Creative Writing

This book examines the institutional history and disciplinary future of creative writing in the contemporary academy, looking well beyond the perennial questions 'can writing be taught?' and 'should writing be taught?'.Paul Dawson traces the emergence of creative writing alongside the new criticism in American universities; examines the writing workshop in relation to theories of creativity and literary criticism; and analyzes the evolution of creative writing pedagogy alongside and in response to the rise of 'theory' in America, England and Australia.Dawson argues that the discipline of creative writing developed as a series of pedagogic responses to the long-standing 'crisis' in literary studies. His polemical account provides a fresh perspective on the importance of creative writing to the emergence of the 'new humanities' and makes a major contribution to current debates about the role of the writer as public intellectual.

' How We Write is a thoughtful and admirably lucid attempt to explain and demystify the mental processes involved in the activity of writing.' - David Lodge How We Write is an accessible guide to the entire creative writing process, referring to a wealth of examples from writers such as Umberto Eco, Terry Prachett and Ian Fleming. Topics include how children learn to write, the visual design of text, and the impact of technology on writing. How We Write will be of value to students and teachers of language and psychology, professional and aspiring writers, and anyone interested in this familiar yet complex activity.

Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the Routledge English Language Introductions series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries and key readings - all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible 'two-dimensional' structure is built around four sections - introductions, development, exploration and extension - which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can also be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained. Stylistics :* is a comprehensive introduction to literary stylistics* covers the core areas, including register, dialect, vocabulary, grammar, sound and rhythm, speech and thought, narrative, dialogue, metaphor and meaning* draws on a range of literary texts, from Ernest Hemingway and D.H. Lawrence to Sylvia Plath, Roger McGough and Irvine Welsh* provides classic readings by the key names in the discipline, including Derek Attridge, Ronald Carter and Walter Nash, Roger Fowler and Mick Short.

For more than a quarter of a century, Pat Schneider has helped writers find and liberate their true voices. She has taught all kinds--the award winning, the struggling, and those who have been silenced by poverty and hardship. Her innovative methods have worked in classrooms from elementary to graduate level, in jail cells and public housing projects, in convents and seminaries, in youth at-risk programs, and with groups of the terminally ill. Now, in Writing Alone and with Others, Schneider's acclaimed methods are available in a single well-organized and highly readable volume. The first part of the book guides the reader through the perils of the solitary writing life: fear, writer's block, and the bad habits of the internal critic. In the second section, Schneider describes the Amherst Writers and Artists workshop method, widely used across the U.S. and abroad. Chapters on fiction and poetry address matters of technique and point to further resources, while more than a hundred writing exercises offer specific ways to jumpstart the blocked and stretch the rut-stuck. Schneider's innovative teaching method will refresh the experienced writer and encourage the beginner. Her book is the essential owner's manual for the writer's voice.

This book shows that writing groups function first and foremost as literary events. Understanding writing groups as literary events requires that they be seen contextually. One can then begin to comprehend more fully the different types of collaboration that take place in writing groups across setting and communities and the nature of those collaborations. The contributors in this book address the following questions: What impact does gender, race, and/or socioeconomic class have on power dynamics within writing groups? How does the local community of a writing group impact group members' participation in other local and global communities? When is a writing group a community, and are all writing groups communities? What actions contribute to a strong community of writers and what actions contribute to the breakdown of community? When and for whom are writing groups ineffective? Ultimately, what is it about belonging to a community of writers that makes writing groups appealing to so many within and beyond the academy? This book aims not to provide definitive answers to these questions, but to answer some of these questions as they relate to their local writing groups. It will be of interest to writing instructors, writing center directors, and others involved with writing groups.

In this ethnographic study of the teaching of writing, Karen Surman Paley reveals the social significance of first-person writing and the limitations of a popular taxonomy of composition studies. Paley looks critically at the way social constructionists have created an "Other" in the field of composition studies and named it "expressivist".

Paley demonstrates the complexity of approaches to teaching writing through an ethnographic study of two composition faculty at Boston College, a program that some would say is "expressivist". She prompts her colleagues to consider how family experiences shape the way students feel about and treat people of races, religions, genders, and sexual preferences other than their own. Finally, she suggests to the field of composition that practitioners spend less time shoring up taxonomies of the field and more time sharing pedagogies.

Fifteen authors from the United States, Australia, and Germany contribute articles on issues such as the political agenda of higher institutions, language across the curriculum, service learning, adult education, artistic and aesthetic practice, intercultural awareness through electronic media, extra-curricular consultation, and language learning outreach, related to Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, French, German, and English as a foreign and second language.

'Writing Cures' demonstrates the power of expressive & reflective writing in the context of therapy, whether online or text-based, enabling the practitioner to undertake writing methods with clients.

The Art of Professional Reflection explains how creative writing can be used successfully in the context of professional education. It argues that there is a role for this imaginative style in an area that has traditionally favored a more distance approach to reporting on the professional experience. This book makes available a new and more broadly based approach to the process of professional reflection.