From June 16 to 29, approximately 80 high schoolers from across the globe came together to immerse themselves in writing for two weeks at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. From attending meticulously curated seminars to eating frozen yogurt and bowling with friends, as one of the studio’s lucky students, I can say that I undoubtedly experienced one of the best two weeks of my life.
Each day at Iowa began with a group meeting led by the director of Young Writers’ Studio (IYWS), Stephen Lovely, who lives up to his name, followed by a “stretch” or writing exercise led by a different instructor. Like a stretch, these writing exercises helped my brain warm up and get running for the day. Some of my favorite exercises were dancing to “Dance Yourself Clean” while writing a short story, writing odes using tarot cards to create vignettes about love.
Following stretches on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, students attended their core workshop groups to discuss nightly readings and learn about new literary techniques. Attending Liam Morissey’s “Disturbing Surfaces” course, I learned about creating fairy tales, free indirect discourse, and daytime, night time, and dream logic.
The caliber of conversation while discussing writing and reading was incomparable to my high school English class. As a group, we inspected published work for their craft, talking about techniques the author used to achieve certain effects, then applying what we learned to our own writings through Morissey’s writing exercises. While many of them seemed strange, including writing a 250 word story while being limited to 50 words, Morissey’s exercises helped me produce some of my best work while in Iowa.
After stretches on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students joined a different group and participated in generative writing exercises in “observatories” led by a new instructor each time. These observatories were usually outdoors, except for one day when it was pouring, and entailed literally “observing” the surrounding world in different settings to create fresh work in a new lens. While writing in observatories, I was able to explore the University of Iowa’s art museum, a beautiful communal garden, and a quaint bookstore called Prairie Lights.
What all the weekdays had in common were the afternoon “workshops.” During workshop, students collaborated in their core workshop groups to discuss a different classmate’s piece each day. The constructive criticism and praise shared during these supportive workshops truly helped elevate and guide my writing to new heights, whether we were discussing another classmate’s work or my own. For Morissey’s course, we were encouraged to write letters of feedback dedicated to our classmates after reading their piece. I will forever cherish the words written by my classmates to me.
For lunch and dinner, students could choose to eat for free at Burge Hall, or venture into downtown Iowa City to explore different dining options. Downtown Iowa had so many restaurants to choose from. Some of my favorite places to eat were Nodo Downtown, Sumo Sushi, Soseki Cafe, and Masala Indian Cuisine. Following a hearty meal, I usually headed to Yotopia or Java House to write, eat frozen yogurt, and bond with my friends.
While it may sound cliche, the best part about IYWS was the talented, genuine, truly unforgettable people there. Take it from Stephen Lovely himself,
“My favorite part about running the program is that I get to meet [and] work with amazing, brilliant high school students who are wonderful writers, and I get to meet them every year [in] a new group,” Lovely said. “I also get to meet and work with an older group of writers who are their teachers and counselors, who are students and graduates of the Iowa Writers Workshop. So I continually get to work with these two amazing groups of writers year after year, and it’s just super fun and energizing.”
There was plenty of time to socialize with amazing fellow writers and instructors. On top of core corses and workshops, plenty of free time was allotted for spending time and meeting new people. The places I made some of my happiest memories were made in downtown cafes, clothing shops, a Target, thrift stores, the camp-wide talent shows, SpareMe bowling, and the gorgeous on-campus lake and basketball court. On weekends, students were encouraged to explore the Iowa City Farmer’s Market and the Iowa City Festival, both of which were great opportunities to meet locals and buy special Iowan goods.
Almost every night, there were optional readings and activities to attend. Many readings were held in Prairie Lights, where renowned authors were invited to read their work and answer audience questions. During one of these readings, I was able to meet former IYWS instructor and New York Times bestselling novelist, Claire Lombardo, and discuss her writing process.
“I typically write in the mornings. I write for a few hours a day, and then I do writing adjacent things. I take a lot of walks. I read, I work on edits ad then when I’m editing a book, I can spend a full day doing that, because it’s more sort of tactile work,” Lombardo said. “My writing life is really sort of motley and interesting, which I really love about it. I’m not just sitting at my desk writing for most of my week. I’m doing lots of other stuff that’s writing adjacent.”
After two weeks of writing and doing writing-adjacent activities, IYWS culminated in a camp-wide dinner, graduation, and “prom.” Many tears were shed, and many hugs were cherished. We were no longer a group of 80-something teenagers nervous and teeming with excitement to start camp, but a family of writers bonded by experiences and connections that will last a lifetime.
