Events
The IYWP is dedicated to the health and well-being of our community. Thus, our special events have gone digital/online as we monitor the COVID-19 CDC reports, public school updates, and The University of Iowa's announcements.
The University of Iowa has issued a special events announcement on COVID-19: read here.
Junior High Programs
The Seventh Annual Iowa Youth Writing Project Junior High Writing Conference will be held on Wednesday, May 12th, 2020 at The University of Iowa, featuring guest writers like poet José Olivarez and fiction writer Kiley Reid. Students will participate in two special workshops on genres of their choice. With over 110 students last year and excellent instructors, this conference brings together the local writing community to empower, inspire, and engage young writers!
Alright, junior high friends - it's Jam time once again! Every year, in conjunction with the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature's One Book Two Book Festival, the IYWP hosts a special workshop and author Q&A just for junior high students. This year's festivities will look a bit different, but the Jam must go on! This year's digital Junior High Writing Jam will feature – live, on Zoom! - decorated YA (Young Adult) Literature author Dawn Quigley, who will read from her book Apple in the Middle and answer your questions about her writing process! There will also be a host of fun activities based on Apple in the Middle and a book giveaway. Books will be mailed out or available for contact-less pick up. This is a great way for young writers to write, share their work, learn from an expert, and to meet other young writers. Register today!
NOTE: This is a LIVE Zoom event, so please plan to attend at the time specified above. The session will be recorded and distributed to participants but will not be posted anywhere public or shared to social media.
This two-day workshop event on Zoom for teens will explore art that engages difficult topics including violence and loss. Alongside conversation about racial injustice, we will also think about the possibilities for joy and liberation. We will ask: How do we access artistry during a time of crisis? The workshop facilitators, darlene anita scott and Sequoia Maner, are poets and professors of African American literature. They are co-editors of the book Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era (Routledge 2020). You can submit your poems to the Center for Afroftuturist Studies' "Let Em Know We Watching" anthology and class notes to IYWP's blog.
IYWP is dedicated to the health and well-being of our community. Therefore, our conference is now entirely digital this year as long as our schools are in session. Also, The University of Iowa has issued a special events announcement on COVID-19, read here.The Sixth Annual Iowa Youth Writing Project Junior High Writing Conference will be held on Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 at The University of Iowa. Students will participate in two special workshops on genres of their choice. With over 250 students and 20 instructors, this conference brings together the local writing community to empower, inspire, and engage young writers!
CANCELED due to Mission Creek Festival's cancelation and The University of Iowa's special events announcement on COVID-19, read here. Students will discuss a selection from Joe Brainard's innovative memoir, I Remember, and then try writing some "I remembers" of your own, in a workshop run by National Book Award nominee and Brooklyn College professor Helen Phillips.
CANCELED due to Mission Creek Festival's cancelation and The University of Iowa's special events announcement on COVID-19, read here. IYWP is dedicated to the health and well-being of our community. Iowa Youth Writing Project students from a local junior high school will read their work during Mission Creek Festival's Lit Crawl. Stop by to support local young writers!
This event is pending COVID-19 CDC updates and University health updates because the IYWP is dedicated to the health and well-being of our community and The University of Iowa has issued a special events announcement on COVID-19, read here.The Iowa Youth Writing Project's traveling writers' workshop will arrive at Southeast Junior High School for 3 days of awesome writing and workshopping to improve work through reflection. Local writers will volunteer with us. If you're interested in being a volunteer workshop leader email us at iywp@uiowa.edu.
The Iowa Youth Writing Project is hosting the Junior High Writing Jam as part of the One Book Two Book Festival in Iowa City in collaboration with UNESCO City of Literature. The Jam will feature an accomplished YA (Young Adult) Literature author, their new book, and related activities as well as an Ipad giveaway and pizza party. This is a great way for young writers to write, share their work, learn from an expert, and to meet other young writers.
High School / Teen Programs
Hey, author! Find out how to get started writing a novel and write your first page with a published New York Times best-selling author, Kiley Reid, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. This FREE event is digital and pre-recorded with the author. At the end, you get to submit the First Page Ever of your new novel to be considered for publication in the IYWP's online anthology. Register Here!
Spoken word artist Jumi Bello will lead two spoken word workshops on social justice for a MLK Day celebration at West High School. Youth will listen to, write, and perform spoken word pieces. Jumi has two published spoken word chapbooks and is a local writer in Iowa City!
Visiting spoken word performers invited by The University of Iowa's Hancher Center for Embracing Complexity are invited by the IYWP to teach a workshop on spoken word in affiliate IC Speaks classroom. Students will write to embrace complexity in the 21st century.
The Iowa Youth Writing Project will host Jia Tolentino, journalist for The New Yorker and author of the new book Trick Mirror. Jia Tolentino will visit West High School's journalism class to lead a workshop and Q&A on journalism and empowered writing in the 21st century!
This event is pending COVID-19 CDC updates and University health updates because the IYWP is dedicated to the health and well-being of our community and The University of Iowa has issued a special events announcement on COVID-19, read here. The Iowa Youth Writing Project is so grateful for its undergraduate, high school, and community volunteers! We'll celebrate them LIVE! online this year (next year, health-situation permitting: at a local business that is also doing great things for our community).