Teaching Creative Writing

Creative Writing is now taught in some form or other at most institutions of Higher Education in the UK and USA as well as in the rest of the world, and there has been a long ongoing dialogue between countries as this process has unfolded. This important book uses contributions from twenty-four academics in the UK and USA to give a comprehensive account of how Creative Writing is taught in Higher Education. Contributors examine a diverse range of topics, such as histories of Creative Writing, Creative Writing workshops, reflective activities, critical theory, Creative Writing at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels, assessment, and information technology. The collection includes both newer and more established practitioners within the field, with all of these voices coming together to contribute to the intellectual infrastructure of Creative Writing as an emerging discipline within the context of Higher Education.

Table of Contents:
Notes on Contributors Introduction; H.Beck PART I: HISTORY A Short History of Creative Writing in British Universities; G.Harper A History of Creative Writing in America; D.Henry On the Reform of Creative Writing; D.Myers PART II: WORKSHOPS Creative Writing as Creative Reading in the Poetry Workshop; R.B.Du Plessis & J.Osman The Irrational Element in the Undergraduate Poetry Workshop: Beyond Craft; G.Hawkins The Creative Writing Workshop - A Survival Kit; M.Wandor PART III: UNDERGRADUATE Undergraduate Creative Writing Provision in the UK: Origins, Trends, and Student Views; S.May Undergraduate Creative Writing in the USA: Buying in Isn't Selling Out; A.Leahy Hidden Purposes of Undergraduate Creative Writing: Power, Self, and Knowledge; H.Ostrom No Factories, Please - We're Writers; M.Freely PART IV: POSTGRADUATE Teaching Creative Writing at Postgraduate Levels: the Sheffield Hallam Experience; S.Earnshaw Creative Writing and Ph.D Research; J.Cook A Critique of Postgraduate Workshops and a Case for Low Residency MFAs; R.Hemley PART V: REFLECTIVE ACTIVITIES Reflections on Reflection: Supplementary Discourses in Creative Writing Teaching in the UK; R.Sheppard The Lynchpin in the Workshop: Student Critique and Reflection; S.Vanderslice From Wales to Vermont - A Round Trip - Creative Writing in the USA and UK; T.Curtis PART VI: CRITICAL THEORY Thinking Systematically About What We Do; K.Haake Re...creation, Critique, and Catalysis: Critical-Creative Rewriting in Theory and Practice; R.Pope Couplings, Matings, Hybridisations: What Writers Can Gain from Critical Theory; K.Lasky PART VI: ASSESSMENT Assessment of Poetry in Higher Education: What Are the Limits?; M.S.Robert Assessment as Empowerment: Grading Entry-Level Creative Writing Students; M.Cantrell Ranking Student Writing as Bad Pedagogy and a Bogus Pretense of Objectivity; S.O'Connor PART VIII: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY New Tools for Timeless Work: Technological Advances in Creative Writing Pedagogy; J.A.Nieves & J.Moxley Lancaster University's Creative Writing MA by Distance Learning; G.Mort Further Reading Index

About the Author :
HEATHER BECK is Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University's Writing School, UK, where she established an online MA in Creative Writing in 2001. Her main writing interests are short stories and novels, including Home is Where (2003).