Editing Iowa Writers' Workshop (section)

== History ==
In 1897, theater producer [[George Cram Cook]] began teaching a class called "Verse-Making", effectively the University of Iowa's first creative writing class.<ref name=UiowaNelson>{{cite web |last1=Nelson |first1=Emily |title=Iowa: Shaping literature's landscape for more than a century |url=https://stories.uiowa.edu/iowa-shaping-literature-landscape-more-century |publisher=Uiowa.edu |access-date=July 27, 2023}}</ref> In 1922, Dean Carl Seashore of the University of Iowa Graduate College allowed creative writing to be accepted as theses for advanced degrees. Later, the School of Letters began selecting students for writing courses in which they were tutored by resident and visiting writers. The Iowa Writers' Workshop began as an official program in 1936, with [[Wilbur Schramm]] as its first director.<ref>{{cite web |title=Iowa Writer's Workshop |url=https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/national-humanities-medals/iowa-writers-workshop |publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities |access-date=June 14, 2023}}</ref>

Under [[Paul Engle]], its second director from 1941 to 1965, the program became a national landmark and was divided into fiction and poetry. He partnered with ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' for a 1959 symposium titled "The Writer in Mass Culture" that included as guests [[Norman Mailer]], [[Ralph Ellison]], and [[Mark Harris (author)|Mark Harris]], and was covered in ''[[Newsweek]]''. In 1962, Engle and his wife, [[Hualing Nieh Engle]], started the country's first translation workshop, which led to the creation of the university's MFA program in literary translation. In 1967, the couple founded the International Writing Program,<ref name=UiowaNelson /> and in 1976, they were nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for their work facilitating creative and cultural exchange through the International Writing Program. A reported over 300 writers supported them for the honor, which the Nobel Committee eventually did not give that year.<ref>{{cite web |title=A HORSEMAN'S SON AND A BAD GIRL |url=https://iwp.uiowa.edu/91st/vol1-num2/a-horsemans-son-and-a-bad-girl |publisher=University of Iowa International Writing Program |access-date=July 27, 2023}}</ref>

Engle secured donations for the workshop from the business community for about 20 years, including locals such as [[Maytag]] and [[Quaker Oats]], as well as [[U.S. Steel]] and ''[[Reader's Digest]]''.<ref name= Bennett>{{cite web|last=Bennett|first=Eric|title=How Iowa Flattened Literature|url=http://chronicle.com/article/How-Iowa-Flattened-Literature/144531/|work=MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction|publisher=Faber and Faber and n+1|access-date=April 2, 2014|date=February 10, 2014}}</ref> Between 1953 and 1956, the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] donated $40,000. [[Henry Luce]], the publisher of ''[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]'' and ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazines, and [[Gardner Cowles Jr.]], who published ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' magazine, provided publicity for the workshop's events.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

Subsequent directors were George Starbuck (1965–69),<ref name=HistoryIWW>{{Cite web|url=https://writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/about|title = About the Writers' Workshop |website= Iowa Writers' Workshop |publisher= College of Liberal Arts & Sciences &#124; The University of Iowa}}</ref> [[John Leggett]] (1969–86),<ref name=SF>{{cite news|first1=John|last1=McMurtrie|title=John Leggett, former director of Iowa Writers' Workshop, dies at 97|url=http://blog.sfgate.com/bookmarks/2015/01/26/john-leggett-former-director-of-iowa-writers-workshop-dies-at-97/|access-date=January 31, 2015|work=SF Chronicle|date=January 26, 2015}}</ref> and [[Frank Conroy (author)|Frank Conroy]] (1987–2005), whose 19 years at the helm were the longest at the time.

[[Lan Samantha Chang]] was appointed the Workshop's sixth director in 2006.<ref name=HistoryIWW /> She is the program's first female, first Asian American, and first nonwhite director, and has held the role since.

=== Locations ===
The Writers' Workshop originated in temporary military barracks-style buildings near the Iowa River, where the Iowa Memorial Union stands, but in 1966 moved to the English-Philosophy Building. In 1997, it moved to a new location, Dey House. The Glenn Schaeffer Library and Archives, an extension including a library and reading room, classrooms, and faculty offices, was added to Dey House in 2006.<ref name=UiowaNelson />