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A Delicate Aggression by David O. Dowling

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A Delicate Aggression

Publisher
Blackstone Publishing
Publish Date
28 May 2019
Run Time
18 hours 42 minutes
Format
Audiobook
$13.95

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What to expect

A vibrant history of the renowned and often controversial Iowa Writers’ Workshop and its celebrated alumni and faculty

As the world’s preeminent creative writing program, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop has produced an astonishing number of distinguished writers and poets since its establishment in 1936. Its alumni and faculty include twenty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners, six US poet laureates, and numerous National Book Award winners. This volume follows the program from its rise to prominence in the early 1940s under director Paul Engle, who promoted the “workshop” method of classroom peer criticism.

Meant to simulate the rigors of editorial and critical scrutiny in the publishing industry, this educational style created an environment of both competition and community, cooperation and rivalry. Focusing on some of the exceptional authors who have participated in the program—such as Flannery O’Connor, Dylan Thomas, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Smiley, Sandra Cisneros, T. C. Boyle, and Marilynne Robinson—David Dowling examines how the Iowa Writers’ Workshop has shaped professional authorship, publishing industries, and the course of American literature.

Critics Review

  • “[An] ambitiously scaled narrative…focusing on the tricky balancing act of turning out writers equipped for both commercial and literary success.”

    Publishers Weekly

  • “This book provides readers with a rich history of how the nation’s most important writing program has had an outsized impact on American literary and commercial culture.”

    David Blake, College of New Jersey

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Details

Author
David O. Dowling
Narrator
Grover Gardner
Duration
18 hours 42 minutes
Release Date
28 May 2019
ISBN
9781982685225
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Blackstone Publishing
Genre
Creative writing and creative writing guides, Language learning: writing skills, Language teaching and learning

Synopsis

A vibrant history of the renowned and often controversial Iowa Writers’ Workshop and its celebrated alumni and facultyAs the world’s preeminent creative writing program, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop has produced an astonishing number of distinguished writers and poets since its establishment in 1936. Its alumni and faculty include twenty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners, six US poet laureates, and numerous National Book Award winners. This volume follows the program from its rise to prominence in the early 1940s under director Paul Engle, who promoted the “workshop” method of classroom peer criticism.Meant to simulate the rigors of editorial and critical scrutiny in the publishing industry, this educational style created an environment of both competition and community, cooperation and rivalry. Focusing on some of the exceptional authors who have participated in the program—such as Flannery O’Connor, Dylan Thomas, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Smiley, Sandra Cisneros, T. C. Boyle, and Marilynne Robinson—David Dowling examines how the Iowa Writers’ Workshop has shaped professional authorship, publishing industries, and the course of American literature.

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