Fully Funded International Writing Program Summer Institute 2020 is calling for applications. The Summer Institute is a new immersive two-week creative writing and cultural exchange program held in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S., a UNESCO City of Literature. Students from all disciplines – the arts, humanities, sciences, and everything in between – can apply.

Benefits of the Program

This program is free for selected participants, and will focus on creative writing and the power of narrative. The Summer Institute’s innovative, inclusive, cross-cultural approach will empower future thought-leaders and help forge new lines of understanding, promote social justice, and foreground diversity, empathy, and community. Participants will come to see writing as a form of action – a personally-empowering skill that can be employed for social change.

Eligibility

• Students from 18-22 years of age
• Furthermore, the students should be from Pakistan, India, and the U.S
• Possession of a valid passport is a requirement for participation in this program for students from India and Pakistan. However, passports and/or copies of passports should not be included in the materials submitted with your application. Those selected to participate in the Summer Institute will be asked for a digital copy of their passport.

Applying

In order to be a participant, you need to complete and submit the Summer Institute Online Application. In addition, you need to submit

1.  Creative work in English (6-8 pages). Essays and other forms of nonfiction such as school reports, for example, will not be accepted. By creative work, we mean your original writing that is poetry, fiction, nonfiction (again, if it is original and creative), screenplay, stage play, memoir, etc. There are many possibilities. You may submit one piece or several pieces of creative work to make the 6-8-page requirement.

2.  Prompt #1: The 2020 Summer Institute session will include discussion of identity as it relates to creative writing and the life of a writer. Please include 2-3 pages in response to the following:

• In our daily lives, we navigate many different roles—student, sibling, daughter, son, peer. We negotiate family, friends, religious groups, as well as class, gender, race, country, and so many other groups, adjusting the way we speak or behave to fit the demands of each encounter. As we move through the day, we work through how and why we occupy each particular role. What do you consider to be the strongest, most central aspects of your identity? Or, asked another way, what does it mean to you to be a creative writer and how does your writing influence who you are as person?

3.  Prompt #2: The 2020 Summer Institute session will include discussion of the personal, national, and cultural/social impacts of the India-Pakistan partition and relations between these two nations. Please include 2-3 pages on the following:

• Conflict is a part of the human condition, and oftentimes is unavoidable. Conflict (interpersonal, generational, national, international, and others) shapes us directly and vicariously. Describe how conflict/s has/have forced or led someone you admire to take a position on a particular issue or topic. First, what was the issue or topic? Second, how were their worldviews impacted, values tested, relations with others challenged, and/or growth as a person shaped by the conflict they experienced? Third, what was the position they took? Finally, what did you find admirable about how they handled/responded to conflict?
• Separately, in a few sentences, please share how, if at all, the historical and contemporary India-Pakistan conflict affects you and/or your family.