Latest news with #IowaWriters'Workshop
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
University of Iowa International Writing Program sees federal funding cuts
The University of Iowa International Writing Program will end certain programs and shrink its next cohort after seeing federal funding cuts. (Photo courtesy of the University of Iowa International Writing Program) One of the University of Iowa's premiere writing programs has seen its federal funding cut, the university announced Thursday, a blow causing the closures of programs and smaller cohorts. The UI International Writing Program announced online that as of Feb. 26, grants it had received from the U.S. Department of State and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs had been terminated. According to a notice cited in the release, programs funded by the grants 'no longer effectuate agency priorities,' and do not hold 'with agency priorities and national interest.' Canceled federal funding amounts to nearly $1 million, the university stated in a news release, the same amount that would have been generated for the U.S. economy by the program in the next year, as more than 90% of federal grant dollars are spent domestically. 'We are devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership and are working closely with the Office of General Counsel and the university's grant accounting office to review the terminations, understand their full impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization,' International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said in the release. 'Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP's mission remains the same and, with the help of a small number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 fall residency as we also pursue new sources of funding.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Separate from the UI's Iowa Writers' Workshop, the International Writing Program brings international writers and literature to Iowa City and exposes American writers to cultures from across the globe, according to its website. Its main program is an 11-week residency that does not include academic credits. As a result of the cuts, the writing program will discontinue its summer youth program, Between the Lines, the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program, distance learning courses and more, according to the release. The fall 2025 residency cohort, which has traditionally brought in around 30 writers, will be cut in half. 'The Fall Residency is an 11-week program that brings established international writers to the UI campus, providing them with time to produce literary work, while also introducing the social and cultural fabrics of the United States,' the release stated. 'The experience enables them to take part in American university life and creates opportunities for them to contribute to literature courses both at the UI and across the country.' South Korean author and 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Han Kang attended the program in 1998, according to a news release, joining fellow program participants, Nobel Prize-winners and novelists Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul, and Chinese author Mo Yan. Founded in 1967 by Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle, both of whom were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, the release stated the program has welcomed more than 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries. The program stated in its announcement it will pursue new funding opportunities in the light of these losses and has other established funding streams in donors, grants, nongovernmental organizations and 'foreign ministries of culture.' The UI is also weathering uncertainty with other federally funded programs, especially research projects with National Institutes of Health grants. According to a March 5 update, Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has issued a preliminary injunction on a proposed 15% cap on indirect costs for NIH grants and contracts. The update stated the university will 'continue to submit research proposals according to our federal negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.' 'Considering the irreparable harm likely to befall similarly situated nonparties, the chaos that would result both for institutions and NIH from a patchwork of injunctions, the diffuse nature of the Plaintiffs, and the nature of the suit, a nationwide preliminary injunction is the appropriate and reasonable remedy,' Kelley wrote in her ruling. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Los Angeles Times
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In ‘Show Don't Tell,' Curtis Sittenfeld even treats cringey characters with humanity
Bestselling 'Prep' and 'Romantic Comedy' author Curtis Sittenfeld dwells in the comically awkward. In her utterly diverting collection of 12 short stories, 'Show Don't Tell,' she contemplates youthful insecurity and first love; the quandary of privilege; the satisfactions of friendship; the disappointments of marriage; and the perils of writerly ambition. Her protagonists are mostly women coming into their own or facing down middle age with both a keen sense of the sardonic and a deep reservoir of self-compassion. They can laugh at life's absurdities and challenges — not to mention their own quirks and failures — even as they obsess over them. Sittenfeld's worldview is more utopian than dystopian; Jane Austen-like, she treats her characters with humanity, even when their actions are cringe-inducing. Take Jill, the protagonist of 'White Women LOL.' She's been branded a Karen on social media for confronting five Black restaurant patrons over their presence in an area designated for her friend Amy's birthday party. Pointing out that there's a private event going on, Jill suggests they take their drinks and move elsewhere. 'Do you feel unsafe? Are you going to call the cops?' one of them retorts. Realizing too late that her interference is reading as racist, she attempts to smooth things over. 'This isn't political,' she protests, which only heightens the tension. The exchange is captured on a guest's iPhone and goes viral, after which Jill finds herself watching and rewatching the video, reflecting that 'she was trying harder than usual, harder than she would have done with a group of white people, to seem friendly and diplomatic.' Meantime, friends stop responding to her texts, and she is suspended from her corporate job pending an HR investigation. To repent, she goes to extreme measures to locate her Black neighbor's missing Shih Tzu. This is tricky territory, and Sittenfeld handles it with nuance and aplomb. Jill is at first in disbelief that anyone — especially those close to her — might misinterpret her so egregiously. But thinking back on past events, she wonders if there haven't been times when she's acted out of unacknowledged prejudice and entitlement — a theme that recurs in several of the other stories in this stunning collection, the author's second. The title story, 'Show Don't Tell,' which originally ran in the New Yorker in 2017, is set amid the crucible of a graduate school writing program. Sittenfeld, who earned her master of fine arts in 2001 from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, aptly captures the sense of promise that permeates, as well as the anxieties that strain friendships and egos, in such settings. She's also keenly aware that in terms of who will ultimately succeed in getting published, 'luck falls unevenly.' While waiting to find out who will receive a coveted fellowship, Ruthie hangs out with classmate Bhadveer, a misogynist in the making. He knows he's already gotten one of the spots, but Ruthie is still on tenterhooks. They take turns guessing who else will get the nod. Ruthie speculates that their colleague Aisha is the most likely candidate, but Bhadveer disagrees: 'Great literature has never been produced by a beautiful woman,' he pontificates. When Ruthie denounces the statement as ridiculous, he doubles down: 'There tends to be an inverse relationship between how hot a woman is and how good a writer.' 'That's literally the dumbest idea I've ever heard,' says Ruthie. But Bhadveer presses forward: 'It's because you need to be hungry to be a great writer, and beautiful women aren't hungry.' Many years later, after Bhadveer and Ruthie have become well-known authors, they run into each other on book tour. Bhadveer is perceived as being more 'literary,' on track to win a Pulitzer. Ruthie has had more bestsellers, but 'my novels are considered 'women's fiction.'' This inequity may needle her, but Ruthie is acutely aware that while she is talented, she's also been fortunate. Bhadveer has no such humility. His success hasn't made him any less generous, and now he can't help himself from letting Ruthie know he hasn't read one of her seven novels. He also derides their former classmates with gusto: 'It's funny that no one other than us is successful, isn't it?' Sittenfeld, who edited the 2020 volume of 'The Best American Short Stories,' here saves her best for last. 'Lost But Not Forgotten' revisits Lee Fiora, a character who first appeared in 'Prep.' It's been decades since Lee graduated from Ault, and she finds herself back at the fancy Massachusetts boarding school for her 30th reunion. She's now single and a founder of a prominent nonprofit that supports the incarcerated. Having gone to Ault on scholarship, Lee recalls that 'I always felt I was implicitly apologizing for not being sufficiently rich and preppy and privileged.' The irony is she now recognizes that although she often felt like an outsider at Ault, her attendance at the school made her an automatic insider: 'In all the years since I graduated, I've been reckoning with just how rich, preppy, and privileged I am.' At the reunion, she bonds with Jeff, a student she barely noticed back then. She finds herself opening up to him — and to her longtime friend, Dede — in ways she never would have when she was younger. 'The single biggest difference between my teenage self and my middle-aged self,' she reflects, 'is that I'd once been roiling with thoughts and opinions and yearnings that I suspected were strange or shameful or simply inexpressible, and therefore didn't express them. As I got older, it wasn't the thoughts and opinions that went away; only over time, their suppression.' A radiant contentment pervades these stories. They are retrospective but don't rue the passage of time. This is a writer who's comfortable in her skin. Sittenfeld is a sharp observer of social mores and an astute judge of character, but she's never cruel — she's the opposite of a misanthrope. As Ruthie confides to a visiting writer: 'Some people are annoying. But even the annoying ones — they're usually annoying in interesting ways.' Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist. She was director of Oprah's Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.
