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Article: Frank Conroy; Author and Iowa Writers' Workshop Director
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- April 7, 2005
- Author:
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Frank Conroy, who exerted a strong influence over a generation of
American writers despite his own slender literary output, died April
6 of colon cancer at his home in Iowa City. He was 69.
For the past 18 years, he was director of the Iowa Writers'
Workshop, the country's oldest and most esteemed creative writing
program, where he helped discover and polish literary talent. He had
planned to leave his post later this year.
But his lasting fame, and his credibility as a writer and teacher,
stemmed from his 1967 memoir, "Stop-Time," which explored his bleak
but artistically fevered childhood and helped launch the modern trend
of the confessional memoir. He was 31 when "Stop-Time," his first ...