University of Iowa

Jim Heynen

Jim Heynen is best known for his short-short stories: The Man Who Kept Cigars in His Cap (Graywolf Press); You Know What is Right (North Point Press); The One-room Schoolhouse (Knopf); The Boys’ House (Minnesota Historical Society Press); and Ordinary Sins (Milkweed Editions). Many of these stories have been read on NPR’s All Things Considered, and Minnesota astronaut George Pinky Nelson took a recording of Heynen’s stories for bedtime listening on his last space mission. His short-shorts are widely anthologized; the most recent appears in the 2018 Norton anthology: New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction.

Heynen has also published three novels: The Fall of Alice K. (Milkweed Editions); Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice (YA, Henry Holt); and Being Youngest (YA, Henry Holt) as well as several collections of poetry, including A Suitable Church (Copper Canyon Press) and Standing Naked: New and Selected Poems (Confluence Press). He wrote prose vignettes for two photography books published by The University of Iowa Press, Harker’s Barns and Sunday Afternoon on the Porch. His major nonfiction book, One Hundred Over 100 (Fulcrum Publishers), featured 100 American centenarians. For many years he was Writer-in-Residence at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in both poetry and fiction.

Instructor Events

Writing Emotions

Weekend June 15 to June 16 2019
Instructor(s): 
Jim Heynen

In this workshop, we’ll confront the challenge of writing emotional scenes—or emotional moments—whether they are in fiction, nonfiction or poetry. How can we be sincere about our own or a character’s emotions without appearing sentimental or garish? We’ll confront some of these challenging questions, we’ll look at some successful models, and we’ll see if we can apply successful techniques while still being true to the emotions we hope to deliver to our readers.

From Memory to Art: Poems, Prose Poems, Short-Short Fiction

Weeklong June 16 to June 21 2019
Instructor(s): 
Jim Heynen

This workshop will begin with life experience, but we’ll use what we remember as a springboard for imaginative verbal adventures. The moment we give our attention to form, whether that be in the music and repetition we associate with poetry or the structure and narrative progression we associate with fiction, what we thought was only a memory can take on new and unexpected life.