The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated [1] graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing. It has been cited as the best graduate writing program in the nation, [2] counting among its alumni 17 Pulitzer Prize winners.
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The Program in Creative Writing, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop [1] graduate-level creative writing program in the United States.
Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in English. Iowa has the oldest creative writing program in the country offering an MFA credential. [7]
See category: Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni
As of September 2020, the workshop's faculty are Jamel Brinkley, Charles D'Ambrosio, Margot Livesey in fiction; Ethan Canin in English and creative writing; James Galvin, Mark Levine, Tracie Morris, Elizabeth Willis in poetry; Marilynne Robinson; and Program Director Lan Samantha Chang. Visiting faculty are Alexia Arthurs, Tom Drury and Amy Parker. [8]
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. [7]
As of 2018 [update] , faculty and graduates affiliated with the Iowa Writers' Workshop have won 29 Pulitzer Prizes, 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.[ when? ] Graduates and faculty of the University of Iowa have won over 40 Pulitzer Prizes. [9]
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