The Workshop : Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers' Workshop: Forty-Three Stories, Recollections, and Essays on Iowa's Place in Twentieth-Century American Literature - Hardcover

Grimes, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786865032 ISBN 13: 9780786865031

Publisher: Hyperion, 1999

Synopsis

This collection consists of forty-two stories, each with an intro by writers from the Iowa Workshop. It also includes original essays on both the writing life and trends in 20th century American literature that were shaped by the growth of the Iowa program and the programs that followed. This collection is a celebration of those who studied at Americas premier writing program.

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Reviews

"For all its impact on twentieth-century American Literature, the Iowa Workshop must be acknowledged not only for the great writers connected with it but for the writers not connected with it," notes Grimes, a novelist and Iowa alum, in one of a spate of new books celebrating the Iowa M.F.A. program. Such disclaimers aside, this hefty volume, culled from the work of students and faculty, amply confirms the program's preeminent place in American writing. Though chronologically apt, it is dangerous to open such a collection with Wallace Stegner and Flannery O'Connor: there's not much room for improvement. But Grimes does an admirable job in compiling a diverse cast and a wide range of work. Standouts include Stuart Dybek's densely lyrical fable of love and fire, "Paper Lantern"; Denis Johnson's "Work," a pitch-perfect tale of a heroin junkie, with an unforgettable last line; Andre Dubus's gorgeously sad "Falling in Love," about a wounded veteran and the young actress who captures his heart; and two very different stories about children and the complicated ways they revolve around their parents, Jayne Anne Phillips's "Alma" and Pinckney Benedict's "The Sutton Pie Safe." If there is a misstep, it is the "Recollections" section, in which graduates complain about scalding critiques, drop famous names or recount their own accomplishments. A warm elegy to Richard Yates, a beloved teacher at Iowa in 1967, as famous for his trenchant fiction as for his incessant smoking and poor mental health, is also included. Yates, we are told, "thought his obituary would mention only Revolutionary Road," his devastating novel about failure, published in 1961. How fitting it would have been, therefore, to reprint one of Yates's incisive short stories.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Three-and-a-half dozen grade-A short stories, as hatched in one of the country's premier academic incubators of creativity. This immense, impressive collection is edited by Tom Grimes, a novelist (City of God, 1995, etc.) and Iowa Writers' Workshop grad who heads the creative-writing program at Southwest Texas State University. It joins three other books on the Iowa Writers Workshop published this year: Steve Wilburs and Robert Dana's companion volumes from Iowa Press, and Frank Conroy's from HarperCollins. The Iowa books emphasize poetry and the history and dynamics of the Workshop, while Conroy, who wrote the introduction here, focuses on the creative process rather than short stories. This anthology presents Iowa's finest short fiction, supplemented by author notes on the writing of each piece, essays (often testimonials) about Workshop experiences, and biographical notes. For each winner of a prestigious award, there are contributors whose primary credential is graduation. Grimes's preface discusses how creativity must be honed in the ``tedium of creation,'' how the author and the message are secondary to the literary effect, how workshops involve ``subtle and not so subtle assassinations of character,'' and how 80 percent of writers in the program reported evidence of manic-depression, alcoholism,'' or other emotional or addictive problems. The stories are divided by decade since the 1930s, and that of National Book Awardwinner and early Iowa star Flannery O'Connor typifies the American genius for ordinary people doing extraordinary things when influenced by great stresses or passions (in ``The Comforts of Home''). Even though the pieces show evidence of research and formula writing, the language, description, and plotting of even the Generation-X writers, most notably Lan Samantha Chang and Z Z Packer, are enthralling. These last two gems indicate that Iowa's future promises to reflect more of America's multicultural reality. Supporters of M.F.A. programs may resent egg-production metaphors, but it takes a tough writing program to make such tender short stories. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

These complementary titles offer a range of writing from and about the influential Iowa Writers' Workshop, the first creative writing program in the country. Conroy, the current director of the workshop, asked former students and faculty to write about writing. Chris Offutt, supplying the title, writes that each of his stories results from "ten or eleven drafts over a two-year period." Physician Abraham Verghese notes that schools of medicine and writing both use the same aphorism: "God is in the details." Marilynne Robinson accepts a canon of literature that is regarded as a treasure by a population but objects to "treating such works as categorically different from anything we ourselves can aspire to." In The Workshop, Grimes, a novelist and graduate of the workshop, selected 43 stories, recollections, and essays by participants and organized them by decade. "The book," he writes, "can be read sequentially, as a narrative about the workshop" or as an anthology. Selections include pieces by Wallace Stegner (1930s), Jayne Anne Phillips (1970s), Ethan Canin (1980s), Charles D'Ambrosio (1990s), and many others. Both titles will be of interest to academic libraries, particularly those whose institutions support creative writing programs.ANancy Patterson Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786865032
• ISBN 13: 9780786865031
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 784