Iowa City Public Library Presentations
10/26/07
"Writing as Philosophy and Craft"
Elena Bossi
Chris Chryssopoulos
Beaudelaine Pierre
Penelope Todd
Alexander Ulanov
10/12/07
"Writing from Where I Stand"
Nirwan Dewanto
Simone Inguanez
Khaled Khalifa
Kei Miller
James Na
10/5/07
"Age of Migration, Diaspora, Exile (II)"
Kavery Nambisan
Sasa Stanisic
Hana Andronikova
Peter Kimani
9/28/07
"Most Important Book . . . (II)"
Ayurzana Gun-Aajav
Khet Mar
Ra Hee Duk
Al-Mustaqeem Radhi
9/21/07
"An Age of Migration, Diaspora, Exile"
Aziz Nazmi Shakir-Tash
Ksenia Golubovich
Verena Tay
Tom Dreyer
9/14/07
"Most Important Book on my Bookshelf"
News
June 2008
A play by Verena TAY (IWP 07), first written as part of the program's 40th anniversary "Global Play" experiment, was just performed at the Short+Sweet Festival in Singapore. She also has an essay on writing in a recent issue of FEER.
This summer, Ezzat Goushegir (IWP 1990) is having two short plays staged in Chicago and in Denver.
May 2008
The Open World Leadership Center honors Hugh Ferrer, associate director of the IWP in the Library of Congress.
April 2008
The headline in April 22 Saudi Gazette, "Americans amaze Saudi literati," tops the account of the IWP Middle East Reading and Lecture Tour's visit to Jeddah.
A friendly and thoughful write up of Etgar Keret (IWP '01) featured in a recent Guardian Unlimited Arts blog.
Harry Clifton (IWP 85) is the winner of the 2008 Irish Times Poetry Now Award.
www.livehopelove.com, a recent project of Kwame Dawes (IWP 86), gives a face, and voice to people living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.
The novel Mahmoud Abu Hashhash (IWP 02) wrote of the siege of Ramallah during the year he visited Iowa has been published in French as Ramallah, mon amour by Galaade Editions
In the most recent issue of Far Eastern Economic Review, Sarge Lacuesta (IWP 07) writes movingly about inter-generational trade in living space.
Two 'Iowa-centric' literary events were organized in Europe in April: the Athens International Literary Festival, thanks to Chris Chrissopoulos (IWP '07), and the "Little Iowa" encounter, part of the Europoetica International Poetry Festival in Budapest, thanks to Istvan Geher (IWP 07).
March 2008
KIM Reon (IWP ‘07) contributed to the most recent issue of Far East Economic Review with an essay on owning a house of her own.
The most recent book by Roberto AMPUERO (IWP ‘96), Los Amantes de Estocolmo (Planeta, 2004), is appearing in Croatia this spring, and Serbia this fall.
February 2008
The IWP joins with friends, colleagues and alumni in wishing Kazuko Shiraishi (IWP, '73) a happy 77th birthday. A photo from the event held recently in Tokyo includes Kazuko (center), Burt Blume (poet and former IWP staff member--far right), and other guests.
Michael Augustin (IWP 1984) has been featured in a “Poem of the Week” post on The Guardian blog
January 2008
Yvonne Ouwur (IWP 05) is among Kenyan writers reflecting on the current state of their domestic affairs. The collection "Concerned Kenyan Writers: Presenting a human face to the unfolding story in Kenya" was gathered under the auspices of Summer Literary Seminars/Russia/Kenya"
Peter Kimani (IWP 07) provides an analysis of the political crisis in Kenya on the UK-based media site Open Democracy and this article in the Guardian.co.uk.
Alumni Announcements
Rasiah Halil (IWP, 1995) has conveyed the sad news that the Malay writer Masuri Bin Salikun (IWP, 1986) has passed away this year.
Vivienne Plumb (IWP, 2004) is working on a new series of poems about a historic missionary house in New Zealand. In addition, she is collaborating with Adam Wiedemann (IWP, 2004) on a joint poetry collection in English and Polish, and with Rajeevan Thachompoyil (IWP, 2004) on an anthology of New Zealand poetry for South Indian readers.
Sukrita Paul Kumar (IWP, 2002) is Contributing Editor for the current issue of the literary journal Muse India. The issue is dedicated to modern Hindi literature.
Iowa City welcomes back Mani Rao (IWP, 2005) who returns in February 2006 as the International Programs' Writer-in-Residence.
Tang Ying (IWP, 2004) has been made director of the first non-state-owned theatre in Shanghai and has already brought to the stage the physical work, "Tongue's Memory of Home," by Zhang Xian (IWP, 2004). Tang Ying will publish two novella collections in 2006 and is also at work on a new novel.
Ahmed Alaidy (IWP, 2004) is having a great year. The English version of
Being Abbas Elabd may be released as early as next fall from The American University in Cairo press. A movie he has co-writen will be filmed early next year. A comic strip he helped author has recently been resurrected and found a new audience. In November and December he will participate in the International Writers' Workshop in Hong Kong. And his publishing house early this year published Pahlaniuk's Fight Club. Ahmed writes, "Maybe we'll arrange for Chuck to attend next year's book fair." Here's hoping.
Sadly, word has reached us of the death of India's Nirmal Virma (IWP, 1977). Dilip Chitre (IWP, 1975) has this appreciation.
We regret to announce the death of Aurel-Dragos Munteanu (IWP, 1970-71), whose battle with cancer ended May 30, 2005. Mr. Munteanu was a fiction writer, the Romanian representative at the UN after the Ceaucescu regime was overthrown, and later the Romanian Ambassador to the US. In his memory we are posting a 1971 interview he gave to the Cedar Rapids Gazette and an article from the New York Times about his first days as Romanian Ambassador. A website dedicated to his work can be accessed here.
Yu Hua's (IWP, 2003) new novel Brothers is receiving good reviews in China. He had suffered ten years of writer's block on the project and could not complete the manuscript until his return home after the 2003 residency.
Congratulations! to Narlan Teixeira (IWP, 2002) on receiving a full scholarship to pursue his Master's Degree at The University of New Mexico.
Update: And the good news keeps coming for Narlan: He has now won the Media-Poetry Award.
Julio Monteiro Martins (IWP, 1979) has written to say he will be guiding creative writing workshops in Peralta, Italy, in collaboration with Da Vinci Capers Studios. Julio is the founder of the creative writing school Scuola Sagarana in Lucca: http://www.davincicapers.com/studio.html#writing