University of Iowa

Christine Hemp

Christine Hemp has aired her essays and poems on NPR’s Morning Edition, and a poem of hers has traveled over a billion miles on a NASA mission to monitor the pre-natal activity of stars. Her awards include a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship for Literature, an Iowa Review Award for Nonfiction, and the Harvard University Extension Award for Teaching Writing. She has been selected to travel statewide for the 2019 and 2020 Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau with her talk “From Homer to #hashtags,” which explores our changing language. Her forthcoming memoir, Wild Ride Home,  is scheduled for publication in Spring 2020. She lives in Port Townsend, Washington with two horses, two cats, and one husband.

Instructor Events

The Short-Short Nonfiction Triptych

Weekend June 15 to June 16 2019
Instructor(s): 
Christine Hemp

This class is for anyone passionate about the short form who wants to create—in one weekend—a suite of three related pieces 300 words or less. We will read the new New York Times “Tiny Modern Love” pieces, Beth Ann Fennelly’s micros from Heating and Cooling, and other short-shorts from Brevity Magazine and Hippocampus.

Belonging: The Geographies of Nonfiction

Weeklong June 16 to June 21 2019
Instructor(s): 
Christine Hemp

Especially during times of change and upheaval, we yearn for something called home. Whether you’ve arrived from another country, have lived in one Iowa farmhouse your whole life, or you relocate to a new city every year, this class is about the places we inhabit. How have they changed us (for better or for worse)? Why do they transform us—yet again—when we write about them? And why do some houses or landscapes offer us a sense of belonging? This is a generative week, and we’ll do lots of writing in and out of class.