The International Writing Program (IWP) is a writing residency for international artists in

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, fifth-most populous c ...

, United States. Since 2014, the program offers online courses to many writers and poets around the world. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,500 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 150 countries. Its primary goal is to introduce talented writers to the writing community at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

, and to provide for the writers a period of optimal conditions for their creative work. Since 2000, the IWP has been directed by poet and journalist Christopher Merrill.

History

The IWP was founded by Paul Engle and

Hualing Nieh Engle Hualing Nieh Engle (11 January 1925 – 21 October 2024), née Nieh Hua-ling (), was a Chinese novelist, fiction writer, and poet. She was a professor emerita at the University of Iowa. Early life and education Nieh Hua-ling was born on 11 Janu ...

as a non-academic, internationally focused counterpart to the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...

. Under the Engles' guidance, hundreds of writers came to Iowa, particularly from parts of the world where literary and personal freedom was often restricted. During the 1970s and 1980s the program's reach towards nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe expanded significantly. In 1979 the Engles coordinated a "Chinese Weekend", one of the first significant meetings of writers from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora since

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

. For their efforts to connect writers worldwide and to promote international understanding, the Engles were nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

in 1976. Hualing Nieh Engle and Paul Engle co-directed the IWP until 1977, after which Engle retired and Hualing continued as sole director. She retired in 1988, and currently serves as a member of the IWP Advisory Board. Other past directors include Fredrick Woodard (1988), Clark Blaise (1990), Steven Ungar (1998), and Sandra Barkan (1999).

Current activities

The primary residency, which takes place each fall, offers writers the opportunity to participate in American literary, academic, and cultural life through talks, lectures, readings, screenings, stage performances, school visits, and travel, while providing time for personal writing and creative work. University of Iowa students can take several classes built around the work and presence of the IWP residents. Literary translation is an integral part of the program's mission. At the time of Hualing's retirement, two volumes of selected IWP writings had been compiled under the title ''Writing From The World'', in addition to another collection, ''The World Comes To Iowa'', and more than a dozen individual volumes in the Iowa Translation Series. Today, the IWP supports 91st Meridian, an online literary journal, and the book serie
91stM Books
housed at the independen
Autumn Hill Books
In recent years the program has broadened its efforts to promote international connections among writers by organizing a variety of events, some of which take place outside the United States. Among these are: *Reading tours of American authors in the Middle East and other regions. *International colloquia on current cultural topics *Life of Discovery, a multi-year artist exchange program with members of Chinese minority groups *Between the Lines, a program bringing high school students from Arabic-speaking countries and Russia to Iowa to practice creative writing alongside American students

Funding

A major source of funding for writers attending the IWP is the U.S. Department of State, and the program's administration is supported by the University of Iowa. The IWP also administers grants for writers sponsored for their residency by private and public cultural organizations in the United States and abroad.

The IWP in literature and film

The IWP itself has been featured in a number of literary works, including: *''Memories of Light and Shade—Part 1'', a serial novel by

Sunil Gangopadhyay Sunil Gangopadhyay or Sunil Ganguly (September 7, 1934 – October 23, 2012) was an Indian poet, novelist, short story writer, and critic. He played a key role in modernizing Bengali poetry and co-founded the 1953 Avant-garde, avant-gra ...

, published in the Bengali journal Urhalpool *''The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English'', a work of criticism by Minae Mizumura *"Writing in the Mirror of the River", a short story by Mohamed Magani, published in 91st Meridian In 1973, the

United States Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999. Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...

funded a documentary about the IWP, ''Community of the Imagination''.

Alumni

Among the program's alumni are: * Rumena Bužarovska (Macedonia, 2018) * Homeira Qaderi (Afghanistan, 2015) * Karen Villeda (Mexico, 2015) * El Jones (Canada, 2015) * Abhay K (India, 2015) *Oscar Ranzo (Uganda, 2013) *Ali Al Saeed (Bahrain, 2013) * Karim Alrawi (Canada/ UK/ Egypt, 2013) *Martin Dyar (Ireland, 2013) *Teemu Manninen (Finland, 2013) *Dmitri Golynko (Russia, 2013) * Whiti Hereaka (New Zealand, 2013) *Lee Chi-leung (Hong Kong, 2013) *Sridala Swami (India, 2013) * Rochelle Potkar (India, 2015) *Roland Rugero (Burundi, 2013) *Yui Tanizaki (Japan, 2013) *

Dimitris Lyacos Dimitris Lyacos (; born 19 October 1966) is a Greek writer. He is the author of the ''Z213: Exit, Poena Damni'' trilogy and the composite novel ''Until the Victim Becomes our Own''. Lyacos's work is characterised by its genre-defying form and th ...

(Greece/Italy, 2012) *Taleb al Refai (Kuwait, 2012) *

Jana Beňová Jana Beňová (born 1974) is a Slovakian poet and novelist. She studied at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Bratislava, graduating with a degree in dramaturgy in 1998. She wrote for a number of local publications, including ''Dotyky'', ' ...

(Slovakia, 2012) * María Sonia Cristoff (Argentina, 2011) * Dorothy Tse (Hong Kong, 2011) *Ghada Abdel Aal (Egypt, 2010) *Ian Rosales Casocot (Philippines, 2010) * Hon Lai-chu (Hong Kong, 2010) *Dung Kai-cheung (Hong Kong, 2009) *Tahereh Saffarzadeh (Iran, 1967) * Daniachew Worku (1967) * Devanur Mahadeva (India) * Maria van Daalen (Netherlands, 1995) * José Donoso (Chile, 1968, 1991) * Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina, 1969) * Janusz Głowacki (Poland, 1970, 1986) * Arnošt Lustig (Czech Republic, 1970) * Lin Hwai-min (Taiwan, 1970) * Luisa Futoransky (Argentina, 1970) * Marin Sorescu (Romania, 1971) * João Ubaldo Ribeiro (Brazil, 1972) * Ágnes Gergely (Hungary, 1973) *

Ashokamitran Ashokamitran (22 September 1931 – 23 March 2017) was the pen name of Jagadisa Thyagarajan, an Indian writer regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-independent Tamil literature. He began his prolific literary career with the p ...

(India, 1973) * Virginia R. Moreno (Philippines, 1973) *

Peter Nazareth Peter Nazareth (born 27 April 1940) is a British literary critic and writer of fiction and drama. Life Peter Nazareth was born in Uganda. He is of Goan descent, and his mother's family was earlier based in Malaya-Malaysia-Singapore. He was edu ...

(Uganda, 1973) * Bessie Head (Botswana, 1977) *

Edwin Thumboo Edwin Nadason Thumboo B.B.M. and Bar, PJG (born 22 November 1933) is a Singaporean poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore. Thumboo graduated in English from the University of Malaya in 19 ...

(Singapore, 1977, 1986) * Eavan Boland (Ireland, 1979) * Totilawati Tjitrawasita (Indonesia, 1980) *

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

(Ireland, 1980) * Emmanuel Hocquard (France, 1980) * Earl Lovelace (Trinidad, 1980) * Wang Meng (China, 1980) * Anton Shammas (Israel, 1981) * Ding Ling (China, 1981) * Kenji Nakagami (Japan, 1982) *

Liu Binyan Liu Binyan (; 7 February 1925 – 5 December 2005) was a Chinese author, journalist, and political dissident. Many of the events in Liu's life are recounted in his memoir, ''A Higher Kind of Loyalty''. Early life Liu Binyan, whose family hails ...

(China, 1982) *

(India, 1982) * Dubravka Ugrešić (Yugoslavia, 1983) *

Lorna Goodison Lorna Gaye Goodison (born 1 August 1947)Ring, Deborah A. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 11 September 2013. is a Jamaican poet, essayist and memoirist, a leading West Indian writer, whose career spans four decades. She is now Professor Emerita, English ...

(Jamaica, 1983) * Sebastian Barry (Ireland, 1984) *

Takashi Hiraide is a Japanese poet, critic, book designer, and professor. Hiraide's most celebrated work, published in English, is ''The Guest Cat'' (2014). ''The Guest Cat'' made the New York Times best-seller list in the same year it was published in English, ...

(Japan, 1985) *

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him ...

(Turkey, 1985) *

David Albahari David Albahari (, ; 15 March 1948 – 30 July 2023) was a Serbian writer. Albahari wrote mainly novels and short stories in the Serbian language. He was also an established translator from English into Serbian language, Serbian. He was a member of ...

(Yugoslavia, 1986) * Edvard Radzinsky (Russia, 1987) * Li Ang (Taiwan, 1987) * Bei Dao (China, 1988) *

Slavenka Drakulić Slavenka Drakulić (born July 4, 1949) is a Croatian journalist, novelist, and essayist whose works on feminism, communism, and post-communism have been translated into many languages. Biography Drakulić was born in Rijeka, Socialist Republic of ...

(Yugoslavia, 1988) * Etienne van Heerden (South Africa, 1990) *

Mircea Cărtărescu Mircea Cărtărescu (; born 1 June 1956) is a Romanian novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic, and essayist. Biography Born in Bucharest in 1956, he attended Cantemir Vodă National College during the early 1970s. During his sc ...

(Romania, 1990) * Gabriela Adameșteanu (Romania, 1990) * Can Xue (China, 1992) *András Nagy (Hungary, 1993) * Sue Woolfe (Australia, 1994) *

Ranjit Hoskote Ranjit Hoskote (born 1969) is an Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator. He has been honoured by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, with the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award and the Sah ...

(India, 1995) *

Victor Pelevin Victor Olegovich Pelevin ( rus, Виктор Олегович Пелевин, p=ˈvʲiktər ɐˈlʲeɡəvʲɪtɕ pʲɪˈlʲevʲɪn; born 22 November 1962) is a Russian fiction writer. His novels include ''Omon Ra'' (1992), ''The Life of Insects' ...

(Russia, 1996) * Rodrigo Fresán (Argentina, 1996) * Tibor Fischer (UK, 1997) * Nu Nu Yi (Burma, 2000) * Martín Rejtman (Argentina, 2000) *Hwang Ji-woo (Korea, 2000) * Thu Maung (Burma, 2001) *Khin Lay Nyo (Burma, 2001) *

Etgar Keret Etgar Keret (; born August 20, 1967) is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. Early life Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child to parents who survive ...

(Israel, 2001) * Joy Goswami (India, 2001) * Su Tong (China, 2001) *Xi Chuan (China, 2002) * Edward Carey (UK, 2002) * Yu Hua (China, 2003) * Minae Mizumura (Japan, 2003) * Gábor T. Szántó (Hungary, 2003) * Mo Yan (China, 2004) * Doris Kareva (Estonia, 2006) * Kiran Nagarkar (India, 2007) * Meena Kandasamy (India) * Chen Yingzhen (Taiwan, 1983) * Ru Zhijuan (China, 1983) * Wang Anyi (China, 1983) * Wu Zuguang (China, 1983) Many alumni presentations, including audio and video, have been archived.

Notes and references

External links

International Writing Program main site

International Writing Program Collection
{{Authority control 1967 establishments in Iowa