5Q Interviews

Kaylor smiling

5Q Interview: Bethany Kaylor, MFA candidate in the Nonfiction Writing Program

Wednesday, May 14, 2025
"Giving myself permission to experiment with something new—like writing an essay in the form of dictionary entries modeled after Bob Flanagan's The Book of Medicine—is so exciting and invigorating."
connor at a lake

5Q Interview: Connor French, Undergrauate in Cinema and Screenwriting Arts

Monday, May 5, 2025
"I knew in high school that I wanted to study Cinema and Screenwriting, so I was looking for a university with a rigorous writing program, in a location that would foster my love for art."
Emma Athena Murray headshot

5Q Interview: Emma Athena Murray, MFA Candidate in Literary Translation

Tuesday, April 29, 2025
"I was thrilled to come to the University of Iowa and join the awesomely diverse writing communities here (poets! novelists! essayists! comic writers!)"
kendin portrait in front of art

5Q Interview: Kendin Scheitlin, a UI Undergraduate Majoring in Cinema

Thursday, April 24, 2025
"Being able to create art or write about something that directly relates to the world around me currently makes me feel like I have a special place in history."
miharu headshots by Joshua Thermidor

5Q Interview: Miharu Yano, MFA candidate in the Translation Workshop

Monday, April 21, 2025
"Translation is a craft that requires a lot of discipline and focus, and I usually try to find large chunks of time (4+ hours) rather than small increments."
Fion Tse smiling!

5Q Interview: Fion Tse, MFA candidate in the Literary Translation

Thursday, April 17, 2025
"For me, the biggest source of inspiration for any translation project I’m working on is the source text itself! Translation forces you to read intimately, and you have to be quite intimate to rewrite the text in a different language."
lydia portrait

5Q Interview: Lydia Meth, Cinematic and Screenwriting Arts

Monday, April 14, 2025
"...the entire city seemed to glow and support its students. I fell in love with the literary walk downtown and the numerous cafes that undoubtedly housed so many aspiring writers."
Grace Morse portrait with orange background

5Q Interview: Grace Morse, MFA candidate in the Nonfiction Writing Program

Monday, April 7, 2025
"I am a near-daily journal-er; it's my precious, private place. Writing at night is akin to glory for me these days, and I love to light candles and enter my body in an extra-intentional way."
portrait of alan javier valdez

5Q Interview: Alan Valdez, MFA Candidate at the Spanish Creative Writing Program

Thursday, April 3, 2025
"And then I wake up, open the windows, make my coffee, think about places I’ve been and people I’ve loved. I send good morning messages, sometimes I teach Spanish classes, sometimes I go to the store to buy food for the week."
Irene in the summer

5Q Interview: Irene Rodrigo, MFA Candidate in the Spanish Creative Writing Program

Wednesday, March 26, 2025
"... lately I’m getting to discover how useful can be for me to write outside from home. Some days I go to the public library of Iowa City, where I can find the silence I need to edit my texts or keep writing them. Some other days I go to cafés ..."
jessica alexander smiling

5Q Interview: Jessica Alexander, an instructor at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival

Thursday, March 13, 2025
"If you can make a single sentence do the work of 3 sentences or a paragraph—then, you’ve probably written a compelling sentence. In flash every word communicates."
Laura reading work

5Q Interview: Laura Jaramillo, instructor at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival

Friday, March 7, 2025
"This course gives you the opportunity to intensely focus on the visual aspects of writing poetry and how they affect the ways we understand poetry."