Iowa Writers’ Workshop marks 75 years

IOWA CITY - About 3,500 books written by graduates of the Iowa Writers' Workshop line the shelves of the reading room in Dey House.

Alumni of the internationally renowned Writers' Workshop are so prolific that the reading room is running out of space to hold their work.

“We need to add more shelves,” workshop Librarian Kelly Smith said. “This collection is important in a lot of ways. To the outside world, a lot of what happens here sounds sort of abstract. So the collection is sort of the physical evidence of what we do here.”

The Writers' Workshop - the oldest creative writing degree program in the country - celebrates its 75th anniversary June 9 to 12 with a reunion that will bring big literary names back to campus.

Since its founding in 1936, program graduates have won virtually every major literary award, including 17 Pulitzer Prizes.

“It was the first, and became the blueprint for most of the hundreds of programs that have followed, many of which are run by UI alumni,” UI President Sally Mason said via email. “Around the world ‘Iowa' is synonymous with writing. Many of the best young writers want to come here every year, which makes the workshop one of the nation's most selective graduate programs of any kind.”

Willard “Sandy” Boyd, UI president from 1969 to 1981 and interim president from 2002 to 2003, thinks the Writers' Workshop is the most famous dimension of the university internationally.

“It was the first of its kind, but the most impressive thing is that it remains the best of its kind,” Boyd said. “And that's the extraordinary testament to the exceptional people who've been with the workshop and the leadership at the workshop through the years.”

The Writers' Workshop was based on a concept that was a radical idea at the time: that writers can teach other writers about writing, that it is a craft to be taught and honed.

Because the Iowa Writers' Workshop was the first, it drew notable visitors from the start: Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, John Berryman.

“There was probably an element of serendipity to it as well,” Smith said. “From the very beginning we had these great writers here as students.”

Many of those same concepts remain at the workshop today. Students learn from, study with and critique their peers, a big part of the workshop experience.

The Iowa City community has had tremendous influence on the program, Writers' Workshop Director Lan Samantha Chang said.

Workshop students come here not knowing what to expect, many of them never having been in the Midwest or Iowa before, Chang said.

“They leave with a sense of gratitude and love, that they received support from a community at a really important time in their development,” she said. “I think that continues to set us apart from other programs.”

One of Chang's goals is to see that relationship with the community continue to evolve. She'd like to see workshop graduate students have more opportunities to share their work with younger students in Iowa City, for example.

“I think our program is in a tremendous place right now,” she said.

Organizers decided on the reunion theme for the 75th anniversary because it seemed an appropriate reflection of the workshop, Smith said. It's expected that several hundred workshop graduates will attend.

“To gather all of them again to talk about writing, because that's been the format since the beginning,” she said.

There are some public events during the reunion, including a panel discussion featuring two Pulitzer Prize winners, Michael Cunningham, author of “The Hours,” and Jane Smiley, author of “A Thousand Acres.”

“We just have this embarrassment of riches with our alumni,” Smith said. “It's such a storied place.”

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June 9

8 p.m.: Keynote address: “The Workshop as Phenomenon,” Marilynne Robinson. The Englert Theatre, 221 East Washington St., Iowa City. Open to the public.

June 11

3:30 p.m.: “The Writer as Public Figure.” Macbride Auditorium, Macbride Hall. Ethan Canin, Michael Cunningham, Abraham Verghese, Jane Smiley. Open to the public.

4:30 p.m.: Reception. Museum of Natural History, Macbride Hall. Open to the public. (Free tickets for this public reception are available at Prairie Lights Books, or at the information desk at the Iowa Memorial Union.)

Notable graduates of the Iowa Writers' Workshop

Max Allan Collins

- “Road to Perdition”

- Nathan Heller series

Justin Cronin

- “The Passage”

- “Mary and O'Neil:

Robin Green

- “The Sopranos”

- “Northern Exposure”

John Irving

- “The World According to Garp”

- “The Cider House Rules”

Donald Justice

- “Collected Poems”

- “New and Selected Poems”

Steven Lovely

- “Irreplaceable”

Jane Smiley

- “A Thousand Acres”

- “Private Life”

Kurt Vonnegut

- “Slaughterhouse-Five”

- “Breakfast of Champions”