The IWP Fall Residency is an 11-week residency program for 30-35 writers and literary professionals from all over the world, typically running between the end of August and mid-November. Refer to This Year's Program for a full description.

Embassies around the world will be conducting their own selection processes beginning in early 2025. Nominations are due to the IWP by March 1, 2025. We will contact nominated writers in mid-April. Please contact your nearest U.S. Embassy to be considered.

You may at any time nominate yourself for a future residency by submitting a complete online nomination form. But we must ask for your patience. The IWP will connect highly qualified writers with potential funding sources. Please see below under "Funding" for what makes a writer qualified for the Fall Residency.

The IWP is the world's oldest and largest residency for international writers. For over fifty years, the program has brought some of the brightest writing talent to Iowa City – home also to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Nonfiction Writing Program, the Playwrights' Workshop, and the Spanish Language Creative Writing Program. Our goal is to provide visiting writers with the time and space to write. Participants complete projects and begin new ones. In addition, they forge productive relationships with colleagues and translators, and take part in the vibrant social and academic lives of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and the American literary scene.

Because both programs are based at the University of Iowa, and because both are the oldest and most widely recognized programs of their kind, they are often confused. The IWP is a non-degree-granting 11-week residency designed for early- to mid-career international writers; it also does not offer academic credit for participation. The Iowa Writers' Workshop is a 2-year MFA-granting graduate program for students of creative writing enrolled at the University of Iowa.

The IWP's Fall Residency is held annually during the fall semester only, from the end of August through mid-November. The rest of the calendar year features IWP programming such as Lines & Spaces Overseas Reading Tours, Digital Learning courses, and youth Between the Lines programs.

• The online journal 91st Meridian
• A series with Autumn Hill Books
• Periscope, which focuses on alumni interviews
• Video interviews on IWP's YouTube channel
• Origins: The International Writing Program Podcast (not a current project, but a relatively recent archive)
• Say the World: An International Writing Podcast (forthcoming)

The IWP is centrally located on the University of Iowa campus at:

Shambaugh House
430 North Clinton Street
Iowa City, Iowa 52242

Participants are primarily early- to mid-career international writers of fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, drama, or screenplays. Literary translators and journalists have also participated, but only with a comparable track record in one of the creative genres. Writers must have at least one published volume alongside works that have appeared in significant publications (anthologies, journals, literary magazines) over the last two years. Refer to How To Nominate a Writer for more information on eligibility requirements. Refer to Fall Residency for biographies of our most recent visiting writers.

Space at the IWP Fall Residency is limited. The IWP does not have in-house funding for the writers who participate; rather, the program directs the most qualified candidates to potential funding sources. These outside funding sources conduct their own selection processes, each of which is highly competitive and independent of direct IWP influence. Overall, the IWP's goal is to host a diverse group of writers who would benefit from and contribute to a dynamic exchange. 

If you are a qualified writer (see "Who is eligible to attend the Fall Residency," immediately above) and would like to nominate yourself, or know of a writer we should consider, please submit an online nomination form. As mentioned above, the IWP will direct the most qualified nominees towards potential funding sources.

If you represent a cultural agency, institution, or other literary organization, and know of a qualified writer (see "Who is eligible to attend the Fall Residency," immediately above) whom you wish to nominate and would be willing to fund, please contact [email protected] for an 11-week budget covering the estimated costs of the program.

The IWP does not fund individual residencies. Rather, the program works with external funding, through grants with other arts agencies worldwide. (See "How are writers selected for the program?" immediately above.)

(See "How are writers selected for the program?" above.) A review of the annual reports or writer biographies from recent years will illustrate the funders with whom the IWP has most recently worked. These agencies divide roughly into three groups:

• U.S. State Department/Embassies: A worldwide competition for a limited number of funded spots is annually conducted by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, through its network of U.S. Embassies. To participate, it is necessary to be nominated by the U.S. Embassy or diplomatic post in your country. Some embassies conduct their own searches, some do not make nominations at all, and still others are amenable to writers requesting to be nominated. The U.S. State Department competition is contingent on grant funding and is typically determined in the early part of each calendar year.
   
• Cultural and arts agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere: These agencies typically conduct their own searches and select nominees internally. We are always interested in exploring new partnerships with cultural agencies.
   
• Grants available in the writer's own country: Some writers apply for grants internally in their countries, through a national agency or a university, or through a combination of means. The IWP deals with these opportunities on a case-by-case basis.

Each funding agency works on its own timeline, usually between January and March. All selections are finalized, and invitations issued, by May 1.

The IWP is interested in exploring new partnerships with arts organizations in the U.S. and around the world. If your organization would like to fund a writer's attendance at the Fall Residency, please email [email protected] for an 11-week budget covering the estimated costs of the program.

The IWP does not allow self-funding. Writers must secure funding from an appropriate funding agency.

Participating writers must enter the U.S. on a J-1 visa. Depending on your funding source, IWP staff may be able to help you throughout the application process. Visa interviews should be arranged with your local U.S. embassy or diplomatic post no later than three months in advance of expected travel. 

Most funding sources deposit grant funds directly to the IWP for international round-trip airfare. The program will work with you on all itineraries and reservations. 

Participants will travel to additional U.S. cities during the course of the Residency. These educationally-focused IWP staff-led trips offer the chance to encounter other distinct American literary communities.

The University of Iowa campus surrounds downtown Iowa City, so IWP Residents walk to and from most daily events. There is also a university-sponsored bus with numerous routes that the Residents may use. The IWP will provide transportation for IWP-sponsored events out of town.

Travel away from the program is possible for professional engagements at universities and organizations outside of Iowa City on a case-by-case basis. Writers will need to arrange these on their own and notify the IWP ahead of time. Any trip outside of IWP programming will require full contact information for where you will be staying, and may last for no more than three days. J-1 visas have a 30-day grace period on either side of the Residency. Personal travel is ideally taken at that time. Non-Residency-related personal travel during the Residency is discouraged, and if days are taken away from the Residency for personal travel, they will not have per diem coverage.

Travel away from the program is possible for professional engagements at universities and organizations outside of Iowa City on a case-by-case basis. Writers will need to arrange these on their own and notify the IWP ahead of time. Any trip outside of IWP programming will require full contact information for where you will be staying, and may last for no more than three days. J-1 visas have a 30-day grace period on either side of the Residency. Personal travel is ideally taken at that time. Non-Residency-related personal travel during the Residency is discouraged, and if days are taken away from the Residency for personal travel, they will not have per diem coverage.

The Fall Residency calendar of events includes public readings, class visits, panel discussions, film screenings, dinner and party invitations out into the community, museum visits, trips to various Iowa landmarks, and other cultural outings. Though attendance to a number of these will be encouraged, the only events you will be required to attend are those at which you've previously agreed to appear, as well as a few IWP-sponsored highlight events. Visit This Year’s Program for more information about these events.

Please do! Both the IWP's Shambaugh House library and the main University of Iowa library have extensive collections of IWP participants' work. You may also want to bring a few copies for personal readings and presentations.

U.S. book publishing works primarily through literary agents, and the IWP is not a literary agency. The IWP will share with Residents what it knows about journals, MFA programs, small presses, and the big publishing houses, but the IWP does not have a “pipeline” to any presses or literary agencies. 

Invitations to appear at various universities and organizations often arise during the course of the Fall Residency. Some of these are paid, and others are volunteer efforts. IWP staff will facilitate invitations for these arrangements, but each writer is responsible for negotiating any payments directly with the inviting organization.

Taking (or auditing) a UI course is subject to approval by the course instructor. Because IWP participants are not on campus for the full semester, taking courses for credit is unlikely. The UI's course listing site contains a complete list of courses offered each semester.

Participation in classes at the Writers' Workshop is subject to the approval of the course instructor. Arrangements are usually difficult to make, as the program's workshops are highly selective and work-intense.