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A Literary Walking Tour of Eastside Iowa City, Spring 1990

Literary Walking Tour of Eastside of Iowa City Page 18

Gerald Stern, Professor of English and Creative Writing, UI Writers' Workshop. In 1977 he received the Lamont Poetry Selection award from the Academy of American Poets. Former student Deborah Digges remembers Stern on poetry: " ... a poem has to work in every room of thee house; in the streets, woods, city, country, and 10 years from now." (Deborah Digges, Seems Like Old Times) He lives on Governor Street. 

Mark Strand, 1962 MA UI. He is the recent recipient of a John D and Catherine T MacArthur Fellowship. In addition to his published poetry, he has edited three anthologies, one book of fiction, one of prose, four collections of translations, two books on art, three children's books, catalogues for exhibitions of several painters, and innumerable essays in a variety of periodicals. He is presently teaching at the University of Utah. Strand received both the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1974), and a Fellowship (1979) from the Academy of American Poets. While a student at UI he lived at 123 1/2 S Clinton St. 

Dylan Thomas, came to the UI campus in Spring to do a reading in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol -- but he stayed for a two week visit with UI faculty host, Ray B. West, Jr, to be wined and dined by students and faculty -- and to get his teeth fixed (it never happened). Of reading Thomas' friend Robert Lowell said ". . . his tone was full bodied, his style elocutionary, his syllables penetrated the far corners of the hall, each word distinct from the next, so that it seemed to hove a moment in the air like the flare of a rocket before giving away to one that followed." (Ray B. West, Jr. Seems Like Old Times) 

Kurt Vonnegut, taught Workshop 1965-66. He wrote Slaughter House Five while at UI ". . . the practical approach, generosity of time with students . . . and with sending student manuscripts to publishers and agents . . .gave the practical view of a published author." (Robert Lehrman/student, Seems Like Old Times) Vonnegut said of his stay at UI, " I was invited to teach at Iowa by a personal friend and former editor, George Starbuck. Nobody else had ever heard of me out there. I was offered the job at the last Starbuck. Nobody else had ever heard of me out there. I was offered the job at the last minute when Robert Lowell (as I recall) decided not to  appear. I left my large family (six children) behind with my wife on Cape Cod, and lived alone out there for the first six months or so. I needed the money. I needed the stimulation. I needed the change in scene. It turned out to have been a very bright thing for me to do. Suddenly writing seemed very important again. My neighbors on Cape Cod didn't read me, didn't read anything, so I felt like a pointless citizen there. In Iowa City I was central and spectacular. This was better than a transplant of monkey glands for a man my age" ( Stephen Wilbers, Biographer, UI Writers' Workshop) Rumor has it that Vonnegut requested a clause in the lease of his rented house that would require a Halloween party every year in his 'Iowa City' home. And every year on Halloween there is a party at 800 N Van Buren Street. 

Robert Penn Warren, visiting professor Spring 1941, UI Writers' Workshop. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book of poetry, Promises and the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, All The King's Men. Warren was named Chancellor by the Academy of American Poets from 1972 until his death in 1989. From the Academy he also received the Copernicus Award in 1976, and the James A. Michener Series Abroad award in 1982 and 1983. Warren was the first American Poet Laureate. While in Iowa City he lived at 706 E College Street.

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Gerald Stern, Professor of English and Creative Writing, UI Writers' Workshop. In 1977 he received the Lamont Poetry Selection award from the Academy of American Poets. Former student Deborah Digges remembers Stern on poetry: " ... a poem has to work in every room of thee house; in the streets, woods, city, country, and 10 years from now." (Deborah Digges, Seems Like Old Times) He lives on Governor Street. Mark Strand, 1962 MA UI. He is the recent recipient of a John D and Catherine T MacArthur Fellowship. In addition to his published poetry, he has edited three anthologies, one book of fiction, one of prose, four collections of translations, two books on art, three children's books, catalogues for exhibitions of several painters, and innumerable essays in a variety of periodicals. He is presently teaching at the University of Utah. Strand received both the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1974), and a Fellowship (1979) from the Academy of American Poets. While a student at UI he lived at 123 1/2 S Clinton St. Dylan Thomas, came to the UI campus in Spring to do a reading in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol -- but he stayed for a two week visit with UI faculty host, Ray B. West, Jr, to be wined and dined by students and faculty -- and to get his teeth fixed (it never happened). Of reading Thomas' friend Robert Lowell said ". . . his tone was full bodied, his style elocutionary, his syllables penetrated the far corners of the hall, each word distinct from the next, so that it seemed to hove a moment in the air like the flare of a rocket before giving away to one that followed." (Ray B. West, Jr. Seems Like Old Times) Kurt Vonnegut, taught Workshop 1965-66. He wrote Slaughter House Five while at UI ". . . the practical approach, generosity of time with students . . . and with sending student manuscripts to publishers and agents . . .gave the practical view of a published author." (Robert Lehrman/student, Seems Like Old Times) Vonnegut said of his stay at UI, " I was invited to teach at Iowa by a personal friend and former editor, George Starbuck. Nobody else had ever heard of me out there. I was offered the job at the last Starbuck. Nobody else had ever heard of me out there. I was offered the job at the last minute when Robert Lowell (as I recall) decided not to appear. I left my large family (six children) behind with my wife on Cape Cod, and lived alone out there for the first six months or so. I needed the money. I needed the stimulation. I needed the change in scene. It turned out to have been a very bright thing for me to do. Suddenly writing seemed very important again. My neighbors on Cape Cod didn't read me, didn't read anything, so I felt like a pointless citizen there. In Iowa City I was central and spectacular. This was better than a transplant of monkey glands for a man my age" ( Stephen Wilbers, Biographer, UI Writers' Workshop) Rumor has it that Vonnegut requested a clause in the lease of his rented house that would require a Halloween party every year in his 'Iowa City' home. And every year on Halloween there is a party at 800 N Van Buren Street. Robert Penn Warren, visiting professor Spring 1941, UI Writers' Workshop. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book of poetry, Promises and the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, All The King's Men. Warren was named Chancellor by the Academy of American Poets from 1972 until his death in 1989. From the Academy he also received the Copernicus Award in 1976, and the James A. Michener Series Abroad award in 1982 and 1983. Warren was the first American Poet Laureate. While in Iowa City he lived at 706 E College Street. 18