What We Talk about When We Talk about Creative Writing: (14 New Writing Viewpoints)

Marking the tenth anniversary of the New Writing Viewpoints series, this new book takes the concept of an edited collection to its extreme, pushing the possibilities of scholarship and collaboration. All authors in this book, including those who contributed to Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom, which launched the series ten years ago, are proof that creative writing matters, that it can be rewarding over the long haul and that there exist many ways to do what we do as writers and as teachers. This book captures a wide swathe of ideas on pedagogy, on programs, on the profession and on careers.

Table of Contents:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION PEDAGOGY 1. Cathy Day, Anna Leahy and Stephanie Vanderslice: Where Are We Going in Creative Writing Pedagogy? 2. Anna Leahy and Larissa Szporluk: Good Counsel: Creative Writing, the Imagination, and Teaching 3. Sandy Feinstein, Suzanne Greenberg, Susan Hubbard, Brent Royster and Anna Leahy: Writerly Reading in the Creative Writing Course PROGRAMS 4. Lia Halloran, Claudine Jaenichen and Anna Leahy: Text(ure), Modeling, Collage: Creative Writing and Arts Pedagogy 5. Anna Leahy, Leslie Pietrzyk, Mary Swander and Amy Sage Webb: More than the Sum of Our Parts: Variety in Graduate Programs 6. Katharine Haake, Anna Leahy and Argie Manolis: The Bold and the Beautiful: Rethinking Undergraduate Models 7. James P. Blaylock, Douglas Dechow, Anna Leahy and Jan Osborn: The Program Beyond the Program THE PROFESSION 8. Dianne Donnelly, Tom C. Hunley, Anna Leahy, Tim Mayers, Dinty W. Moore and Stephanie Vanderslice: Creative Writing (Re)Defined 9. Rachel Haley Himmelheber, Anna Leahy, Julie Platt and James Ryan: Terms and Trends: Creative Writing and the Academy CAREERS 10. Mary Cantrell, Rachel Hall, Anna Leahy and Audrey Petty: Peas in a Pod: Trajectories of Educations and Careers 11. Nicole Cooley, Kate Greenstreet, Nancy Kuhl and Anna Leahy: The First Book 12. Karen Craigo and Anna Leahy: Taking the Stage, Stage Fright, Center Stage: Careers Over Time CONCLUSION 13. Anna Leahy: Political, Practical, and Philosophical Considerations for the Future CONTRIBUTORS’ NOTES

About the Author :
Anna Leahy is Associate Professor of English, Associate Director of the MFA in Creative Writing, and Director of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity at Chapman University, USA. She has published widely on creative writing pedagogy, as well as creative non-fiction and poetry. She is the editor of TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics.

Review :
Dialogue, experiment, variety… These are at the heart of creative writing pedagogy, and reading this book is like eavesdropping on the process at work. Coming straight from the workface of American universities, it raises questions both practical and theoretical, creative and critical, that animate this growing and evolving discipline worldwide. This is a candid exploration of what happens in the writing classroom, what should and could happen, and how these writer-teachers are themselves developing creatively as practicing artists thanks to their pedagogical curiosities. I found myself continually taking notes and have no doubt these ruminations will greatly influence further scholarship in creative writing studies.