Arts academy inducts 2 UI grads

Jorie Graham and T. Coraghessan Boyle

Two writers with ties to the University of Iowa Writers’  Workshop in Iowa City have been voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Jorie Graham and T. Coraghessan Boyle, also known as T.C. Boyle, were among nine inductees, the academy announced Monday, April 13. 

Graham, 58, received her M.F. A. from the UI Writers’ Workshop in 1978 and later taught in the workshop.  She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1996 for “The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994.”

Boyle, 60, a novelist and short-story writer, received his M.F.A. from the UI Writers’ Workshop in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 19th-century British literature from the UI in 1977.

His awards include six O. Henry Awards for short fiction.

His 12 novels include “The Women,” published this year, and “Drop City,” published in 2003.

Graham and Boyle will be formally inducted into the academy in May.