Well Read in the City of Literature 
Paul Engle Day and Award Ceremony Oct 12
celebrates Paul Engle.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011The Englert Theatre
Free and Open to the Public
Paul Engle award designed and created by M.C. Ginsberg Objects of Art
The Paul Engle Award honors an individual who, like Paul Engle, represents a pioneering spirit in the world of literature through writing, editing, publishing, or teaching, and whose active participation in the larger issues of the day has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts.
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Paul Engle (October 12, 1908 - March 22, 1991), noted American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program (IWP), both at the University of Iowa.
At the turn of the millennium, Engle was selected as Iowa’s poet of the century, and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack proclaimed October 12 “Paul Engle Day” in Iowa.
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In honor of the event authors James Galvin, Michael Hill, Ed Folsom, and Michael Harper prepared video tributes. James Alan McPherson is the author of Hue and Cry, Railroad, Elbow Room, Crabcakes, Fathering Daughters, and A Region Not Home. Elbow Room won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for 1978. His short stories and essays have appeared in prominent periodicals, including the Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, the New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Esquire, and Playboy. McPherson's work has been anthologized in volumes including Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Award Short Stories. He has served on the selection committees of the Pulitzer Prize and other major literary awards. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." He teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, where he earned his MFA in 1971.
Sunday, October 16, 2011, Devotay Restaurant’s Benefit Sunday program will benefit Paul Engle Day events. So far Devotay’s Benefit Sunday Program has returned over $17,000 to the community. The portion of the proceeds is on a sliding scale – so the more people who dine, the higher the percentage Devotay gives back.
Paul Engle Student Essay Contest: To continue Paul Engle’s tradition of inspiring writers and celebrating the rich culture of Iowa, high school students in the Eastern Iowa corridor were invited to participate in a writing contest as part of this year’s celebration of Paul Engle Day. Leeann Oelrich, a student of Language Arts teacher Sarah Richardson at Mr. Vernon High school penned the winning essay, "Serendipity on the Wapsi." Ms. Oelrich will receive a $500 scholarship check and the opportunity to read her essay at Prairie Lights Books on Tuesday, October 11 at 7pm. More information here...
A Lucky American Childhood is used with permission and available for purchase at the University of Iowa Press.
Leaner than Light: 12 Frames of Paul Engle
An audio video production of a play by Lisa Schlesinger Produced and edited by Lisa DiFranza Audio engineered by Ben Schmidt
A note from playwright Lisa Schlesinger: "At the end of his life, Paul Engle was working on a memoir called Paul Engle Country which, he specifies, wasn’t in chronological order. I imagine that this is because as a poet, Paul Engle conceived of the world in images, and moments of meaning connected by associative imagination rather than chronological time. When I began to research Leaner than Light, I was interested in Hualing Nieh and Paul Engle’s mutual love and their dedication to world literature. I was also interested in how they created a place for voices that otherwise would not be heard and a community where they would be welcomed. Not a dramatic thing, really but miraculous and heroic. When I first envisioned this play, I saw spaces opening for IWP writers to walk through. One person I spoke with said Paul Engle sacrificed his career for the work of others. I’m not sure I agree. Perhaps he made a beautiful and successful career of it. I was also interested in paying homage to Iowa, a place often referred to as the middle of nowhere, but a place that has hosted, nurtured and cultivated countless literary voices and works, both local and global. One of the great moments I had researching this play was sitting with Hualing in her house overlooking the Iowa River, eating dried mango and sharing our love of Iowa. People don’t understand, she said, how many writers come here, nowhere else could you gather so many writers in one place. From a literary standpoint, Iowa is far form the middle of nowhere. And yes, it’s the writers who come; but it is also the Iowa landscape and people that welcome them. I am thrilled that we are able to share this internet audio/visual adaptation of the stage play, Leaner than Light, which received its first public staged reading in the wake of the Iowa flood in the October of 2008 and its staged premier in October of 2009. I hope viewers are able to get a sense of the staged production, but more, to get insight into Paul Engle’s life and his amazing gift to Iowa and to world literature."
There are six Paul Engle's poems featured in this streaming version of the play: American Child I Heritage Divination Question Dedication These are the Things
Click here to view a slideshow of the stage production two years ago 
The Leaner Than Light Program (PDF)
