TOPICS IN WRITING STUDIES - CREATIVE WRITING STUDIES

Course Description

In this introduction to creative writing studies, we will explore the history of creative writing within academia and critically examine what it is we do in the creative writing workshop. We will study and discuss a number of creative writing pedagogies and consider the following questions: What historical factors have informed the institutionalization of creative writing? How do dominant ideological forces impact creative writing workshops? How is value established in creative writing, and where do directives such as “show don’t tell” and “write what you know” come from? Finally, what might the future of creative writing studies entail? At the end of the quarter, students will design their own creative writing course that is conversant with the many dynamic conversations surrounding the field of creative writing studies.

Required Text

Barry, Lynda, Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor Drawn & Quarterly (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Haake, Katherine, What Our Speech Disrupts (I will distribute a PDF)
Vanderslice, Stephanie, Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught? Resisting Lore in Creative Writing Pedagogy (10th anniversary ed.) Bloomsbury
Chavez, Felicia Rose, The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom Haymarket Books

Optional Text

Alexandia Peary and Tom Hunley, Eds., Creative Writing Pedagogies for the Twenty-First Century Southern Illinois University Press
Mayers, Tim. (Re)Writing Craft. University of Pittsburgh Press
Myers, D. G. The Elephants Teach University of Chicago Press