IWP Staff

Kelly BEDEIAN received a BA degree in Linguistics from the University of Iowa, after which she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Kelly went on to work on a variety of professional development and exchange programs as a Program Manager at CONNECT/US-RUSSIA, a non-profit organization based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2001 Kelly returned to life overseas, working with the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) first as a Program Manager for the Community Connections program then later in a dual role as the Country Manager for the IREX/Armenia office and the Regional Manager for the Internet Access and Training Program in the Caucasus Region. Kelly joined the IWP staff in 2004.

Nataša ĎUROVIČOVÁ grew up in Czechoslovakia and Sweden. She has a BA in Drama and Film from University of Lund, a MA in English from University of California at Santa Barbara and an ABD in Film Studies from UCLA. She divides her time between editing, teaching, scholarly work and translating. With Kathleen Newman, she has co-edited World Cinemas, Transnational Perspectives (Routledge, 2009).

Kecia LYNN is a native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She received a BA in English from Case Western Reserve University in 1987 and an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2007. Between degrees, she lived in Chicago and worked in the information technology industry. Her prose has appeared in Black-Eyed Peas for the Soul and Ducts, and she wrote and read a personal narrative that aired on WBEZ-FM as part of the yearly multimedia public affairs series Chicago Matters. She was also the host of “Conversations from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop,” a television show airing monthly on the Big Ten Network that featured one-on-one interviews with well-known fiction writers. Guests included Michael Cunningham, Marilynne Robinson, Ethan Canin, and Yiyun Li.

Peter NAZARETH, from Uganda of Goan descent, is Adviser to Foreign Writers. He has published several books of fiction and criticism, including the novel In a Brown Mantle. Educated at Makerere University and Leeds, he is Professor of English and African-American World Studies. His course, Literatures of the African Peoples, received the Distinguished Independent Study Course Award from the National University Continuing Education Association. His second novel, The General Is Up, was reprinted by TSAR Books, Toronto. A collection of critical essays on the work of Ngugi is forthcoming. His work has been translated into Hungarian, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Bengali, Hebrew, Arabic, Serbo-Croatian, Portuguese, and Konkani. He teaches a widely-publicized course on Elvis as Anthology at the University of Iowa.

Melissa SCHIEK recently moved to Iowa after living for twenty-three years on the island of Maui. She has worked in many fields, from teaching to office management. She now lives in the Kalona area, and is pleased to have joined the administrative team of the International Writing Program.