The University of Iowa

Wayne Johnson

Wayne Johnson (M.F.A. The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop) is the author of, among other books, five novels, a collection of stories, a memoir, and two nonfiction works. Three of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, two have been New York Times Notable Books of the Year, one a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers series and finalist for book of the year, and another a Kansas City Star Book of the Year. His awards include a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford, O. Henry and Best American Short Stories citations, and a Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project Fellowship in L.A., sponsored by Steven Spielberg. Wayne has worked in Hollywood for nearly twenty years under his own and pen names. As a ghostwriter/editor he has seen over 40 books to completion, and as a script doctor has worked on countless films, two of which were Sundance finalists for Best Drama, and another a 2018 finalist for Best Screenplay at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Wayne has new books and films in development and forthcoming with major publishers, studios, and cable television.

 

 

Instructor Events

Telling the Tale: A Nonfiction Workshop

Weeklong June 14 to June 19 2020
Instructor(s): 
Wayne Johnson

All of us encounter dramas in life that seem tailor-made for narrative. But when sitting down to pen such seeming “ready-mades,” we often find that they don’t come to life, drag, or simply seem to lose their once-brilliant shine when committed to paper. So, we ask, how do writers such as Bill Bryson, Jon Krakauer, and Sebastian Junger write such engaging narratives? Or Mary Karr, Jeannette Walls, and Tobias Wolff? This class will examine a variety of non-fiction forms, from the memoir to the specific-subject yarn drawn from a decades-old once-hot news item.

Novel Solutions

Weeklong June 21 to June 26 2020
Instructor(s): 
Wayne Johnson

You've been working on this story for... how long? Months? Years? It's supposed to look like a novel, but now that you've got it in front of you, it looks more like a six-legged cow or a bus with wings. You've begun to wonder what, exactly, a "novel" is. You might be writing a cycle-of-stories-as-novel, or a faux memoir, or a "modular" novel with some unifying structural element. In this class, we'll look at ways of structuring novel-length narratives to create a variety of fully-engaging, satisfying works.