Arts Center Relations News 307 E College

Contact:
Winston Barclay
(319) 384-0073
Fax (319) 384-0024
E-mail: [email protected]

Release: Immediate

The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa

The University of Iowa International Writing Program (IWP) is a one-of-a-kind residency program that brings together the writers of the world. In 1997 the IWP marked 30 years as a facilitator of intellectual interaction, a promoter of global understanding, an advocate of literary freedom and a celebrant of the importance of writers everywhere.

Founded in 1967, the IWP was the first international writers residency at a university, and it remains unique in world literature. The IWP brings established writers of the world to the UI, where they become part of the lively literary community on campus. Over the years, more than a thousand writers from more than 110 countries have completed residencies in the program. Under the leadership of Canadian-American writer Clark Blaise, who was IWP director in 1990-97, the program significantly expanded its scope and deepened its national impact.

Participants in the IWP do not take classes at the UI, but in addition to working on their current writing and research projects, they give readings, serve on discussion panels, initiate translation projects, view cultural and artistic events and contribute to a mini-course, "International Literature Today."

Six years ago, the IWP launched another pioneering project, the Interactive Translation Program. Through this program, UI translators work directly with active foreign-language writers to create collaborative translations.

In 1993 the IWP founded a literary journal, "100 Words," that was conceived by writers from Russia and the United Kingdom, in collaboration with IWP staff. The journal was intended to provide a vehicle for foreign writers' perceptions of America, and to provide a lens for viewing cultural difference. Each issue contains responses in prose and poetry of no more than 100 words to a single "trigger word." "100 Words" now has contributors and subscribers in all parts of the world, and some IWP veterans have opened "100 Words" "franchises" in their home countries. For example, "100 Words" is now a regular feature in one of Sri Lanka's leading newspapers.

At the UI, IWP participants interact with each other and with the many poets, fiction writers, playwrights and translators in Iowa City. The UI is the home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Iowa Playwrights Workshop and the Iowa Translation Workshop. The Writers' Workshop, another groundbreaking UI program, was the first university program to grant academic credit for creative work in literature and was the prototype for the many college creative writing programs that have transformed the terrain of American literary life.

Most IWP residency groups include a mix of poets, fiction writers, screenwriters playwrights, journalists, essayists and critics. All the writers are well established, and many are among their country's leading literary figures or are writers of international stature.

Many of the IWP writers travel from Iowa City to present lectures, symposia and readings at other campuses in Iowa and throughout the country, and to visit places of cultural or historical interest. During their travels the writers, many of whom are visiting the United States for the first time, become acquainted with American peoples, cultures and society.

The IWP is the primary contact through which foreign writers know the U.S., and it becomes the source of first American publication for many of the writers. In addition, at the UI the writers experience personal, intellectual and literary encounters that would be impossible in their home countries, free from political pressures. The IWP stresses the common interests of writers everywhere, in an atmosphere that puts political differences into perspective. For writers who live under repressive regimes, the IWP has provided an unprecedented opportunity to write, speak and interact freely.

As an active advocate of literary freedom throughout the world, the IWP has identified and supported writers who have been spokespersons for freedom, and has intervened on behalf of oppressed and imprisoned writers. For example, Blaise and his wife, novelist Bharati Mukherjee, visited Indonesia in March and April 1994 as representatives of the PEN American Center to decry the Indonesian government's censorship of literature and its persecution and imprisonment of writers. More recently, the IWP helped a dissident writer escape Serbia and relocate to Canada.

The importance of the IWP to international understanding was recognized in 1976 with a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

After the 1991 death of Iowa poet Paul Engle, co-founder of the IWP with Chinese fiction writer Hualing Nieh, the tributes paid to him by former IWP participants illuminated the program's ongoing importance in world affairs. Prominent writers from eastern Europe and China spoke of the central role the IWP has played in democracy movements on both sides of the globe, and an Asian writer described the UI as the world's "narrative nursery."

When Blaise visited Eastern Europe during the summer of 1991, Polish writers told him the IWP had played the galvanizing role for Polish intellectuals that Solidarity had played for the workers. Many former IWP participants assumed prominent governmental and diplomatic posts in several eastern European countries in the wake of Communism's collapse.

A quarter century of residencies have enabled the IWP to accumulate an unparalleled collection of resources on international literature. The IWP remains in contact with former participants, creating an unprecedented literary and intellectual network without national boundaries.

The IWP is staffed and housed by the University of Iowa. IWP writers have been financed by the United States Information Agency, through bilateral agreements with numerous countries; by grants given by cultural institutions and governments abroad; and by private funds that are donated by a variety of American corporations, foundations and individuals.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~iwp/
http://www.uiowa.edu/~100words/

Winston Barclay
Asst. Director, Arts Center Relations
The University of Iowa
307 E. College St.
Iowa City, IA 52242
ph: 319-384-0073
fax: 319-384-0024