For more than 80 years writers have come to Iowa City to work on their manuscripts and to exchange ideas about writing and reading with each other and with the faculty. Many of them have gone on to publish award-winning work after graduating. With the spirit of an arts colony and the benefits of the research University of which we are a part, the Writers' Workshop continues to foster and to celebrate American literature in all its varied forms.
Program News
Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumna named finalist for National Book Award
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Poet Brenda Hillman, who earned an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1976, is a 2026 finalist for the prestigious National Book Award.
Nicholas Boggs receives 2026 Truman Capote Award from Writers' Workshop
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Nicholas Boggs, a writer and assistant professor of English and creative writing at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin.
Matthew Neill Null helps students find a distinctive voice
Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus and associate professor brings a unique approach to fiction and a commitment to helping students develop their own artistic voices.