View full details for the 2025 Iowa Summer Writing Festival workshops on campus in Iowa City in June and July!
Use the drop down arrows across from the session dates to see who's teaching what, when. Click on "Learn More/Register" to view course descriptions and find links to instructor bios. On each course description page, you'll find the "REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT" button underneath the instructor's photo.
This year we're thrilled to offer courses in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, spoken word, screenwriting, children's writing, romance, mystery, writing family history, travel writing, and so much more!
Registration is open! Enroll today!
Pro tip: If you've enrolled in Festival workshops online or on campus in recent years, be sure to select the blue bar at the top of the registration page that says: "Already have an account? Sign in here." You will be prompted to log in with the email and password you created earlier for UI Learn/Canvas, which will allow you to register. If you forgot your login email or password, you can request a password reset in UI Learn, or contact us at iswfestival@uiowa.edu or 319-335-4160.
View and Register for Workshops
June 15-20 (Weeklong Workshops)
June 15-20 (Weeklong Workshops)
| Instructor | Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Venise Berry | Writing the Popular Novel: Key Ingredients | Learn More/Register |
| Anna Bruno | Portraying Professional Life in Fiction and Nonfiction | Learn More/Register |
| Kelly Dwyer | Revision Bootcamp: Revise Your Novel, Memoir, or Story Collection in a Week | Learn More/Register |
| Mieke Eerkens | Researching and Writing Family History | Learn More/Register |
| Patricia Foster | Writing the Body | Learn More/Register |
| Josh Parkinson | Anatomy of a Scene: The Building Block of Screenplays | Learn More/Register |
| William Pei Shih | Taking Care of the Audience: A Fiction Workshop | Learn More/Register |
| Clarisse Baleja Saïdi | Writing Homeward: Locating your Fiction and Nonfiction | Learn More/Register |
| Zach Savich | Inspiration and Insight: How to Get Started and Keep Going | Learn More/Register |
| Katie Jean Shinkle | What’s Love Got To Do With It?: Writing About Love | Learn More/Register |
| Justin Wymer | Revising Poems for Publication | Learn More/Register |
June 21-22 (Weekend Workshop)
June 21-22 (Weekend Workshop)
| Instructor | Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Mary Allen | Travel Writing Made Easy, and It's All Travel Writing | Learn More/Register |
| Kelly Dwyer | Building a Real World in Fiction | Learn More/Register |
| Mieke Eerkens | Block Party: Break Through Writers’ Block and Get Yourself Writing Again | Learn More/Register |
| Eric Goodman | Getting It Right in Longform Fiction & Nonfiction: An Advanced Workshop | Learn More/Register |
| Madeline McDonnell/Caryl Pagel | Ficetry Potions!: Finding Poetry in Fiction, Fiction in Poetry, and a Magical Friendship Between Forms | Learn More/Register |
| June Melby | A Cavalcade of Memoir Writing Exercises | Learn More/Register |
| Kat O'Brien | How to Pitch a Movie or TV Show | Learn More/Register |
| Caleb Rainey | Hook, Line, & Sinker: Using Spoken Word Techniques to Capture & Hold an Audience | Learn More/Register |
| Clarisse Baleja Saïdi | After Poems and Afterthoughts: The Art of Response in Poetry and Prose | Learn More/Register |
| Zach Savich | Playing with Playwriting: What Can It Add Across Genres? | Learn More/Register |
| Leslie Schwartz | Fearless Fiction: Moving the Big Idea into Bold and Daring Prose | Learn More/Register |
| Kevin Smith | Tell It Queer | Learn More/Register |
| Justin Wymer | Letters to Nobody: Writing the Epistolary Poem | Learn More/Register |
June 22-27 (Weeklong Workshops)
June 22-27 (Weeklong Workshops)
| Instructor | Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Eric Goodman | Writing History: Tricks of the Trade in Historical Fiction and Memoir | Learn More/Register |
| Charles Holdefer | The Balancing Act: Narration, Character and Dialogue in Prose Fiction | Learn More/Register |
| Madeline McDonnell | The Summer Book: How to Build a Book out of Fragments, Vignettes, and Other Grand-But-Not-Grandiose Prose Episodes | Learn More/Register |
| Thomas Mira y Lopez | Expanding the Personal Narrative | Learn More/Register |
| Kat O'Brien | Writing the Feature Screenplay | Learn More/Register |
| Caryl Pagel | Chaos & Control: A Poetry Workshop | Learn More/Register |
| William Pei Shih | A Taste of the MFA in Fiction | Learn More/Register |
| Danielle Roderick | The Mystery of the Mystery: Character & Plot in the Mystery Genre | Learn More/Register |
| Leslie Schwartz | Fiction Bootcamp: From Writing Prompt to Full-Fledged Narrative | Learn More/Register |
| Kevin Smith | Writing in the Danger Zone | Learn More/Register |
July 13-18 (Weeklong Workshops)
July 13-18 (Weeklong Workshops)
| Instructor | Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Jessica Alexander | Setting: The Art of Writing a World | Learn More/Register |
| Mary Allen | Spiritual Writing: Listening to Our Lives | Learn More/Register |
| Nancy K. Barry | Making the Middle Flow: Finding Form in Nonfiction | Learn More/Register |
| Hope Edelman | The Story Beneath Your Story: Exploring Your Memoir's Deeper Message | Learn More/Register |
| Hugh Ferrer | Approaching Revision: An Advanced Fiction Workshop | Learn More/Register |
| Diana Goetsch | The Heart of the Poem: Revising and Composing Poetry | Learn More/Register |
| Robin Hemley | Writing a Book Proposal for Agents, Editors, or Yourself | Learn More/Register |
| Jared Joseph | "You Must Change Your Life": Addressing the "You" in Poetry | Learn More/Register |
| Tricia Park | Putting It Together: How to Make Your Book | Learn More/Register |
| Suzanne Scanlon | Finding Your Foundation: Memoir Beginnings | Learn More/Register |
| Elizabeth Stuckey-French | Your Novel in a Week: How to Start, Keep Going, and Know When You’re Done | Learn More/Register |
July 19-20 (Weekend Workshops)
July 19-20 (Weekend Workshops)
| Instructor | Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Jessica Alexander | The Anecdotal as Antidote to Finding Your Voice | Learn More/Register |
| Kyle Beachy | The Sentence in an Age of Emoji | Learn More/Register |
| Karen Bender | Difficult People: Characters You Can't Stop Reading About | Learn More/Register |
| Tricia Elam Walker | Dare to Walk in Somebody Else's Shoes: How to Authentically Write about Characters Different from You | Learn More/Register |
| Diana Goetsch | Working Against Your Drift: A Generative Workshop for All Genres | Learn More/Register |
| Afabwaje Kurian | Fast Drafting: The Art of Speed and Imperfection | Learn More/Register |
| James McKean | Writing Triggers: A Workshop for Poems and Prose | Learn More/Register |
| Juliet Patterson | Everything You Want to Know About Publishing Poetry | Learn More/Register |
| Sarah Saffian | So What’s Your (Life) Story? Memoir in a Nutshell | Learn More/Register |
| Suzanne Scanlon | Writing Yourself as a Character | Learn More/Register |
| Robert Anthony Siegel | Flash Fiction | Learn More/Register |
| Elizabeth Stuckey-French | Saying the Unsayable in Fiction | Learn More/Register |
| Deborah Jackson Taffa | The Possibilities of the Essay: An Exploration of Forms and Typologies | Learn More/Register |
| Denise Williams | Crafting Chemistry: The Art and Science of Writing Romance | Learn More/Register |
July 20-25 (Weeklong Workshops)
July 20-25 (Weeklong Workshops)
| Instructor | Workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Aamina Ahmad | Larger than Life: Character and Storytelling | Learn More/Register |
| Timothy Bascom | Expand Your Essay Horizons: An Introduction to Multiple Forms | Learn More/Register |
| Kyle Beachy | The Missing Body: A Generative Workshop Toward More Evocative Prose | Learn More/Register |
| Karen Bender | Finding Your Story: A Generative Fiction Boot Camp | Learn More/Register |
| Hope Edelman | Writing to Make Sense of the World | Learn More/Register |
| Tricia Elam Walker | Small Bodies, Big Minds: The Art of Writing Picture Books | Learn More/Register |
| Robin Hemley | Just Kill Me Now: Writing Humor | Learn More/Register |
| James McKean | Memoir: Pieces for the Whole | Learn More/Register |
| Juliet Patterson | Form and Formlessness: A Poetry Workshop | Learn More/Register |
| Sarah Saffian | Who You Looking At?: Bringing Your Profile Subject to Life | Learn More/Register |
| Robert Anthony Siegel | Kickstarting Your Novel | Learn More/Register |