Between the Lines 2007

In preparation for the Between the Lines Program that will take place in Iowa City in Summer 2008, the International Writing Program sponsored a Curriculum Conference on October 29th and 30th.   Its goal was to coordinate pedagogic theories and strategies among those scheduled to teach in the program—poet Dunya Mikhail, originally from Iraq, and novelist and anthropologist Iman Humaydan from Lebanon.  These included Dean Young, poet and faculty member of the Writer’s Workshop, Ron Carlson, fiction writer and director of the MFA program at the University of California-Irvine, and Terry Hermsen, poet and teacher at Otterbein College, who all gave presentations centered around their strategies in teaching creative writing.  The conference also included opportunities for informal conversation among all the visitors and a roundtable discussion on whether and how creative writing can be taught, which brought together an array of UI instructors at the core of the UI’s Writing University.

ership between the IWP and the Iowa Y oung Writers’ Studio, the writers will participate in writing workshops (in both English and Arabic), attend literature seminars, visit local sights, and deepen their understanding of America through interactions with fellow students and others.

In preparation for the program, the IWP will host a one-day symposium on the teaching of creative writing, currently scheduled for Monday, October 29, 2007. Details are forthcoming.