A New Look for a New Year: Introducing the IWP's New Website

The International Writing Program is proud to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website. Here you can find information about the IWP’s many programs and initiatives in one (if we may say so) attractive location: iwp.uiowa.edu

Through strategic partnerships with many international organizations, and frequently with the support of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the IWP fosters   relationships and understanding between international and American writers; provides joint distance learning opportunities for American and international students; and publishes materials that bring established and new international voices to a broad audience.

While the URL remains the same, you’ll notice that the redesigned site makes it easier than ever for an extended network of readers, writers, teachers, and students to explore the cache of literary work, presentations, interviews, films, news items, and collaborations accumulated over the IWP’s 45-year history.

Here’s a preview of what you’ll find on the new online home of the IWP:

• Residency:

Since 1967, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa has been dedicated to welcoming professional writers from across the globe to Iowa City in order to encourage creative engagement, collaboration, and fellowship. Under the Residency tab, you will find listings for 45 years of IWP participants, organized as a searchable database.  You will also find information about our fall residency programming, important forms for residents, and a list of frequently-asked questions for potential nominees and nominators.

• IWP Courses:

The International Writing Program offers classes at the University of Iowa as well as distance learning courses that put American writers and students in direct contact with writers and students worldwide, from Spain, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates to Lebanon and Scotland.  On-campus courses as well as distance learning opportunities will be announced here.

• Publications:

Under the Publications tab, you’ll find 91^st Meridian, the program’s online literary journal, as well as information about the 91^st Meridian book series published by Autumn Hill Books. The newest offering in the series is a free e-book, How to Write an Earthquake, in which sixteen Haitian writers respond to the 2010 disaster in English, French, and Creole.  Several new volumes are forthcoming.

• Programs:

Each year, the IWP administers a number of special programs, including a international reading tours and creative exchange programs. Additionally, since 2008, the IWP has been bringing together high school students from the U.S. and abroad in a program called Between the Lines. A unique creative writing summer initiative at the University of Iowa, BTL will mark its fifth summer in 2012, hosting a group of young writers from the Middle East and, for the first time, a group from Russia. This is just one of the many initiatives that you’ll find under the Programs tab.

• Archives:

In 45 years of continuous programming, the IWP has amassed a rich archive of original essays, panel papers, short stories, novel excerpts, poems, photographs, interviews, and recordings of older audio and video presentations, all available under the Archives page.

We hope you’ll agree that our new website is an important tool for wide-ranging reading and research, a gateway to new ways of thinking about creative writing’s global potential, and an inspiration for ways of engaging across literary borders.

And now, onward.

Christopher Merrill

Director

The International Writing Program