You know you are a writer because you write even when it's not an assignment for school, because you read insatiably and aspire to write books as amazing as the ones that make you do that reading/walking shuffle to dinner, because hours slip by unnoticed when you engage your imagination. You write because there is nothing in the world like the feeling you get when you finally finish that poem or short story. You write because it's fun. You write because you have to. Come meet others like you and share your work at one of the most exciting places to write: the University of Iowa, home to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the International Writing Program, and the Center for the Book.

All writers know that writing is a continual process of revising, re-viewing, our work. Several things can catalyze that process: having blocks of time simply to focus on writing and nothing else; meeting peers with whom we can share ideas and discuss challenges; and finding teachers who can help us get to new ways of seeing. The Studio is not just a place, but a writing community in which you and your writing can grow.

Writers themselves, our faculty and staff have concrete ideas about how you can make your own writing more successful. Come to the Iowa Young Writers' Studio and see what a difference two weeks of intensive focus can bring to your work.

We are now offering two sessions, and we look forward to welcoming more students from across the country and beyond. I hope you are one of them!

Stephen Lovely, Director

Stephen Lovely graduated from Kenyon College and from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he taught literature and fiction writing. He has worked as a unit clerk in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, as an administrator in the University of Iowa's Interdisciplinary Program in Literature, Science & the Arts, and as an accountant in the UI Center for Media Production. He is the winner of the 2004 Dana Award for the Novel and a 2006-7 James A. Michener/Copernicus Society of America Award. His first novel, Irreplaceable, was published by Hyperion/Voice in February, 2009.

You can learn more about Stephen and his work here.