THERE’S MORE TO IOWA THAN CORN.

When most people think of Iowa, they think of corn, and possibly the movie Field of Dreams. Unless you’re a writer.

If you’re a writer, the great state of Iowa is synonymous with excellent writing. And that’s because it’s home to the famous University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop—the first, and still the best, creative writing degree program in the United States.

The program offers undergraduate programs, graduate MFA programs, non-degree summer workshops—and now, a free, online writing class.

That’s right, a free, online writing class.

How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women starts this Tuesday, October 11th (tomorrow!). The class is open to men and women of all ages, both beginning and experienced writers, and focuses on characters—the characters created by women writers and the female characters created by all writers.

They will post one class every Thursday, a pre-recorded video, a reading assignment and a writing assignment. You can work at your own pace until the class closes on Monday, November 21st.

It looks like there will also be an opportunity to post your writing assignments for your classmates to read and critique.

The course is free to sign up for, so after reading about it in one of my writing groups, I decided to try it out! Here’s the link to sign up if you want to join me, I’ll post a review of the course once I’ve made it through!