The Nine-Week Novel. Kelly Dwyer, Instructor

Registration opens on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

 

IOWA SUMMER WRITING FESTIVAL

 

Spring 2025

 

The Nine-Week Novel (Nine-Week Workshop)

 

Kelly Dwyer, Instructor

 

 

Dates/Time

 

Mondays on Zoom, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; April 7, 14, 21, 28

• 10:00 am – 1:00 pm Iowa/Central 
• 11:00 am – 2:00 pm Eastern 
• 8:00 am – 11:00 am Pacific  
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm Mountain 

 

Fee: $1,050

 

 

Course Description

 

What if you could spend a couple of months devoted to your novel (or memoir or story collection)? For people with jobs, families, appointments, and other obligations, that might seem like a dream for “someday.” But what if there were a way for you to turn “someday” into “now”? In this nine-week workshop, we’ll meet you wherever you’re at, no matter your schedule, to help you achieve your goals and start 2025 with a feeling of accomplishment! 

 

Each week Kelly will spend time lecturing and leading a discussion on an important fictional element, such as theme, plot, characterization, and point of view, which will be focused on helping you achieve success. (Kelly defines success as achieving your vision and writing the best book you can write, which readers will want to read; if you have a different definition of success, that’s fine. We will help you meet your goals, regardless!)  We will also spend time workshopping excerpts based on the previous week’s lecture. For example, if we discuss point of view one week, the following week, when you submit your work, we will focus on point of view as we workshop your excerpt.  

 

This course is best suited for intermediate and advanced writers (that is, you have taken writing classes in the past and/or have been writing on your own for a while), as we will hit the ground running. Feel free to join whether you are starting a new project, in the middle of one, or in the process of revision. And while this class is designed for novelists, memoirists and short fiction writers who believe this class might be helpful are welcome.  

 

This course also includes a 30-minute one-on-one conference with the instructor. 

Let’s begin the new year in the best way possible—by writing in a supportive and stimulating community!  

 

 

Instructor

 

Kelly Dwyer’s most recent novel is Ghost Mother, published by Union Square & Co., 2024. A graduate of Oberlin College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Kelly is a passionate longtime instructor at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She divides her time between Wisconsin and Los Angeles. Please connect with her at www.KellyDwyerAuthor.com  

 

 

Registration & Fees

 

The fee for this course is $TBD. Payment in full is required to register.

Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Class size is limited to 12.

 

Note: Your credit card payment will be processed by an external provider and will appear on your credit card statement as “UI Writing—Magid Center.”

 

Refund & Cancellation Policy

 

If you need to cancel your enrollment, please let us know as soon as possible. We can only offer full refunds if you cancel one week prior to the start of class. After that, before the start-date of class, we can offer a 50% refund. We cannot refund day-of cancellations, and we cannot refund or partially refund registration fees once the class has begun.

 

Terms & Community Policy

 

1.  The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a program for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to enroll in Festival workshops.

 

2.  The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a community built on an assumption of shared enterprise, in the spirit of mutual respect. We reserve the right to a) revoke the registration of or b) dismiss from the program any person who disrupts the learning/working environment of others. Participants in the Festival are subject to all University of Iowa policies governing conduct in our community, whether online or in person.

 

Questions?

 

Contact the Iowa Summer Writing Festival: iswfestival@uiowa.edu. Phone: (319) 335-4160.

 

Our small staff is out and about. If you phone and we miss you, please leave a detailed message!