DIstance Learning Courses

The IWP’s Distance Learning Creative Writing Program (DLCWP) strives to:

  • provide creative writing programming to less accessible world regions
  • create new programs that promote cultural exchange between students at the University of Iowa and the rest of the world
  • where possible, provide support for already-existing IWP programming by using technology to reach writers and audiences worldwide

As the IWP’s distance learning initiative, the DLCWP seeks to maintain a visible, ongoing, and active IWP presence in the world. The DLCWP uses the flexible nature of its programming style to collaborate with multiple world regions on a variety of projects, hosting courses in locations such as Jordan, New Zealand, Scotland, India, Egypt, Lebanon, Spain, and several others. Programs are ongoing all year long. It is the branch of the IWP which can deepen connections made during other IWP programs and give new collaborators an immediate and positive experience with the IWP.

DLCWP programs have developed in a variety of categories:

  • One-off Events: These events link UI with an international location for one event—anything from a themed discussion to a literary reading, or even a one-time poetry workshop. In the future the IWP hopes to open one-off readings to Iowa City residents as well.
  • Digital Video Conference Series: These are short (five-week) creative writing classes designed to give students a first experience with creative writing. Each session is held in real time via UI’s virtual conference center and led by a local instructor.
  • Online Video Workshops: These are intermediate and advanced level genre-specific workshops led by experienced instructors. These workshops are designed to reach young writers who do not have as much access to creative writing coursework, but who have had experience with writing and want to keep developing their craft.
  • University of Iowa ICON Courses: These are themed literary courses offered through the university and paired with another group in another world region. These are regular, semester-long courses designed to promote cross-cultural exchange through reading themed materials as a group and through shared creative writing activities.
  • Custom Websites: These are secure and individualized online locations developed for the purpose of maintaining contact with partnered groups and students met on in-person reading-teaching tours.

Fall 2011 Distance Learning courses

Happening Now... (more)

  • Nigerian playwright, novelist, and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka gave a public lecture on November 6 as part of the closing festivities of the 2011 IWP residency.

  • The newest release from 91st Meridian Books: How to Write an Earthquake, a trilingual French-Creole-English e-anthology of poetry and prose responding to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

  • The IWP's 2010 Annual Report is available for viewing (PDF / SWF).

  • The Norwegian Writers' Association has awarded its 2011 free expression award to Ma Thida (IWP 2005). She is its first-ever recipient from Burma.

  • In the first issue of the independent, English-language Iraq Literary Review, edited by Baghdad-based critics Soheil Najm (IWP 2009) and Sadek. R. Mohamed: 100+ pages of criticism, poetry, fiction, translations…