Going Back 'Home'

You've been teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop for some time now. Does your own success and recognition in the mainstream make it easier or more difficult to teach? Have students approached you differently?
I don't notice a great difference. My colleagues on the faculty have won their share of prizes, and the students are aware of this. I am sure that the status of all of us is enhanced by evidence that we know what we're talking about.

What is the pleasure that you get from teaching writing?
Teaching writing has made me more conscious than I might otherwise have been of matters like voice and the development of scene and so on. We have very fine students at Iowa, good material to talk over, interesting questions to respond to.

© 2008