The Writers Archive at Iowa
The University of Iowa has played a leadership role in the teaching of writing for nearly a century. The University is the home of the Writer's Workshop, the International Writer's Program, and the Playwright's Workshop, and has an established Masters in Fine Arts in non-fiction writing. These programs attract the world's best as faculty and students. Some of these writers have given their manuscripts and personal papers to the University of Iowa Libraries where they join those of dozens of other writers.
The Writers Archive gathers materials of interest and value to researchers and beginning writers. It complements all of the University's writing programs and is a resource of international significance for the study of the history of writing in its social, cultural and economic contexts. It supports the work of students and faculty from many disciplines, including those in the emerging field of the history of the book.
Writers associated with the UI have gone on to success in many fields -- as novelists and story writers, playwrights and poets, as well as writers for radio, film and television. Manuscripts and papers in the collection include those of novelist Frank Conroy, novelist and script writer Nicholas Meyer; novelist David Morrell, comic strip and detective fiction writer Max Allan Collins, and romance novelist LeAnn Lemberger (Leigh Michaels). Related holdings consist of the Iowa Authors collection, the papers of Paul Engle and Sherman Paul, and manuscripts of British writers Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), Edmund Blunden (1896-1974), Angus Wilson (1913-1991), and Iris Murdoch (1919-1998). The literary collections also include more than 10,000 letters or manuscripts created by English and American writers and historical figures, principally from the 19th and 20th centuries.
To explore current holdings, see the individual pages established for:
Novelists, Story Writers, & Poets
Dramatists, Playwrights, & Scriptwriters for Television & Screen
Newspaper & Magazine Editors & Publishers
Cartoonists & Comic Strip Writers
Do Note Please: Assignment for writers who worked in several genres is somewhat arbitrary; some writers are entered in more than one category.
