How Did Iowa City Become a Mecca for Writers? (VIDEO)

Iowa City has been a haven for serious writers for almost a century.

But how did a town in the middle of the Middlewest become a Mecca for writers of different disciplines from all over the world?

This weekend Ben Hill, 36,  a creative media producer at the University of Iowa, will be providing some answers to this question in the form of a documentary on  Iowa City's writing scene called "City of Literature."

The documentary will be shown on Saturday at 3pm at Macbride Auditorium is part of this weekend's Iowa City Book Festival, and will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Joan Kjaer and featuring some of the experts from the film: Loren Glass, Mary Bennett and Christopher Merrill.

The film, primarily shot by director of photography John Richard, clocks in at a little under an hour, and focuses on the origins of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and other writing programs at Iowa, while examining Iowa City's parallel development as a City of Literature.

City of Literature will be shown later in the year on Iowa Public Television, but this will be the first time it will be shown in Iowa City.

Hill spoke with Iowa City Patch Monday about the making of the movie. The following is an edited and abridged version of the interview.

Iowa City Patch: So can you briefly explain what led up to the making of this documentary?

Ben Hill:  I work for the as a creative media producer in Communication & Marketing. Our job there is to 'tell the university's story'. I was originally hired to produce academic programs about UI for Big Ten Network, and it was in that capacity that I got the idea in 2009 or so to create a longer form TV program about the highly regarded creative writing programs at UI.

More than two years later here we are.

Iowa City Patch: So what happened to that original project? Was it completed?

Hill: Yes, but it sort of evolved. Originally it was destined for BTN like our other series ('Iowa Magazine' and 'Conversations from the Writers' Workshop') but midway through the project we decided to 're-tool' it with the destination of Iowa Public Television in mind, which is, we think, a better venue for this program.

Iowa City Patch: So with that did you have to seek alternative funding for the project?

Hill: No, because thankfully that was already in place. This project was made possible by support from State Historical Society, Inc., (a private group), Humanities Iowa, and the Iowa Arts Council. Those three groups saw enough merit in this concept to commit their support and gearing towards IPTV was just as good, from their perspective.

In addition to it being a University of Iowa production, which like IPTV is an institution that serves Iowans.

Iowa City Patch: What about the Writers' Workshop made it something you wanted to tackle in a longer documentary form?

Hill: The Iowa Writers' Workshop is known by almost everyone, even people who aren't that interested poetry or fiction. That speaks to how strong it is as a program. And for the local and literary community there is lots of mystique and lore surrounding the Workshop, because of all the great writers who have been associated with it over the last 50-75 years.

My interest was essentially the question of: why Iowa?

So it became on one hand an origin story, on the other hand sort of an introduction to the community of writers that is Iowa City today. That is why TV documentary seemed liked the best format to take this up in.

Iowa City Patch: Like you mentioned, that's an unbelievably rich history to draw on for a project. Was that daunting for you at all as you set out to try to capture it in a documentary?

Hill: YES. The challenge as I (and probably every other documentary maker) quickly realized was the need to focus. So rather than trying to make this a comprehensive or definitive history of the Writers' Workshop, which I think is in some ways impossible, I decided to focus on the origin story.

That in itself is very interesting, because when you research this you see that the history of Iowa City as a 'city of literature' begins a long before the Workshop was established in '36. That said, I still took it very seriously, and tried to utilize the best resources available to put this story together.

Iowa City Patch:  What was the experience talking to all of the various writers past and present at the workshop?

Hill: It was cool. I have to admit a little intimidating at times, but very enlightening.

All the writers I've interviewed are very honest and opinionated, and I really enjoy the fact that you can ask ten writers the same question and get ten completely different, contradictory responses.

Iowa City Patch: So this weekend is the Iowa City premiere of your documentary at the Iowa City Book Festival, correct? Are you excited? What can people expert?

Hill: Yes, we're very excited to have our first public screening of 'City of Literature' at 3pm at Macbride Auditorium. The program is one hour long and immediately afterward we'll have a Q&A/panel discussion, hosted by Joan Kjaer, with really engaging people from the film like Loren Glass, Mary Bennett and Christopher Merrill. It will be like a DVD but the special features are live and in-person.

I think anyone who is interested in local history and/or creative writing will really get a kick out of it.