International Writing Program: Four decades of providing an environment for expression

The initial group of writers in the University of Iowa International Writing Program poses for a picture outside the John Deere Company building in 1967. William Hewitt, then president of John Deere, entertained the writers to celebrate the program's founding, taking them on the company's yacht along the Mississippi River before touring the John Deere Company's steel-framed building with glass facade, designed by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, shown in the background. Among those in the picture are IWP cofounders Paul Engle (left) and Hualing Nieh (third from left). Photo courtesy of the International Writing Program.

The story of the International Writing Program’s genesis has been retold so many times in the last 40 years that it’s achieved legend status.

The late Paul Engle, who had just retired after a quarter century as the dynamic director of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, broke the calm of Lake Macbride one day, frightening a great blue heron into flight. His outburst was in response to the suggestion by Hualing Nieh, one of the first foreign writers to attend the workshop, that Engle should start a program for international writers.

“Crazy!” was the essence of the response. How would writers be found? How would they be housed? Who would pay for it?

But Engle warmed to the idea. He loved to say that he bugged the administration so persistently that they finally agreed to let him try it—sure that he would fail, which would shut him up.

Forty years and more than 1,100 writers later, the International Writing Program (IWP) remains a unique project in world literature, a “United Nations of writing” that makes The University of Iowa synonymous with writing throughout the world.

Established poets, fiction writers, dramatists, and nonfiction writers comprise the pool of IWP participants each year. The writers spend three months in residency at the University during the fall semester, free to pursue their writing or research projects as they see fit. For writers who live under repressive regimes, the IWP has provided an unprecedented opportunity to write, speak, and interact freely.

Their stay is not a sheltered one. Over the past four decades, the IWP has introduced talented international writers to American life, engaging them in University tradition while providing an environment conducive for their work.

IWP anniversary events

International Writing Program cofounder Paul Engle’s birthday, Oct. 12, is the official “Paul Engle Memorial Day” in Iowa, and the IWP has built its 40th anniversary celebration to culminate on that day, with a reading by a poet whose career was shaped by a residency in the early IWP.

Tomaz Salamun came to the University in 1971 from what is now Slovenia, in the former Yugoslavia. It was here that his writing was first translated into English, the beginning of a process in which his work became an inspiration to a whole generation of English-language poets. Back as an Ida Beam Distinguished Professor, Salamun will present the Paul Engle Memorial Reading at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12, in Shambaugh Auditorium of the UI Main Library.

The week leading up to Paul Engle Memorial Day will be packed with readings, panel discussions, social events, performances, film screenings, the opening of an exhibition, and even a global playwriting collaboration.

“The International Writing Program brings the world to Iowa, and this week we will celebrate 40 years of cultural exchange, explore writings and ideas from every corner of the earth, and produce what we hope will be new and lasting works of literature,” Christopher Merrill, director of the IWP, says about the ambitious celebration.

Click here for a full schedule of events.

This 40th anniversary year finds the IWP hosting writers from more than 30 countries through November, including the program’s first participants from Malta and Montenegro. The schedule throughout that period provides many opportunities for the public to meet and interact with the writers.

The writers also contribute to an undergraduate course, International Literature Today; attend readings; collaborate with students in the UI Translation Workshop; visit literature classes; learn firsthand about Iowa’s rural heritage; attend artistic performances; and interact with faculty and students in a variety of academic departments.

Talks and readings by, and meetings with, visiting American writers give IWP participants broad exposure to trends in American literature. Each writer is also provided the opportunity to present his or her work in a public forum, and many of these events are broadcast on television or radio.

In addition to activities on campus, groups of writers are traveling to Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Santa Fe, New York, and Washington, D.C., and individual writers are visiting communities and institutions throughout the country.

The importance of the IWP to international understanding was recognized as early as 1976, when former senator, diplomat, and U.N. Ambassador Averill Harrimann nominated Paul and Hualing Nieh Engle for the Nobel Peace Prize. The program, which receives support from the U.S. Department of State, was honored in 1995 with the Governor’s Award for distinguished service to the State of Iowa.

Four decades of residencies have enabled the IWP to accumulate an unparalleled collection of resources on international literature, which have been organized in a library in the Shambaugh House, the IWP headquarters at 430 North Clinton Street. The IWP remains in contact with former participants, creating an unprecedented literary and intellectual network without national boundaries.

One product of the IWP is 91st Meridian, an electronic literary journal edited by IWP staff member Natasa Durovicova. Current and back issues of the journal can be accessed at www.uiowa.edu/~iwp/91st.

In 2006, the IWP brought together writing’s creative minds from around the world on the Greek island of Paros at an event titled The New Symposium. The five-day affair yielded results in literary collaborations and inspiration for future works. A second New Symposium was held in May 2007, and IWP Director Christopher Merrill says future gatherings are in the plans. The New Symposium model was adopted at another University event, last year’s Mississippi River Symposium—a meeting of scientists, scholars, writers, and policymakers on the subject of water.

by Winston Barclay