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A Literary Walking Tour of Eastside Iowa City, Spring 1990

Literary Walking Tour of Eastside of Iowa City Page 7

could do with either hand, of course, the sort of blow that would crack teeth and make you want to take a long vacation." (UI Writers' Workshop student, Eric Olsen, Seems Like Old Times, 116-117)

The People

Nelson Algren, visiting lecturer 1965 UI Writers' Workshop, 1965 -- the same year as Kurt Vonnegut, Vance Bourjaily, and Bill Murray. "...[he was]..resented by some students, seemed flabbergasted to find he was expected to read manuscripts and meet with students." (Seems Like Old Times) "He wrote a book denouncing 'workshops...he felt a writer's talent is better stimulated in pool rooms, in the company of convicts and dope addicts" (Gail Godwin, NEW TIMES, 1974, p 56). Among other works, Algren wrote Man With The Golden Arm.

Marvin Bell, MFA 1963 UI Writers' Workshop. Senior poet, Professor of English and Creative Writing, UI Writers' Workshop. Bell received his MA in Literature, University of Chicago. He was the first recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Award (1986). For his first book of poems, A Probable Volume of Dreams, Bell received the 1969 Lamont Poetry Selection award from the Academy of American Poets. Bell has been nominated for the National Book Award, been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Of other art forms he has worked in (music, photography, ceramics and cinematography) Bell says, "[they] allowed one to apprehend the self-psychological reality, as well as what is called objective reality, outside oneself...it seems to me the possibilities in poetry have to do with an intensity, and a kind of metaphysical insight that one can accomplish nowhere else. (Daily Iowan 10-23-70, Michael Ryan). "I would like to teach readers to read slowly -- in poetry the word counts, and words must be weighed as contributing to truth or falsehood." (Daily Iowan, 2-22-77, Debbie Bunch). "This is a town filled with writers, painters, musicians, daners, etc., as well as with doctors and scientists and athletes. It's great that we can have such a combination. I mean, I don't know the great wrestlers who live here, but I kind of like the idea that they're here." (Des Moines Sunday Register, 7-15-84, Richard Panek) Bell lives in East Court Street.

John Berryman, taught UI Writers' Workshop, 1953-1954. Former student Robert Dana wrote of Berryman's, "...blow-torch approach [to teaching]. But we were crazy too. Crazy with the kind of toughness it took to hang in there against John's special mix of crankiness, brilliance, and cruelty. Phil Levine punched him in the eye and broke his glasses, establishing a life-long friendship." (Seems Like Old Times) Berryman was named Chancellor by the Academy of American Poets from 1968-1972, and received a Fellowhip in 1966 from that same organization.

Clarke Blaise, UI Professor of English, he was appointed Director of the International Writing Program at UI in 1990. Blaise received his MFA in 1964 from UI Writers' Workshop; and was a visiting lecturer in the Workshop in the early 1980's. Of his first student year at UI, Blaise writes, "...in 1962 [the Workshop] was still a quiet time of deep cold and serious ambition, when all the world was writing and all your friends were as good or maybe better than you were, and you couldn't afford to let up a minute. I remember summer nights in Iowa City, taking a walk at three AM in the eighty-five degree heat, and hearing the flood of language chatter from attic typewriters, and I

Saving...

could do with either hand, of course, the sort of blow that would crack teeth and make you want to take a long vacation." (UI Writers' Workshop student, Eric Olsen, Seems Like Old Times, 116-117) The People Nelson Algren, visiting lecturer 1965 UI Writers' Workshop, 1965 -- the same year as Kurt Vonnegut, Vance Bourjaily, and Bill Murray. "...[he was]..resented by some students, seemed flabbergasted to find he was expected to read manuscripts and meet with students." (Seems Like Old Times) "He wrote a book denouncing 'workshops...he felt a writer's talent is better stimulated in pool rooms, in the company of convicts and dope addicts" (Gail Godwin, NEW TIMES, 1974, p 56). Among other works, Algren wrote Man With The Golden Arm. Marvin Bell, MFA 1963 UI Writers' Workshop. Senior poet, Professor of English and Creative Writing, UI Writers' Workshop. Bell received his MA in Literature, University of Chicago. He was the first recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Award (1986). For his first book of poems, A Probable Volume of Dreams, Bell received the 1969 Lamont Poetry Selection award from the Academy of American Poets. Bell has been nominated for the National Book Award, been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Of other art forms he has worked in (music, photography, ceramics and cinematography) Bell says, "[they] allowed one to apprehend the self-psychological reality, as well as what is called objective reality, outside oneself...it seems to me the possibilities in poetry have to do with an intensity, and a kind of metaphysical insight that one can accomplish nowhere else. (Daily Iowan 10-23-70, Michael Ryan). "I would like to teach readers to read slowly -- in poetry the word counts, and words must be weighed as contributing to truth or falsehood." (Daily Iowan, 2-22-77, Debbie Bunch). "This is a town filled with writers, painters, musicians, daners, etc., as well as with doctors and scientists and athletes. It's great that we can have such a combination. I mean, I don't know the great wrestlers who live here, but I kind of like the idea that they're here." (Des Moines Sunday Register, 7-15-84, Richard Panek) Bell lives in East Court Street. John Berryman, taught UI Writers' Workshop, 1953-1954. Former student Robert Dana wrote of Berryman's, "...blow-torch approach [to teaching]. But we were crazy too. Crazy with the kind of toughness it took to hang in there against John's special mix of crankiness, brilliance, and cruelty. Phil Levine punched him in the eye and broke his glasses, establishing a life-long friendship." (Seems Like Old Times) Berryman was named Chancellor by the Academy of American Poets from 1968-1972, and received a Fellowhip in 1966 from that same organization. Clarke Blaise, UI Professor of English, he was appointed Director of the International Writing Program at UI in 1990. Blaise received his MFA in 1964 from UI Writers' Workshop; and was a visiting lecturer in the Workshop in the early 1980's. Of his first student year at UI, Blaise writes, "...in 1962 [the Workshop] was still a quiet time of deep cold and serious ambition, when all the world was writing and all your friends were as good or maybe better than you were, and you couldn't afford to let up a minute. I remember summer nights in Iowa City, taking a walk at three AM in the eighty-five degree heat, and hearing the flood of language chatter from attic typewriters, and I