1998 marked historic changes in the structure and leadership of THE INTERNATIONAL WRITING PROGRAM. Following the retirement of outgoing director Clark Blaise in June, the College of Liberal Arts reaffirmed its commitment to the Program by integrating the IWP under the administrative aegis of the Program in Comparative Literature. A steering committee was convened to assess the needs of the IWP, submitting its recommendations to Dean Linda Maxson. Professor Steven Ungar, chair of the Program in Comparative Literature, was appointed Interim Director of the IWP while the search for a new director was being conducted. The IWP is now part of what will soon be a Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature (CCL) .

The onset of the IWP’s third decade — its thirty-first year of continuous service to world literature — was characterized by change. The 1998 session opened with significant alterations in personnel. The search for the IWP’s new director is in its final phase, with the director scheduled to take office on July 1, 1999. Staffing changes during this year of transition include key staff positions such as audiovisual coordinator, translation coordinator/editorial associate, and program secretary. These will be finalized by the newly appointed director.

Our major source of external support, the United States Information Agency’s International Visitor Program, continued its vital participation in the IWP. 1998 also marked the first full year that the program was administered by USIA Program Officer Audrey Annette Ford.

 Nineteen writers from seventeen countries attended attended the 1998 program. In addition, an American journalist supported by the CASE Foundation took part in the program for a week, bringing the participation to a total of twenty authors from eighteen nations. Moldova and Switzerland were represented for the first time in the IWP; quite fittingly, these two new member-nations represent countries that are among the world’s youngest and oldest democracies. The IWP now lists 114 nations as constituents, with approximately 854 authors participating throughout the 31 years since the program’s founding. In 1998, nine of the writers were fully supported by the US Information Agency, which began its history of sponsorship in 1968; the other half came to Iowa this year through the continued support of cultural agencies in other countries and international institutes based in the United States.

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The program continued its mission through the astute direction provided by Steven Ungar, through the efforts expended by the reduced staff, and through support from the Graduate College, the Office of the Provost, the Office of Arts Center Relations; and cooperative endeavors with the Writers’ Workshop, the Department of English, and International Programs.

Traditional sources of support within the Iowa City community provided the necessary links between the program’s past and its future; among them, such longstanding friends as First National Bank of Iowa City were undergoing a metamorphosis in designation (to Mercantile Bank), but provided a much needed and appreciated steadfastness in the service and hospitality they provided to the program and our writers. Perhaps these transitions are merely the headwaters, the neap tide in the millennial current upon which our sense of time and event are borne. The enduring combination of efforts from the program’s sources — federal, state, corporate, and private funding — work in unity with the academic and administrative components of The University of Iowa; they are the lighthouses, the seawalls, and the foundations on which the IWP stand.

The following report provides details of the 1998 International Writing Program and its efforts and activities, its accomplishments and plans.

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 Profile of the 1998 Participants

Talent, youth, and experience exemplify the dynamic and the character of this year’s constituency. A notable characteristic defining this year’s writers was their relative youth; collectively, 1998 featured the youngest in the program’s history of participants, the culmination of a trend that became apparent two years ago. Where the median age of the 1996 writers was 44, and 1997 average was forty, in 1998 the average age was 37. Of the nineteen participants, six were born in the 1970s, one in 1969. The youngest of this year’s writers was 21 years old: Beatrice Kobow attended the IWP through a new exchange-student arrangement with the German government involving the Writers’ Workshop and the IWP, and through a grant from Mrs. Joan E. Vander Naald. Well-established and seasoned talent was provided by veteran authors Igal Sarna (Israel), Kofi Anyidoho (Ghana), Mahmud Shuqair (West Bank), Erendiz Atasü Sayron (Turkey), Emil Zopfi (Switzerland) and U Pe Myint (Burma). Rounding out the roster are writers with nationally-recognized and established careers: Brazilian fiction writer and journalist Bernardo Texeira Carvalho, poet András Petöcz (Hungary), Moldovan poet, novelist, and editor Vasile Gîrnet, Argentinean poet Fabián Casas. Lithuanian author Jurate Sucylaite’s publications have begun appearing prolifically, though only recently, because of her country’s political and economic changes; by contrast, Polish author Agnieszka Kolakowska was already well known as a translator and essayist before she received a grant from the Jurzykowski Foundation to write her first novel at the IWP.

  Though it was a relatively smaller group than in previous years, this year’s constituency achieved balance in terms of career accomplishment, writing genres, and regional representation. Over half of the participants write in more than one genre; six of the 19 are primarily poets, six write plays in addition to fiction or poetry, and twelve support their writing by careers as journalists, cultural commentators, and editors of publications, or as translators. Eight of the nineteen writers were women, maintaining the gender balance being established in the IWP. This demographic fact was countered by an equitable (though not fully balanced) regional distribution. Three writers represented Latin American literature (we facetiously referred to them as the ABC’s, Argentina, Brazil, Chile). Asia and the Pacific (strongly represented in previous years) sent three writers, though none from the Pacific islands or the antipodes. Two authors came from western Europe; six from eastern and central Europe; two from Africa; and three from the Mediterranean region and the Middle East.

  The writing was also enriched by a variety of careers. Dr. Erendiz Atasü Sayron taught in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Ankara University before devoting her time to writing; Dr. Jurate Sucylaite works as a psychiatrist; Dr. U Pe Myint was a medical doctor in Yangon before serving as editor of two publishing houses. Igal Sarna, who won the IBM Prize for Tolerance for a series of articles about political refugees in Israeli prisons, is an investigative reporter and previously served as a tank commander in the Israeli army. Phan Trieu Hai works with the management of the Issho Iwai Corporation in Ho Chi Minh City. Before turning to teaching creative writing, Emil Zopfi was a computer engineer, as well as a seasoned rock-climbing expert who has scaled mountains all over the world. Anastasiya Gosteva, trained as a physicist, works in the Barin’s Realty Company in Moscow.

  As we came to know the writers and learned more about their backgrounds, a unique commonality or biographic motif emerged. 1998 might well be designated "the year of literary daughters." Of the eight women, five are second-generation writers, whose parents (father, mother, or both) were well-known literary figures in their countries. Agnieszka Kolakowska began her career translating the work of her father, critic and scholar Leszek Kolakowski, who recently received Poland’s most prestigious literary award. The mother of Jurate Sucylaite was a famous dissident Lithuanian poet, and her travails and the ramifications of her political convictions shaped Jurate’s own writing. Han Kang’s parents are both well-known Korean poets and fiction writers. Ayeta Anne Wangusa is the daughter of Uganda’s famous novelist Timothy Wangusa, and by her account, her father’s regional background — certain geographic features identified with the senior Wangusa’s work — figures in Ayeta’s first novel. Though she is not a second-generation writer herself, Anastasiya Gosteva’s academic training in physics, which she shares with her father, shows as a noticeable influence in the philosophy and style of her first novel, Samurai’s Daughter. Erendiz Atasü traces her writing roots to two maternal lines preceding her. We are considering a future project that might feature this distinctive quality — of literary continuity and generational craftsmanship, a heritage of storytellers — from this year’s writers.

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 New Developments in 1998-99

The IWP’s reduction in funding led to reductions in staffing. The impact was felt most significantly in the areas of editorial work, secretarial support, community events, and publications. At present, the IWP’s outreach is provided by the video project.

  With the resignation of the editorial associate at the start of the schoolyear, the duties of editing and preparing writers’ work for classroom use, coordinating translations, and overseeing the publication of 100 Words were filled by research assistants. The editorial associate, Carolyn Brown, had completed much of the editorial work before she left but other duties and commitments had to be filled on short notice. Director Ungar assigned the graduate student assistants to fill the program’s staffing needs, and we acknowledge with deep appreciation the continuing support of the Graduate College, in particular, Dean Leslie B. Sims. The program also acknowledges the support of Assistant Dean Sandra Barkan in authorizing the services of an emergency appointee, Iowa Arts Fellow Gila Primak, to fill the short-term secretarial needs of the program during the spring 1999 semester.

  The IWP’s previous secretary, Jane Bradbury, moved to Kansas City in July 1998. The tasks of coordinating local field trips and providing logistic and technical support for the writers had previously augmented her secretarial and bookkeeping responsibilities; the three-quarter time position was cut back to half-time. The job was assumed for the fall semester by Mary Jones, who held a concurrent half-time position with Literature, Science and the Arts.

  The staffing for the IWP’s many 1998 activities was sustained by the remaining staff, consisting of the program associate, the audiovisual coordinator, the housing assistant, three research assistants, and five undergraduate work/study assistants. Professor Shelley Berc, on developmental leave, arranged the playwrights’ visits to the east coast. Professor Peter Nazareth (jointly appointed in the Department of English and in African-American World Studies) taught International Literature Today with program associate, Rowena Torrevillas.

  In short, while the administrative burdens were carried by the director and two fulltime staff members, a half-time secretary and the housing assistant, the implementation of the logistics were borne largely by graduate assistants Megan Buzzi, Jen Hofer, Cris Mattison, and Keith Knox (Peter Nazareth’s teaching assistant), supported by five work/study driver/clerks and audiovisual assistants. During the 1998 session, the fulltime staff members were program associate Rowena Torrevillas and audiovisual coordinator Lem Torrevillas; with housing assistant Mary Nazareth, they combined efforts for an equivalent of 46 years of work experience in the IWP: Rowena Torrevillas and Lem Torrevillas having begun work in 1985, and Mary Nazareth in 1976 — a work history that stood them in good stead when the session was at its busiest and program resources at their most challenging.

  New developments were instituted by Director Steven Ungar during the 1998 session. The first of these innovations sought to integrate the IWP further into the university’s academic life. The series of panel discussions is now a seminar offered for credit to University of Iowa students. The new class is designated Dialogues in International Literature. The weekly panel discussions, held on Wednesdays in the John C. Gerber Lounge (304 English-Philosophy Building) from 3:30 to 5:00, feature three to four writers and a faculty panelist. The moderator is Steven Ungar. These seminars are videotaped and rebroadcast on the local cable stations, where they are currently running on the University cable channel and the Iowa City Public Access television stations. A description of the seminar appears later in this report.

  The responsibility for community events, hospitality, and field trips were distributed among the staff. The opening and closing receptions were hosted by Steve and Robin Ungar at their home. The Ungars also organized an all-day trip along the Mississippi River from Dubuque to the Wisconsin border. The director also offered to organize a trip to Chicago, which scheduling difficulties precluded, although a number of writers expressed great interest in exploring the city.

  During the weekends, particularly while the Iowa weather remained clement, day-trips to local attractions were organized by staff, particularly by work/study assistant Jason Khongmaly and audiovisual coordinator Lem Torrevillas. They took groups of writers swimming in Coralville Lake and the Coralville Reservoir, on shopping trips to the outlet shopping center in Williamsburg and to the newly-opened Coral Ridge Mall (where writers watched movies at the multiplex). Smaller groups of writers, led by the adventurous Igal Sarna, visited the Kalona Mennonite/Amish community and the Amana Colonies, while Swiss rock-climber Emil Zopfi and his wife Christa explored local caves and the hills and visited the Swiss-immigrant community of New Glarus, Wisconsin.

  Seeking to bridge the past and solidify the future of the program, the director initiated receptions honoring the outgoing director Clark Blaise and program co-founder Hualing Nieh Engle. Program associate Rowena Torrevillas coordinated these the events with the entities where the receptions were held. The reception for Clark Blaise was hosted by First National Bank at the start of the session, in conjunction with the Bank’s annual reception for the IWP. The reception honoring Mrs. Engle was held toward the end of the program, and served also as the inauguration of a new project conceived by Steven Ungar: the Engle Reading Series. As envisioned by the director, the annual series would be used as a fund-raising occasion; the event would bring an IWP alumnus back to the program for a reading and a lecture each year, in honor of the program founders, Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle.

  The US Information Agency Program Officer, Audrey Annette Ford, who coordinates the IWP with the International Visitor Program in Washington, D.C., was invited to visit the program. She spent three days at the University of Iowa meeting with the writers, university administration and IWP staff, and conducting an evaluation session with this year’s USIA-supported participants. Steven Ungar had previously met with Ms. Ford twice during visits to the Agency in Washington, D.C. at the outset of his tenure.

  In the months since he assumed the leadership of the program, Steven Ungar has sought to establish and renew connections for the IWP. Working closely with the University of Iowa Foundation, he has visited with corporate and foundation supporters in Minneapolis and New York City, among them the Grotto Foundation and the Japan Foundation, and he continually seeks to solidify the program’s funding base. He also reached out to the program’s former participants, and during the middle of the session he sent a letter to the entire list of nearly a thousand alumni of the IWP, conveying his greetings and a status report on the program.

  One of the changes resulting from the reorganization of the IWP was the decision to suspend the publication of the program journal, 100 Words. Now in its sixth year since its founding by IWP fellows Rolf Hughes and Mark Shatunovsky, the journal increased its subscription base and sustained its partial funding from the University of Iowa Student Government and International Programs. Submissions to the five annual editions continue to arrive from many sources, through regular postage, electronic mail, and via fax. While the scope of 100 Words continues to be international, materials submitted by United States-based writers far outnumbered the entries received from abroad. With the journal’s increasing domestic success, a trend surfacing during the past two years indicates a somewhat disproportionate ratio between international and US-based submissions. Lacking the staff and financial support needed to sustain the quality of the journal, the program decided that Volume 6 would be discontinued until the form and staffing of future IWP publications is determined.

  The search for a new director is being completed. A search committee, headed by Prof. Ed Folsom of the Department of English, was convened at the start of the fall semester. The new director will be appointed to the faculty of Comparative Literature, in addition to possessing requisite background in creative writing and translation. The program is confident that the transition toward new direction will proceed smoothly and seamlessly, given the conscientious and firmly-grounded transition that is being provided by the current director.

 The IWP continues to be the threshold through which its writers step into international renown. The most recent successes of previous participants include reviews and excerpts in the New York Times and in the Times internet edition, of three books by Viktor Pelevin (Russia, 1996), Orhan Pamuk’s latest novel (Turkey, 1986), and books by Israeli authors Savyon Liebrecht (1990) and A.B. Yehoshua (1968-69). Liebrecht’s book, and one of Pelevin’s novels,were completed here. We are proud to have introduced them and their work to the United States.

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Ongoing Activities

The course, International Literature Today.

The class was developed in 1986 by Daniel Weissbort and Frederic Will, with eight students attending the first time it was offered. In the succeeding twelve years, the program has limited class size to forty, though it has proven so popular that special admission is granted to allow enrollment by as many as fifty upper-level students from a variety of disciplines. Several students have repeatedly taken the class over the years, a phenomenon explainable not only because of the unique attractions of firsthand experience with three dozen nationalities and cultures, but because the content of the class renews itself each year. The classes were held on Monday afternoons from September 7 through October 19, and most of the program members attended each session as well. A change of venue took place this year; in previous years classes were held on the first floor of the EPB, in lecture hall 107; in 1998, a more convenient location, 427 EPB, was provided for International Literature Today. Prof. Peter Nazareth, who co-teaches the course with Rowena Torrevillas, provides this summary on the class:

  The class had an enrollment of 48 students. There were six class sessions of 2 hours, held on Monday from 3:30-5:20. Translations of the work of each writer in the Program (not exceeding ten pages) were made available to the students the week before the writer was to speak in class. Keith Knox worked as a Teaching Assistant, distributing material and asking questions of the writers and the writing to stimulate the thinking of the students.

  At the end of the sessions, each student turned in a ten-page paper on the writing and/or writers of particular interest to the student. Most of the papers were brilliant analyses of the work of the writers. The IWP made photocopies of all the papers and circulated them among the writers. The writers were very impressed at how deeply the students had got into the work. Some of the writers were praised by all the students, while others were praised by some and found fault with by others, which is an indication of how much the writers and their work stimulated thought among the students. There was variety in the formats used, some students interviewing the writers and drawing on these interviews to interpret the work. Our judgment is that these were the best essays since the class was first offered in the early 1980s.

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 Weekly seminars, "Dialogues in International Literature."

 The panel discussions were offered for one credit hour, a new academic link forged by the director at the start of the semester. One student availed himself of the opportunity to attend the seminars for a semester hour’s credit, and he fulfilled the final requirement by submitting a ten-page exegesis of the seminar series.

Six seminars were held throughout the writers’ residency, on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5 PM in the John C. Gerber Lounge of the EPB. The topics for discussion were formulated by the program associate and the director during the preparatory phase of the program. The topics and a description of them were among the preliminary information data sent to each of the writers prior to their participation in the program, with the request that each person indicate her or his preference for the panel on which to speak. The composition of the panels was finalized during the orientation meeting held on the writers’ arrival. Preliminary meetings were held a week before each discussion, to finalize the issues and aspects each participant was planning to discuss. These sessions were videotaped, produced and edited in a format that rendered the discussions in broadcast quality, and are currently being aired regularly on local cable.

  All the seminars were moderated by Steven Ungar. The series opened on September 2 with "Creating Identities Through Literature," led by the director, with speakers Beatrice Kobow, Ayeta Anne Wangusa, Han Kang, and Mahmud Shuqair. September 9 featured a topic that was fairly new to the seminar series, "Book and PowerBook: Writing and Technology." The faculty panelist was Prof. R. Brooks Landon of the Department of English, and he guided discussion by a diverse group of panelists: Anastasiya Gosteva, Emil Zopfi, Phan Trieu Hai, and András Petöcz, who represented a range of technological experience and philosophical points of reference. Steven Ungar moderated the third seminar, which, quite appropriately for the topic, "Writing Short Fiction and Shorter Fiction: The Long and the Short of It," featured brevity in its panel line-up of Mahmud Shuqair and András Petöcz.

  "The Writer as Translator" on September 30, with faculty panelist and Translation Workshop director Daniel Weissbort," drew the largest group of speakers: Fabián Casas, Agnieszka Kolakowska, Germán Carrasco, Erendiz Atasü Sayron, and Beatrice Kobow. On October 7, Prof. David Hamilton of the Department of English, and editor of The Iowa Review, served as faculty panelist for "Literary Nonfiction." A lively discussion of that amorphous genre was staged by Bernardo Carvalho and Igal Sarna (who arrived in time to debate with Bernardo, despite Igal’s delayed return flight from Tel Aviv to Iowa City), and by U Pe Myint, who provided some historical background defining literary reportage. The final seminar was held at the International Center on November 11, following a reception hosted by International Programs. "Images of America," the culminating topic that sought to summarize the writers’ impressions and preconceived notions of the United States, was led by faculty panelist Ed Folsom, who responded to presentations by Emil Zopfi, Jurate Sucylaite, and Germán Carrasco.

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 Text and Context class.

Five sessions of this informal class were taught by Steven Ungar on Wednesdays at 11 in the morning in the Mayflower Conference Room. He integrated discussions of American culture and American idiom with the study of written selections taken from a variety of sources, including features from The New York Times. Approximately 12 writers attended the class regularly.

 Playwrights’ Activities.

Prof. Shelley Berc once again used her range of theatre contacts to provide the IWP playwrights with valuable experiences in New York and in Portland (Maine). She provides the following report on a successful project, which brought five IWP writers (with the travel coordination of research assistant Megan Buzzi) to have readings of their work staged in professional venues, and also provided a reunion with Hungarian writer András Nagy (IWP 1993). The project also represents the generous efforts of community volunteers, who provided hospitality for the writers in Portland.

  IWP Playwrights’ Readings in Portland.

 On October 24th through October 26th IWP writers Petösz, Kobow, Casas, Mukhina, Shuqair and former IWP fellow András Nagy were in residence for their readings at Portland Stage Company in Portland Maine. They were housed in Portland by members of the theater community. They rehearsed their plays with professional actors and directors that the theater provided. Opening night was a great success. The theater was full (about 250 seats) and the audience was extremely receptive. Artistic Director Anita Stewart received many compliments the next day. The IWP relation with Portland Stage Company is very solid (this is our third year of presentations) and pledged the continuation of the program. Portland Stage printed a program and The University of Iowa and the IWP were prominently mentioned and thanked.

  A great deal of the funding for this event came from the Council of International Visitors of Portland which hosted a special reception for the writers and helped arrange their housing.

 IWP Readings in New York.

 On November 2nd IWP writers Petösz, Mukhina and former IWP writer András

Nagy had readings of their plays at New York Theater Workshop. NYTW is one of the most important Off Broadway theaters in New York, having produced plays such as Angels in America and Rent. The IWP writers rehearsed their plays in the morning with professional actors provided by the theater and the readings were held in the afternoon as part of the theatre’s Mondays at 3:00 new play reading series. While the readings in Portland were directed to the general public, those at the NYTW were aimed exclusively at theater professionals — artistic directors, dramaturgs and theater agents. A total of 50 people attended the readings. The session was presented by Associate Director Linda Chapman and Artistic Director Jim Nicolla. After the reading there was a discussion and a questions and answers session. The playwrights were extremely happy with the results of this session and Ms. Mukhina (who has five plays running concurrently in Moscow theatres) had an interview with a prominent playwriting agent afterward. Several of the directors asked for copies of the plays to read and consider for production. The University of Iowa and the IWP were thanked by the organizers for making possible the event as well as being prominently mentioned in the playbill.

  Ms. Chapman and Mr. Nicolla were very happy with the results and promised to continue supporting and developing the project. After the readings, Martha Coigney, director of the International Theatre Institute/US office, had a dinner for the writers at the theatre followed by another discussion on international playwriting and common problems of the world theatre community. Forty people attended. Ms. Coigney provided free theatre tickets for the IWP writers to see New York theatre. The IWP acknowledges with great appreciation the contributions of these colleagues of Prof. Berc, who are prominent figures in American theatre.

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 The Translation Workshop.

Translation Workshop director Daniel Weissbort developed the pioneering interactive translation workshop, in which graduate students of translation work face-to-face with writers of the IWP to produce translations of the writers’ original texts in literary, colloquial English. We believe this is one of the only, and perhaps the only, institution that offers the opportunity for translators to confer directly with the authors. The translators do not necessarily work with the primary source language; in some cases, a rough English translation is produced by the author. Individual writers are matched with students in the class, and the translation process progresses throughout the semester, and occasionally the collaboration continues after the author has returned home. Issues in literary translation are discussed in conjunction with specific texts. Another stimulating aspect resulting from the class dynamic is the production of multiple versions in the translation of a single text, where several students offer individual interpretations of one selection. Eleven students were enrolled through the Program in Comparative Literature and the Department of English.

  The pairings for the Translation Workshop included Swiss fiction writer Emil Zopfi who worked with translation Chad Bennet; Russian playwright Olga Mukhina, with Michael Dumanis; Chilean poet Germán Carrasco, with Sarah Freeman; Vietnamese fiction writer Phan Trieu Hai, with Johannes Góransson; Korean author Han Kang, with Karen Kyung Lee; translator Carrie Messenger worked with Moldovan poet and novelist Vasile Gîrnet. Gila Primak, who works in three languages, translated the works of Russian author Anastasiya Gosteva and Israeli author Igal Sarna. Cheeni Rao worked with Burmese writer U Pe Myint, and also with Igal Sarna. The translations for Beatrice Kobow were shared by Carrie Messenger, Sarah Townsend, and Jason Vincz; Sarah Townsend also worked with Anastasiya Gosteva. Alexandra Rios worked with Argentinean poet Fabián Casas and with Turkish novelist Erendiz Atasü, and Jason Vincz forged a very successful collaboration with Hungarian poet András Petöcz. The involvement in translation was apparently a career-transforming experience for Chilean poet Germán Carrasco, who returned to Chile with the intention of translating an ambitious anthology of contemporary American poets.

  Research assistant and MFA candidate Jen Hofer assisted Professor Weissbort with the class, as did graduate research assistant Cris Mattison.

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 The Video Project.

Currently the IWP’s only source of public presence, the video project was developed over the past twelve years by audiovisual coordinator Lem Torrevillas. He has expanded the project’s coverage to include documentation of all writers’ activities, including field activities. With the acquisition of additional technology, the features include increasingly sophisticated visual production techniques, through the use of a nonlinear editing program. Despite an unusually rigorous work schedule, the IWP was able to provide additional video services to the writers, including producing a short film that was shown in Leipzig in November. Lem Torrevillas submits this account of the video project:

  We were able to tape the interviews conducted between staff and all the writers this year. In addition to producing the seminar series, we planned to augment the regular complement of individual half-hour interviews with additional shows featuring writers in conversation; these would be rendered in alternative formats, such as conversations one-on-one between writers, an interview style with which we have had previous success. These plans were not completely fulfilled because of the reduction in staffing; as one of the two remaining fulltime staff members, I assumed additional duties, including filling in for some of the tasks that had previously been routinely handled by a full time secretary. We also trained a willing and competent, but relatively new, crew of work/study assistants who provided crew services for the project, in addition to clerical support and driving.

  We taped all the panel discussions held in the John C. Gerber Lounge (304 EPB), as well as the final one held at the International Center near the end of the session. This particular recording was somewhat difficult owing to the fact that we had to transport all our equipment across the river and reconfigure our set-up and connections in an unfamiliar set. True to the nature of difficult serendipity, we discovered that the set looked very good on the screen because it was spacious and well appointed, and because we were able to execute our best lighting design from the high ceiling of the International Center Lounge.

  Three of the interviews were conducted along the bank of the Iowa River, and in a spot flanked by two trees in their full autumn foliage in the middle of the EPB parking lot.

  We assisted the German writer in writing, producing, shooting and editing a short film project, which was shown in the Leipzig Art Institute where she had an on-going production association. The project was very well received.

  The cablecasting of the IWP interviews and panel discussions started in late-September, and we’ve since then started receiving good feedback: one or two members of the IWP staff, as well as several of our writers, inform me that they have been approached by people in the streets who told them they had seen them on TV on numerous occasions.

  In particular, the panel discussion on "Literary Nonfiction" has been broadcast several times on Public Access TV, where two young technicians, a graduate student at the university and another a high school senior in Iowa City, recently asked permission to make copies of that show for their own use. I had a chance to review the master tape twice while making a dub copy of it, but the appeal of that particular show escapes me. We are pleased, however, at this further confirmation that the video project serves as an academic resource for the community.

  More than half of the writers received their own copies of their interview tapes while they were here, and the rest left money for the standards conversion and postage cost of sending the finished tapes to their home countries. Many of the copies have already been completed and mailed. They are rebroadcast in the writers’ countries, and thus reach a far broader audience than the local community which has year-round access to an archive that dates back more than a half decade.

  One of the newer aspects of the projects that I initiated this year was the music for the show. Our intro and outro theme has been with us for half a dozen years now, and it was time to add to our theme collection. Late in the summer summer last year I was able to convince a woodwind group to perform on camera, with the stipulation that I could freely use the classical music whenever there was a need for it. No fee was involved in that work, only that I promised to design and put together a show for the group that I would air on PATV. I also made a similar deal with a local jazz group in Iowa City.

  With the themes completed, I should be ready to draft our next highlight film this spring. I hope to submit this film to PBS in Des Moines, which has a standing offer to air any work I produce for the International Writing Program.

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 Publications and Translations.

Translated and edited materials for the class, International Literature Today, for distribution and use in readings were largely complete by the time Carolyn Brown resigned from her editorial associate position before the start of the session. The production of writers’ materials in the appropriate format, the reproduction of the writings, and the completion of translation tasks and editing were performed by graduate research assistant Jen Hofer, whose services were enlisted by director Steven Ungar through the College of Liberal Arts and the Graduate College. She was helped by Christopher Mattison, whose research fellowship was provided to Comparative Literature by the Graduate College. Teaching assistant Keith Knox assisted in the distribution of materials for the class.

  The responsibilities for editing volume 6 of 100 Words were put into the hands of Jen Hofer, who invested many additional hours in completing the edition on the theme, "Map," an issue supported by International Programs. Acting editor Jen Hofer and Assistant Editor Cris Mattison produced the issues on "Old," and "Night," the last issue being completed by Cris Mattison. The program secured the production help of work/study assistant Kari Bradley until the completion of Jen Hofer’s tenure during the first semester. Among those who served on the advisory board for the publication were Meg Buzzi, Johannes Goranssen, Carrie Messenger, Sarah Roberts, Prasenjit Gupta, Gene Tana (for "Night,"); Meg Buzzi, Robert Devlin, Hillary Gardner, Sarah Manguso, IWP writers Agnieszka Kolakowska and András Petöcz (for "Old"); and Carolyn Brown, Holly Carver, Meg Buzzi, and IWP writers Beatrice Kobow, Germán Carrasco and Ayeta Anne Wangusa (for "Map"). Cris Mattison was responsible for producing the IWP 1998 t-shirt, with a new logo design by Cheryl Jacobson.

  Because the IWP intends to sustain the high quality of program publications and its international scope, it was decided that the production of 100 Words would be suspended until adequate staffing is obtained and a decision on the future of program publications is determined by the new director. In the meantime, Rowena Torrevillas has been responding to queries from subscribers and returning submissions for the last two issues of the magazine, originally intended around the themes of "fable" and "she." Gila Primak, who joined the staff as an emergency secretarial appointee, has assumed the task of returning submissions and completing the distribution of the first two issues and the recently-completed, final issue appropriately entitled "Night."

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 Open-Mike Readings.

Prof. Peter Nazareth, adviser to international writers, provides the following report on an aspect of the program which proved to be vital to this year’s group, the weekly informal in-house workshop conducted on IWP writers’ works in progress. The Open Mike readings drew a faithful composite of writers throughout the session. Peter Nazareth reports:

  The Open Mike was held every Tuesday night from 7:30-9 p.m. in the Mayflower Conference Room. All the writers attended the sessions at some point or other, some of them coming to most of the sessions. One of the writers brought two "outsiders" to join in, that is, writers who were not in the IWP. Another visitor from Burlington, Iowa came on her own initiative. Teaching assistant Keith Knox read his work at one of the sessions and answered questions, providing the writers with the "black experience" in America. Writers read their work (each for about 30 minutes) and then intense discussions followed in which the writers participated.

 9/1: Ayeta Wangusa and Mahmud Shuqair read their work. Fifteen people attended. Among the active discussants were Vasile, Olga, Anastasiya, Hai and Pe Myint.

9/8: Erendiz Atasü, Igal Sarna and András Petöcz read their work. Sixteen people attended. Among the active discussants were Olga, Anastasiya, Mahmud, Bernardo, Beatrice, Fabian, German and Agnieszka. This was an excellent session.

9/15: Ayeta and Emil read their work, plus an English writer named Simon. Sixteen people attended, including outsiders. Among the active discussants were Anastasiya, Mahmud, Olga, Erendiz, and Beatrice.

9/22: I (Peter Nazareth) read Buket Uzuner's piece about living on the 8th floor, which she sent me. (Buket Uzuner was the representative from Turkey in 1996.) Beatrice Kobow read a long poem in English, twice at the request of the writers, a poem she wrote in English. Vasile asked me (Peter Nazareth) to read the English translations of his work, and then Luke, a visiting writer, read more of the poems. Everyone thought they were excellent poems. Among the other writers there were Olga and Anastasiya.

No records for 9/29.

10/6: U Pe Myint, Emil Zopfi and Kang read their work. Among the discussants were Erendiz, Ayeta and Hai.

10/13: Keith Knox read his fiction. Beatrice read one of his pieces again so people could compare the tone of the language. Twelve people were present. Igal was one of the most active discussants since this was a window into the "black experience" for him, including "black language."

11/3: Jurate Sucylaite read her work.

  Ghanaian author Kofi Anyidoho, whose residency at the IWP took place from mid-October through mid-November, had his work discussed as a featured reader.

  I read my work too, sometimes to get things going: but sometimes because I wanted to read with Ayeta. During one of the sessions, I read an extract from her father's long poem and the conclusion of my novel, The General is Up, to show how similar they were.

 Receptions, Field Trips, and Community Activities.

 The opening and closing receptions were held at the home of Steve and Robin Ungar, whose hospitality throughout the session included a day-long trip along the Mississippi River.

  As cited in the beginning of this report, the First National Bank of Iowa City (now Mercantile Bank) provided its traditional opening reception for the program, introducing the IWP writers to the community for the first time with a reception held at the Bank on September 10, at five in the afternoon. The event also included recognition of outgoing director Clark Blaise. Bank President Robert Sierk and his staff extended the warmest of welcomes to the program, a tradition valued deeply with each passing year.

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  Symmetry in program receptions and public acknowledgements took place nearing the session’s end, on November 9, with a reception honoring the program’s earliest direction, in the person of Mrs. Hualing Nieh Engle, IWP co-founder with her husband, poet Paul Engle. The reception was held at the Levitt Center for University Advancement, in the Center’s Wyrick Rotunda, and served as the occasion to inaugurate the Engle Reading Series.

  Hospitality toward the writers was offered throughout the semester by supporters and friends of the program. The Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities (CIVIC) held its annual picnic honoring the writers on a balmy late-summer evening at City Park. A day earlier, on September 15, International Programs hosted its annual reception for the writers, which also featured readings by IWP members and staff and the launching of the 6th edition of 100 Words with the issue on "Map." The traditional visit to farm of the Keith Hemingway family was foregone this year because of illness in the family, but the Hemingways were represented at the closing farm-visit event for the program. The program’s Thanksgiving dinner and culminating home hospitality was offered by good friends John and Allie Dane on November 8, whose generous feast was enhanced by the companionship of their friends and neighbors; the program was also fortunate to have the presence of USIA program office Audrey Ford at this event, as her evaluation visit coincided with the reception for Mrs. Engle and the Dane Farm visit. The closing seminar, "Images of America," also included a reception at the International Center, given by International Programs.

  Among the interdepartmental and community literary activities were a luncheon with the Association of University Women featuring IWP authors Hang Kang, Jurate Sucylaite, and Anastasiya Gosteva, and a meeting of the Mount Pleasant Scribblers, which also featured Jurate, Anastasiya, and Olga Mukhina. Emil Zopfi and his wife Christa visited the Swiss immigrant community of New Glarus, Wisconsin, where his visit received prominent coverage in the media, in part because he managed to trace a family link in the community there.

  One of the highlights each year is the tour of the facilities and world headquarters of Deere and Company in Moline, Illinois, which includes an afternoon ride aboard a steamboat, in the fabled manner of Mark Twain, on the Mississippi River. Program writers are particularly distinctive in the Iowa City environs following that trip, because of the John Deere caps that are welcome gifts in the autumn weather, and the tote bags in which battered manuscripts and newly purchased books or library research are borne around town.

During the weekends, the IWP staff, particularly Jason Khongmaly and Lem Torrevillas, took the writers out for relaxation. Nature hikes along Lake MacBride, a couple of swimming excursions in the Coralville Reservoir, shopping trips to the new mall in Coralville and to the Tanager outlet in Williamsburg, were among the informal field trips.

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  The writers also had opportunities to meet with contemporary American authors and to learn about publications in the United States. Director Ungar arranged for Prof. David Hamilton, editor of The Iowa Review, to hold a session, attended by all the writers, at the Mill Restaurant on October 14, called "Pizza and Publication." Prof. Hamilton introduced the group to the opportunities and the realities attendant upon the publications industry in this country.

  Numerous cultural opportunities were open to the writers throughout the semester. The program provided tickets to Hancher Auditorium’s presentations of the Broadway production, Forever Tango and the ballet "Dracula." Because the University of Iowa is holding a year-long commemoration of the Declaration of Human Rights, the writers had opportunities to listen to notable figures, among them talks by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and a concert by Joan Baez. The management of Hancher Auditorium also offered, with its customary generosity, tickets to such events as the Emerson String Quartet and the St. Petersburg State Symphony.

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 The Travel Project.

This vital component of the program coordinated by Writers’ Workshop graduate assistant Megan Buzzi, whose assistantship was provided, as throughout the previous decade and a half, by the Graduate College. Meg worked with the eighteen full term writers in planning travel itineraries for the two weeks of optional travel (October 20 through November 2, though some began their travels before or slightly after these dates). She liaised with the International Visitor Program’s designated program agency, the IIE (Institute of International Education); Angela Bond continued as the IIE program assistant administering the writers’ grants and travel. Meg also worked with the Meacham Travel Agency, particularly Meacham owner Elaine Shalla and her very helpful travel agents. The University Travel Office was the administrative entity for the travel project.

All the writers availed of the individual travel services offered, each taking three to six separate trips to different parts of the country. The writers gave talks, readings, or presentations at other schools, institutes, or theatres; they met with translators and prospective publishers, or with colleagues in their professional fields. Several conducted research or visited area studies in such schools as the University of California in Berkeley or Columbia University.

  Coordinating the travel was comprised of several components. Meg assisted the writers in securing travel within the allowable allocation, on airlines, by train, or overland on rented cars or interstate buses. She identified, located, and placed reservations for lodgings in each of the locations, a complex proposition requiring patience and resourcefulness in such urban areas as New York City, where writers’ per diem budgets were limited to $70 a day. Meg also helped Mary Nazareth arrange ground transportation, to and from the Mayflower and the Eastern Iowa Airport. Throughout the process, Meg worked through the various administrative levels involved in the travel process, securing trip numbers from the Travel Office, arranging reimbursements between the department and individual participants who availed of the university’s procurement card, adjusting the itineraries of several writers who made late changes. A total of 67 trips to other parts of the country (including 2 abroad) were arranged in the 1998 session.

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 Program Administration

   The interim director, Steven Ungar, stepped forward to take the helm of the program and learn the intricacies of the program operation in media res, right on the spot, just as the new program was about to start. With characteristic incisiveness and a judicious scrutiny of the facts, he worked with the reduced budgetary allocations and the unexpected changes in staffing. Going far beyond the role of caretaker for the program, Steve introduced innovations that included proposals for the Engle Reading Series, exploring new housing for the program, extending and solidifying the IWP’s funding base with visits to corporate sponsors and foundations based outside the state and with the USIA. He responded to various queries from program alumni with a mass mailing in midterm. He led program events, moderated public presentations, and hosted writers during their stay. While balancing his duties as head of Comparative Literature and professor in that department, he has been part of the search committee to identify a new director for the IWP; most significantly, he is responsible for shaping the new consortium of programs comprised of Film Studies, Comparative Literature, Translation, and the IWP, while coping with the massive administrative and staffing details attendant to structuring the new unit.

  Rowena Torrevillas is the Program Coordinator, and she manages the program’s activities. She handles the IWP’s administrative aspects, beginning with the nomination process through to the planning and execution of the program’s literary events. She is responsible for the budget and grant administration, coordinating with the USIA and other funding agencies; she liaises with university departments and other schools, arranges readings and appearances here and at other institutions, manages the travel project, oversees office staff, prepares grants and reports, organizes seminars and readings. She assists the director with communications and other aspects of program administration, and works as liaison with the community through her involvement with organizations such as the Council of International Visitors to Iowa Cities. She co-teaches the International Literature Today class, serves as moderator for public events, and conducts interviews with writers. Beyond schedules and paperwork, her goal is to see each session through to a harmonious, organic, and shapely whole, a challenge that evolves and renews itself with each incoming group of writers.

 Lem Torrevillas, the Audiovisual Coordinator, increased his program appointment commensurate with the output of the video project over the past year. Several years’ worth of shows he produced, including the latest, the 1998 session, are running concurrently on local cable television, proving to our writers that a certain immortality is guaranteed to them. The video project was enhanced this year with some vitally-needed editing equipment and software. The documentation now includes taping public readings and all public events such as the series of panel discussions, for rebroadcast. He is pursuing the logistics of CD-ROM technology to widen the distribution of the program’s voluminous archives, and is also expanding into cooperative ventures with other departments, notably those in international studies and the arts. The program is hoping that his work with the video project can be restored by the incoming director.

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   Mary Nazareth continues as the Housing Assistant. More than any other person on the staff, she has charge of the writers’ well-being, a job she has done for two decades with inimitable grace and generosity. The staff and the writers would be lost without her. Hers is a job that is defined as much by its flexibility and improvisational quality as by its steadfastness, and it is Mary’s good sense and sensibility that reconcile the tangle of paradoxes inherent in sheltering 34 residents (nineteen this year) along a single corridor.

   Peter Nazareth, Professor of English and African-American World Studies, is the program’s Adviser to International Writers. He and his wife, Mary, have the longest tenure on the IWP staff, since their association with the program dates back to the 1970’s when he himself took part in the IWP. He co-teaches the mini-course, International Literature Today, runs the open-mike readings, conducts radio and television interviews, and helps moderate talks and readings. Because he reads the participants’ individual works closely, he was asked to adapt the format of the Tuesday night open-mike readings, such that these informal readings could function as an in-house workshop where the writers discuss their own texts. His readings of the writers’ work and his leadership in the discussions are informed by an openness to the thinking behind the text, and the dialog he promotes is central to the program’s purpose.

  Prof. Shelley Berc, the program’s Theatre Consultant, was on a developmental research assignment during the fall semester to work on her research and writing. But she dedicated her contacts toward providing the playwrights with valuable experience in the theatre world in New York, and in the city theatre of Portland, Maine. With her husband, artist and graphic designer Alejandro Fogel, she traveled to other parts of the world on lecture assignments, notably Singapore, Australia, Italy, Turkey, and Israel, and while she was there, she visited cultural agencies on behalf of the IWP. The helpful contacts she has opened up include links with the Australian Aboriginal Council and the ministry of culture of the Republic of Georgia. She also teaches an increasingly popular creativity workshop for students at the University of Iowa.

  The duties of half-time program secretary were assumed by Mary K. Jones during the fall semester. The secretary keeps the books for the IWP, a task of escalating proportions in these years when grants are negotiated individually, and the funding for program support comes from multiple sources. Additional help was provided by work/study staff and research assistants in taking charge of the front desk, maintaining the mailing lists, assisting with manuscript preparation and the dissemination of program publicity. Mary left the University in early January to pursue employment opportunities in her home state of Minnesota. In mid-March, an emergency secretarial appointment was filled by Iowa Arts Fellow Gila Primak, who has been assisting with closure matters for the publication. Sarah Moeller of Comparative Literature provides valuable interdepartmental liaison help.

  The position of editorial associate was vacated when Carolyn Brown resigned at the end of August. She completed the bulk of the course material used in International Literature Today, securing (and in some instances providing) translations, and editing and formatting the texts before her departure. The work of editing 100 Words, the tasks of coordinating translations, and liaising with the Translation Workshop, were assumed by Jen Hofer and Cris Mattison, research assistants.

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  The research assistants in 1998-99 are Megan Buzzi, Jen Hofer, and Christopher Mattison. Meg is a first-year student in the graduate poetry workshop. Jen is a graduate of the Workshop and completed an MFA in comparative literature. Cris’s research assistantship services with the IWP were provided by Comparative Literature, where he pursues postgraduate studies. The IWP had the good fortune to have their services — the scope of their duties was described earlier — and to receive not only a high level of expertise but diligence and good spirit as well. Meg was Rowena’s right-hand person, to whom the travel project was assigned. She served as liaison for the Writers’ Workshop, organizing Prairie Lights readings, providing introductions and other emcee duties. She created the program’s monthly newsletter and helped coordinate fliers. She assisted individual writers with orientation needs, and gave full support during the constant times extra help was required. Julie Fall, our fourth-year work-study employee, provided office support, gave crew service to the audiovisual project, and drove the van. Jason Khongmaly is in his second year of work with the IWP; Ray Teresi and Mackenzie Soedt joined the staff as work-study employees assigned to the audiovisual project, and also did some of the clerical work. Kari Bradley was hired to help with 100 Words at mid-term. We owe the day-to-day execution of the program activities to these students. Their diligence, quickness to learn, and sunny good nature provided true staff support during a crucial time and a challenging era of change.

  Press releases and public relations services were provided by Winston Barclay, assistant director of Arts Center Relations, who attended all program events and each of the weekly staff meetings. His efforts were responsible for the participation of CASE Fellow Mark Davis of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Winston consistently widens the network for stories about the program and its writers, and his dedication to the program’s activities supports the conviction that the IWP publicity needs require a permanent and fulltime assignment.

We thank the many unseen, sometime unacknowledged, acts of kindness from friends and volunteers. These are the persons who step forward to offer a friendly word in the corridor or along the walkways of the campus, who put a human face to the Midwest, the attentive listeners in the audiences, the colleagues whose nominations result in long-lasting collaborations, the teachers who bring visitors into their classrooms, all who welcome the writers into the community.

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  Program Support

   The United States Information Agency, through the Group Projects Division of the International Visitor Program, provided grants for nine of the eighteen full-term participants. This was the thirtieth year that the USIA has supported the IWP with nominations and grants for distinguished writers to attend the program, and the high quality of the 1998 USIA participants attests to the Agency’s invaluable and unparalleled strength as an advocate for the world’s writers. In a year when federal funding for cultural exchange experienced a decline, the International Visitor Program’s continued sponsorship hold profound significance for the program. Such faithful continuity is attributed to the strong efforts of Ms. Audrey Annette Ford of the USIA’s Africa Desk, whose thorough and conscientious handling of the project assured us of the program’s most valuable access to writers abroad. Her patient and discerning leadership was instrumental in the USIA’s continuing support and the successful mounting of the 1998 program.

  The cultural affairs officers at the posts worldwide continue to play a most significant role in the success of each IWP program session. Of primary impact is the individual post’s decision to take part in the project by nominating a participant to the IWP. The allocation designated to the program from each post’s budget constitutes the IWP’s most crucial source of external support. Beyond the matter of fiscal structure, the selection of writers — whose outcome is unquantifiable from the outset, but produces the program’s harmonic dynamic — is dependent upon each cultural affairs officer’s discernment and astute judgment. The happy balance of this year’s writers, and their consistently high level of accomplishment, testify to the fine work done by each of the officers.

  We acknowledge the cultural affairs officers at the USIS in Moscow, whose double endorsement of the program provided us with two young writers of high talent, Olga Mukhina and Anastasiya Gosteva; the American embassy in Chisinau gave us another first, in the talents and energies of our first Moldovan author, Vasile Gîrnet. We take pleasure and pride in the continuation of representation from posts that have maintained a sturdy tradition in the program — Budapest (with poet András Petöcz), the West Bank (Palestinian playwright and fiction writer Mahmud Shuqair) and Buenos Aires, in cooperation with the Fundación Antorchas (represented by poet Fabián Andrés Casas) — as well as the sustained presence of recent or renewed representation from Vietnam (fiction writer Phan Trieu Hai), Turkey (author Erendiz Atasü Sayron) and Uganda (fiction writer and editor Ayeta Wangusa).

  The Office of International Visitors sent out cables and descriptive materials about the project, and facilitated the grants of these writers, which were then administered by the University of Iowa and the USIA’s designated agency, the Institute of International Education, primarily through the IIE’s Angela Bond.

  Among our most consistent and highly valued sources of support in recent years are the grants given to writers from Latin America, notably Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The Vitae Foundation (Vitae Apoio à Cultura, Educação e Promoção Social), through Mr. Hélcio Saraiva, General Manager, sent the talents of author and journalist Bernardo Teixeira Carvalho. The Fundación Andes, under General Manager Hernán Rodriguez, gave a well-utilized grant to poet Germán Carrasco. The Fundación Antorchas is currently working with the US Information Service in Buenos Aires to select, and in alternating years, to support a gifted writer from Argentina.

  We greatly appreciate the continuing generosity of cultural institutes whose participation extends for nearly a decade. The Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation, through the loyal and strong support of executive director Ms. Bluma Cohen, gave a full grant to Agnieszka Kolakowska. The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation, through coordination with the manager of the International Exchange Department, Roh Jae-sung, gave partial, cost-sharing support for Han Kang. The US-Israel Educational Foundation has an even longer history of participation in the IWP, and is instrumental in the presence of consistently luminous artists from Israel. Under the administration of deputy director Judy Stavsky, the IWP was the recipient of writer Igal Sarna’s vital participation.

  The Burma Project of The Open Society Institute gave a grant to Dr. U Pe Myint, through the good offices of director Maureen Aung Thwin and assistant Oo Shwe Zin.

  For a fourth year in succession, the IWP was honored with a grant from ArtsLink/Citizens Exchange Council Residencies. The immensely hardworking, enthusiastic, and diligent author Jurate Sucylaite represented Lithuania for a month’s residency at the IWP, through ArtsLink’s dynamic organization, headed by Susan Wyatt, with support from program manager Fritzie Brown and associate Cecilia Eguia, and with local assistance from coordinator Helmutas Sabasevidus of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Vilnius.

  Individual grants supported writers from Germany and Switzerland, and in both cases, these were initiatives begun in 1998. A grant for German participation in the IWP was provided by Joan Vander Naald Egenes, who honored us with a brief visit to meet the grantee, Beatrice Kobow. Beatrice stayed on for the second semester to pursue her studies in the Writers’ Workshop, through an exchange program between the Deutscher Literaturinstitut Leipzig (the German Institute at Leipzig) and the Writers’ Workshop. Under this arrangement, an annual exchange at each institute takes place for young graduate student writers; the DLL graduates would study at Iowa from September to June, and the Writers’ Workshop student would go to Germany from October to July. This exchange program was proposed by former IWP participant Josef Haslinger, and is currently administered by Burkhardt Speinnen of the DLL. The Swiss government provided support for the IWP’s first Swiss author, Emil Zopfi, who had applied independently for admission into the program. The Swiss embassy assisted in an itinerary of appearances for Emil in the Washington, D.C. area, and we are hopeful that the success of this initiative will establish the presence of excellent Swiss authors of Emil’s stature.

  The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE Foundation) provided funding for two writers from the Philadelphia Inquirer to each attend the IWP for a week. Mark Davis took part in the program this year; Susan Guerrero was nominated as well, but work obligations at the newspaper precluded her participation. We are very pleased that the University of Iowa is one of the few institutions to be selected as a site for National Media Fellowships. The efforts of Winston Barclay, assistant director of Arts Center Relations, yielded this benefit.

  The energies and perseverance of Sandra Barkan, Assistant Dean of the Graduate College, resulted in the participation of Ghanaian author Kofi Anyidoho. Through Dr. Barkan’s resourcefulness, funds were obtained from several sources, including the programs in African-American World Studies, Comparative Literature, International Programs and the IWP, to bring Prof. Anyidoho here for a month’s activities.

  The IWP recognizes the role of the university administration in the program operations. The Office of the Provost offered another year of augmentational funding, and we acknowledge the administrative leadership of Provost Jon Whitmore and Associate Provost for International Programs Michael McNulty. The College of Liberal Arts, under Dean Linda Maxson, provided administrative leadership and support. Guidance in financial and administrative matters were provided by budget officer Karna Wieck, accountant Sarah Tallman, and assistant for human resources and facilities and planning Diane Machatka. Executive Associate Dean Raúl Curto was a source of steady counsel in administrative matters. The College provided a fund, held jointly by the IWP and the Writers’ Workshop, to bring visiting authors to the campus; support for research assistant Jen Hofer came from the College.

  The IWP acknowledges the crucial element supplied for the past two decades by the Graduate College. Under the leadership of Dean Leslie B. Sims, the program has been given two quarter-time research assistants each year. In previous years — and most vitally in this year of reduced staffing — the graduate assistants have been given increasing responsibilities in the areas of publicity, coordinating readings, publications, and close involvement in writers’ activities. The research assistants provide a steady, reliable source of support and service, such that their presence has become indispensable, an institutionalized part of program operations. A living organism, which the IWP is, generally does not think about its hands and feet, though the awareness of their fully functioning value is felt at each busy moment of the program. We recognize with appreciation the continued generosity of the Graduate College which, over the years, has given graduate research assistantships to students in the Writers’ Workshop, Comparative Literature, translation, video art, theatre, and education. The RAs’ affiliation with the IWP has given them unique opportunities to acquire professional skills and international contacts, and we hope that these shared benefits will continue. The program also cites the assistance of Assistant Dean Sandra Barkan, who authorized the services of Iowa Arts Fellow Gila Primak for emergency secretarial work in the IWP during the second half of the spring semester.

  The University of Iowa Foundation administers the program’s private funds and offers guidance in matters of fund raising. Rich Wretman, Patt Cain, and Rebecca Podlin have been particularly helpful to Steven Ungar and Rowena Torrevillas. The Division of Sponsored Programs, under Assistant Vice President Brian Harvey, administers the program’s grants. Eugenia McGee has been a source of expertise and advice. Residence Services, under director Margaret Van Oel, with Vice President for Student Services Phillip E. Jones, provided administrative support in housing the writers at the Mayflower.

  We rely upon our cooperative relationship with other departments. International Programs continues its valuable collegial partnership. Associate Provost Mike McNulty is a source of friendly and dependable assistance. He was instrumental in extending a Stanley Foundation/UI Support grant to the IWP. Stephen Arum has given helpful suggestions in matters of housing. Colleagues in International Programs provide the activities that give writers access to forums such as the Association of University Women and the academic components of International Programs. We cite with appreciation Karen Chappell and her assistant Jocelyn Colloty, and Evalyn Van Allen-Shalash of the Provost’s office. The Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, under Prof. Jae-on Kim, has offered cordial support and hospitality.

  The Writers’ Workshop, under the direction of Frank Conroy, is the IWP participants’ crucial link with the writing currently being produced in this country. We especially value the permission granted to several of the IWP participants which enabled them to observe and — in two cases — to regularly attend Graduate Fiction and Graduate Poetry Workshops. Connie Brothers, the Workshop’s program associate, provides steady, shrewd, and perceptive insight, and her energies nurture the continuing joint ventures between our programs.

  Several IWP participants were interested in attending university classes. The Department of English, and its chair, Dee Morris, are always very helpful and welcoming toward our participants. The Program in Comparative Literature, particularly Professors Ruedi Kuenzli and Alan Nagel, allowed visitors (among them Germán Carrasco) to sit in on their classes. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese, as in previous years, arranged readings and lectures by the Latin American authors; the Program in African-American World Studies provided support for Kofi Anyidoho and invited writers into classes. Individual writers were invited to speak and meet informally with students in various international studies; the International Crossroads Community — comprised of students speaking French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese — invited the IWP to dinners at Hillcrest Hall on Thursday evenings, an event coordinated by student Elizabeth Meier.

  The management of Hancher Auditoriaum gave seats at cultural events, and we cite the generosity of Director Wally Chappell, assistant director Judith Hurtig, and group sales coordinator Joel Aalberts for this important facet to the writers’ experience.

  Support from the community was key during this year of transition. The management of Prairie Lights Books, Iowa’s premier book store, provided the services and venue for our Sunday Readings Series at Prairie Lights. The owner of Prairie Lights, Jim Harris, gave a gift certificate to each of the participants, a privilege gladly and well used. The Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities and the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council offered hospitality to the entire program and the opportunity for individual writers to address a community interested in international affairs. Tom Baldridge, executive director for both organizations, liaises actively with the IWP. Meacham Travel Service, under the leadership of Elaine Shalla, continues to be an invaluable and unequaled source of travel facilities; the patience and expertise of Elaine and her staff have constituted a major component in our logistics. We acknowledge with thanks the contribution offered by Elaine and Dennis Shalla and the outstanding work by their agency.

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  In summary, The University of Iowa supports the Program through staff salaries, office space, and locations for classes and public presentations, in addition to providing the operations budget in 1998 and helping find solution to defray the additional cost of housing. The College of Liberal Arts works with the Program director, and gives an annual allocation toward operations and campus facilities. The Graduate College provides research assistantships. The University of Iowa Foundation assists in administering funds to subsidize a portion of the IWP operations and the writers’ grants, and also helps us identify and maintain funding sources. Support services are given by university units such as the Travel Office, Student Financial Aid, and particularly the Arts Center Relations division of University Relations, a source of comprehensive, reliable assistance in disseminating Program information and liaising with other public information units outside the university. The Office of International Students and Scholars supplies the documentation necessary for the visitors’ travel; the Division of Sponsored Programs oversees contract negotiations and grant requirements with donors such as the ArtsLink Residencies, the Grotto Foundation, and the Lila Wallace Fund, and with major supporters such as the US Information Agency. The IWP continues its mission because of the unique collaboration of cultural institutes, of state funds, and federal, corporate, and individual resources. They bring Iowa to the world, and the world to The University of Iowa, as the IWP has done through the latter third of this century.