Welcome to the City of Literature

The History of Creative Writing in Iowa City

The oldest creative writing program in the country, and still regarded the best. More than forty Pulitzer Prize winners. North America’s only UNESCO City of Literature. How did the midwestern college town of Iowa City, Iowa become the capital of creative writing in America?

It’s an unlikely story of literary ambition, academic innovation, and a promising young poet who became a cultural entrepreneur.

Featuring scholars, historians and artists, interwoven with noted authors discussing the writing life in ways hilarious and profound, City of Literature tells the story of a community of writers while providing a window into the creative process itself.

 

Details

Produced Directed & Written by Ben Hill
Hill is a communications professional and filmmaker in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Website

Director of Photography, John Richard
Richard is a photographer and film maker who lives in Iowa City, Iowa, USA.  Website

Narrated by Lucinda Gainey
Gainey brings 35 years of experience in theatre and classical training to her voice acting career. Her extensive work with classical playwrights has given her an advantage in analyzing and performing advertising copy.

Associate Producer, Jennifer New
New directs the University of Iowa Obermann Center’s communications and assists with program management, outreach, and event planning. An accomplished writer, she is the author of three books, Dan Eldon: Safari as a Way of Life (Chronicle Books, 2011) being the most recent.

Associate Producer, Kecia Lynn
Lynn is the former coordinator of the IWP’s Between the Lines prpgram. Lynn’s prose has appeared in Black-Eyed Peas for the Soul and Ducts, and she wrote and read a personal narrative that aired on WBEZ-FM as part of the yearly multimedia public affairs series Chicago Matters. She was also the host of “Conversations from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop,” a television show airing monthly on the Big Ten Network that featured one-on-one interviews with well-known fiction writers.

Historical Research by Rachael Carlson
Carlson is the operations manager of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature. She has degrees in Cinema and Photography and History and enjoys working on documentary films.

Sponsors
The University of Iowa
State Historical Society, Inc.
Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities
The Iowa Arts Council

Special thanks to Susan Shullaw, Diane Johnson and Jeanette Pilak

Key Partners
Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature
University of Iowa Foundation
University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives
Coe College Library
PBS News Hour

Books
The Iowa Writers’ Workshop by Stephen M. Wilbers
A Community of Writers: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop edited by Robert Dana
The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing Since 1880 by D.G. Myers
The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop edited by Tom Grimes
Midland edited by Paul Engle

Essays
Middle Man: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop by Loren Glass
Remembering Paul Engle by Mike Chasar

Films

Community of Writers: Creative Writing at the University of Iowa
A License to Write: The Iowa Workshop Experience
On a Confrontation in Iowa City
Community of the Imagination
Yugoslavian TV interview with Paul Engle
 

The University of Iowa
Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature
State Historical Society, Inc.
Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities
The Iowa Arts Council