of yourself while staring at the blank page, this is the right course for you. Geared toward beginning and intermediate fiction writers, this class will provide fun, engaging writing exercises, fascinating instructional handouts, lively discussion, and a safe and supportive critique workshop. Step-by-step instructions on basic skills will help you uncover with simplicity and precision the fundamental craft of writing fiction. New work will be generated during class time, but students are also free to revise and work on their previously written fiction. Everyone will have a chance to workshop their writing, (bring yours from home or start fresh in this workshop) and ask questions about how to move forward. All fiction genres welcome. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

Tell It Queer

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Kevin Smith
Scheduled
No
“Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” Emily Dickinson wrote. In this all-genre workshop, we will take inspiration from Dickinson’s poem and tell it queer, approaching language and its joyful possibilities from an angle of queerness. During our weekend, we will read and discuss work by writers who illuminate queer points of view and we will generate new queer writing of our own. Through in-class prompts that build on one another, we will explore queerness not only as subject but as an artistic practice, the very lens through which we envision and release our writing. As we pick up our writing tools—the sounds and shapes of our words, the music of our sentences—we can ask: What makes a setting queer? How about dialogue? What choices does queerness offer our protagonists and poems? Where does our imagination go when we allow queerness to bloom at the very heart of our creativity? By writing, reading, and sharing together, we will foster a safe, resonant space to bend our language into an instrument of pleasure, witness, and truth—“The Truth’s superb surprise,” as Dickinson says. This workshop is open to all writers. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

Letters to Nobody: Writing the Epistolary Poem

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Justin Wymer
Scheduled
No
When we write letters, we are opening up a conversation with an imagined listener. They could be a trusted confidant(e), a lover, a family member—or even a politician, representative, or figure of authority. We combine anecdote with fact-telling. We can share secrets, imagine futures, or request information and action, depending on our intended audience. Even the diary is a sustained letter to the self, an audience of one. In this course, writers will learn how the epistle (i.e., letter) is a mode of writing that can apply to poetry. We will approach the epistolary poem as a hybrid text written either to an indistinct or very specific person or thing. By exploring perspective and audience in the epistolary poem, we will generate poems in unbounded ways, invite in the strange and excessive to our work, balance “facts” and feelings, and even begin producing a poem series that can be used to pattern full-length works and chapbooks. Because the epistle is a highly adaptable mode of writing, writers of all genres and skill levels are welcome. In this workshop, we will revise poems you bring from home and discuss avenues for future revision and expansion. Please bring at least one poem written to another person, as the workshop will incorporate strategies for both revision and generating new writing. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend; workshop writing you bring from home.

Weekend Session Beginning June 21

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Scheduled
No
Workshops being held during the weekend session running June 21 - 22, 2025.

The Summer Book: How to Build a Book out of Fragments, Vignettes, and Other Grand-But-Not-Grandiose Prose Episodes

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Madeline McDonnell
Scheduled
No
Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book tells the seemingly simple story of two characters passing a single season on a small island, and yet writers ranging from Ali Smith to Phillip Pullman to Kathryn Davis have praised the novel’s “magnitude” and “genius,” and have suggested that it “comes to represent the whole universe.” In this generative prose workshop, we will use Johnson’s deceptively minimal masterpiece as a touchstone as we begin to assemble our own summer books from the unique driftwood floating in our memories and imaginations. How might a whole world—or at least a whole book—be constructed out of these discrete pieces? What locations, seasons, or characters from our own imagined or actual experiences might intersect—or bump surprisingly against one another—to yield a sustained and sustaining longer work? What narrative and expressive possibilities might be afforded by dispensing with causal plot structures, and by imagining a book not as a propulsive progression but as a more mysterious container for discontinuous but coalescing material? We will endeavor to answer such questions by collaboratively reading the crystalline, yet obscurely connected, components that comprise Johnson’s novel, alongside selections from other books built out of small prose blocks by writers like Sei Shōnagon, Giada Scodellaro, Maggie Nelson, and Sigrid Nunez. Just as crucially, we will explore the novelistic potential of the vignette by responding to writing prompts inspired by all we’ve discussed and discovered. By the end of the week, each student should expect to have started their own [Iowa] Summer [Writing Festival] Book! Lovers of literature (and summer!) at all levels of experience are welcome. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts.

Expanding the Personal Narrative

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Thomas Mira y Lopez
Scheduled
No
This class will focus on how we can use an investigation and exploration of the wider world as a springboard for writing more nuanced and resonant personal narratives. How can we situate our stories in larger social, political, and cultural spheres? How might we use research, journalism, or lyric association to show the connections held within our own stories? By the end of this course, participants will have greater fluency with blending various types of nonfiction and a more thorough understanding of the possibilities for opening up their personal narratives. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss a longer piece of their own work and read each other’s; while much of that discussion will focus on feedback for these pieces, we will also talk about how to grow and sustain communities of like-minded (and sometimes not like-minded!) readers. Participants will also have the option of completing short daily writing assignments that model the various strategies of approaching a narrative and are based upon the authors we read, such as Zadie Smith, Emily Maloney, Elena Passarello, and Lidia Yuknavitch. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.

Writing the Feature Screenplay

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Kat O'Brien
Scheduled
No
For anyone who dreams about writing the movie they want to see—here’s your opportunity. Join award-winning screenwriter, producer, and story consultant Kat O’Brien in this weeklong workshop to unlock the cinematic potential of your storytelling. Whether you’re a novelist, memoirist, journalist, poet, or playwright curious about translating your storytelling skills to film, this course will help you navigate the art and craft of screenwriting while staying true to your unique voice. For writers new to screenwriting and seasoned pros alike, this course will be tailored to guide you through your unique process of bridging that gap between the movie in your mind and the screenplay on the page. This workshop is an opportunity for writers of all genres and levels of experience to develop and kickstart a draft of a feature-length screenplay. Bring a work in progress to refine or start from scratch and generate something new. Each session will combine lecture, discussion, interactive activities, time to write, and workshops delivering writer-centered feedback and first impressions on writing produced in class. Day one, we’ll start by pitching our ideas for new or existing feature stories. During our subsequent daily sessions, we’ll develop feature-length outlines, learn the guidelines of industry-standard screenplay format, and draft and table-read at least 10 pages of a feature film screenplay that will set you up to write a full-length feature on your own schedule. Whether you’re new to screenwriting or looking to refine your screenwriting craft, this weeklong intensive will offer a dynamic, supportive, structured environment to help you realize your ideas from pitch to page to screen at a pace that works for you, mindful of your unique creative bandwidth. Takeaways: Create professional pitch materials such as loglines, synopses, and one-pagers. Develop a feature-length, detailed step-outline. Draft and receive feedback on at least 10 pages of a feature screenplay that will set you up to finish the script on your own schedule In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week; workshop writing you bring from home.