A Community of Writers: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers' Workshop (Paperback)

~ Robert Dana (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A Community of Writers is an utterly engaging tribute to the early, Paul Engle days of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Iowa's first creative writing course was offered as early as 1896, and Norman Foerster gave Iowa's creative writing program a push in the 1930s. But it was Paul Engle, who took over the workshop in 1943, "with his indefatigable drive, entrepreneurial skill, and boyish enthusiasm," John C. Gerber writes here, "who brought the workshop its fame and international attention." Creative writing, says Philip Levine, is "one of the most amazing growth industries we have," but in those days, there was just Iowa. And Iowa was Paul Engle, some corrugated steel barracks (miserable in the heat, deafening during a rainstorm), and an ever-changing cast of exceptionally talented writers.

For A Community of Writers, 30 writers--including Donald Justice, Robert Bly, Marvin Bell, and Bharati Mukherjee--bring to life Engle, the other instructors, and some rollicking good (and bad) times in Iowa City. While W. D. Snodgrass claims that "almost no one was disappointed by [Robert] Lowell's teaching," Levine claims that "to say I was disappointed in Lowell as a teacher is an understatement.... A teacher who is visibly bored by his students and their poems is hard to admire"; especially when those students included two future Pulitzer Prize winners, one Yale winner, one National Book Critics Circle Award winner, three Lamont Prize winners, and one America Book Award winner. Lowell, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, Dylan Thomas, and many other extraordinary writers-instructors weave their way in and out of these stories, but none so much as Engle. "Paul Engle should get a posthumous medal from the Coast Guard for all the lives he saved," says Kurt Vonnegut. "No writer in all of history did as much to help other writers." --Jane Steinberg

From Publishers Weekly

Through the recollections of graduates and teachers, this book recalls the early years of the fabled Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. Paul Engle, the program's charismatic founder and director, was uncompromising in his efforts to help writers along, stocking the teaching faculty with luminaries while trolling America for the most promising young writers, for whom he arranged generous fellowships. Engle was also a social force. R.V. Cassill recalls an oyster feast thrown for the students: "No one can underestimate how much drunkenness there was in those days nor how much Paul incited it, because it was certainly not liquor alone that made us drunk." But Engle could be uncompromisingly harsh, too: Kiyohiro Miura recounts Engle urging him, about a review of Kenneth Rexroth's translations, "Make it tough. That's our way." W.D. Snodgrass recalls suddenly falling out of Engle's favor and having his fellowship cut off without warning. And there were other problems: the geniuses brought in to teach were all deeply troubledA"a whole generation of gifted but dangerously driven poets," in Snodgrass's words. Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Randall Jarrell all left indelible marks on their gifted students. But between all the excesses of drunkenness and meannessAremembered here in absorbing detailAtheir generosity and dedication also emerge. Philip Levine recalls: "Berryman never failed in his obligations as a teacher... he brought to our writing a depth of insight and care we did not know existed." Legions of imitator workshops mark the impact of Engle's endeavor. But his fondest hope was that his workshop would be a "community." These poetic memoirs confirm his success.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877456682
• ISBN-13: 978-0877456681
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,108,754 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Behind-the-Scenes Look at Iowa Writer's Workshop, July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This is one of the most entertaining collections of essays that I have ever read. It gives a true behind-the-scenes look at the world-renowned Iowa Writer's Workshop. Many of the essays are tremendously funny. This book appeals to a far wider audience than just M.F.A. students. Anyone who is interested in writers and writing will find this book tremendously entertaining, informative and thought-provoking. (However, if you've ever attended an M.F.A. program, you will find this book particularly insightful.) The essays read like little stories of their own. Read this book--you won't regret it!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely reading, June 2, 2000

By	Lisa Schweitzer (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful, wonderful book--and one that appealed to me for many reasons, some personal and some not. First, if you love reading about writers and writing (as I do), you'll love this book. Good writers and brilliant poets open their hearts in their essays and write frankly about the tough times they have gone through--e.g., the times they hated their work, the times they weren't producing anything. And also they write about the troubles and joys of being young, and what it is like to have brilliant and flawed mentors in a very special, challenging academic situation.

At first, I thought the book was meant to be an unabashed hagiography of Paul Engle. Nope. Midway through the book arrive the essays from former workshoppers who, like W.D. Snodgrass, were NOT Engle's favored proteges; those essays give you even more insight into the workshop and Engle himself.

More personally, the book brought me home to Iowa City, where I lived for over 12 happy years. Although most of the book's recollections center on the 1950s and 1960s, some of the places and businesses the writers describe in their essays thrive today.

I had a lovely time reading this book, and I think others will, too.