Creativity and Writing Pedagogy
Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers
Edited by
Harriet Levin Millan [+–]
Drexel University
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Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
Martha C. Pennington [+–]
Birkbeck University of London
Martha C Pennington is a Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck University of London. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she became a tenured Lecturer teaching English to international students while completing her degree. She has also held Professorial and administrative posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of Bedfordshire, Elizabethtown College, and the School for African and Oriental Studies of the University of London. She previously edited a column for Gendai Eigo Kyoiku (Modern English Teaching) and was editor-in-chief of Writing & Pedagogy. She is currently editor of the book series Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching (Brill, formerly Elsevier), Frameworks for Writing (Equinox), and Applied Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching (Equinox). Pennington’s books on pronunciation are Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach(Longman), Phonology in Context (Palgrave Macmillan), and (with P Rogerson-Revell) English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). She has published articles on the teaching of pronunciation in edited collections and in TESOL Quarterly, The Modern Language Journal, and RELC Journal, and has guest-edited a special issue (52.1) of RELC Journal on Pronunciation Teaching.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy: Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers offers a unique view of creative practices and pedagogy in writing from the perspective of writing teachers, creativity researchers and scholars, and writers themselves. The volume, collected and edited by a poet and a scholar who are both involved in the teaching of writing, seeks to bridge between the creative writing and the academic writing communities in building a case for creativity as central to all writing programs and showcasing creative practices in writing. With this goal in mind, the book combines a practical emphasis on creativity in writing pedagogy and curriculum with research and reflections on writing practices. Part 1 frames the collection by providing the editors’ perspectives, followed by five chapters in Part 2 which take research perspectives on creativity in writing. Part 3 offers four views of writers’ creative practices, and Part 4 offers two reflections on creative writing pedagogy. Part 5 broadens the coverage on writing and creativity to include travel, testing, and curriculum development in an international context.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy is unusual in linking research and practice in writing and the teaching of writing, as well as creative writing and academic writing orientations. The collection should be of interest to all writers and teachers of writing who want to expand their knowledge of creativity and creative practices in writing and the teaching of writing.
Series: Frameworks for Writing
Table of Contents
Preliminaries
Preface [+–] viii
Drexel University
Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
Birkbeck University of London
Martha C Pennington is a Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck University of London. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she became a tenured Lecturer teaching English to international students while completing her degree. She has also held Professorial and administrative posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of Bedfordshire, Elizabethtown College, and the School for African and Oriental Studies of the University of London. She previously edited a column for Gendai Eigo Kyoiku (Modern English Teaching) and was editor-in-chief of Writing & Pedagogy. She is currently editor of the book series Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching (Brill, formerly Elsevier), Frameworks for Writing (Equinox), and Applied Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching (Equinox). Pennington’s books on pronunciation are Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach(Longman), Phonology in Context (Palgrave Macmillan), and (with P Rogerson-Revell) English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). She has published articles on the teaching of pronunciation in edited collections and in TESOL Quarterly, The Modern Language Journal, and RELC Journal, and has guest-edited a special issue (52.1) of RELC Journal on Pronunciation Teaching.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy: Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers offers a unique view of creative practices and pedagogy in writing from the perspective of writing teachers, creativity researchers and scholars, and writers themselves. The volume, collected and edited by a poet and a scholar who are both involved in the teaching of writing, seeks to bridge between the creative writing and the academic writing communities in building a case for creativity as central to all writing programs and showcasing creative practices in writing. With this goal in mind, the book combines a practical emphasis on creativity in writing pedagogy and curriculum with research and reflections on writing practices. Part 1 frames the collection by providing the editors’ perspectives, followed by five chapters in Part 2 which take research perspectives on creativity in writing. Part 3 offers four views of writers’ creative practices, and Part 4 offers two reflections on creative writing pedagogy. Part 5 broadens the coverage on writing and creativity to include travel, testing, and curriculum development in an international context. Creativity and Writing Pedagogy is unusual in linking research and practice in writing and the teaching of writing, as well as creative writing and academic writing orientations. The collection should be of interest to all writers and teachers of writing who want to expand their knowledge of creativity and creative practices in writing and the teaching of writing.
Editors [+–] ix-x
Drexel University
Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy: Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers offers a unique view of creative practices and pedagogy in writing from the perspective of writing teachers, creativity researchers and scholars, and writers themselves. The volume, collected and edited by a poet and a scholar who are both involved in the teaching of writing, seeks to bridge between the creative writing and the academic writing communities in building a case for creativity as central to all writing programs and showcasing creative practices in writing. With this goal in mind, the book combines a practical emphasis on creativity in writing pedagogy and curriculum with research and reflections on writing practices. Part 1 frames the collection by providing the editors’ perspectives, followed by five chapters in Part 2 which take research perspectives on creativity in writing. Part 3 offers four views of writers’ creative practices, and Part 4 offers two reflections on creative writing pedagogy. Part 5 broadens the coverage on writing and creativity to include travel, testing, and curriculum development in an international context. Creativity and Writing Pedagogy is unusual in linking research and practice in writing and the teaching of writing, as well as creative writing and academic writing orientations. The collection should be of interest to all writers and teachers of writing who want to expand their knowledge of creativity and creative practices in writing and the teaching of writing.
Contributors [+–] xiii-xix
Drexel University
Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
Birkbeck University of London
Martha C Pennington is a Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck University of London. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she became a tenured Lecturer teaching English to international students while completing her degree. She has also held Professorial and administrative posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of Bedfordshire, Elizabethtown College, and the School for African and Oriental Studies of the University of London. She previously edited a column for Gendai Eigo Kyoiku (Modern English Teaching) and was editor-in-chief of Writing & Pedagogy. She is currently editor of the book series Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching (Brill, formerly Elsevier), Frameworks for Writing (Equinox), and Applied Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching (Equinox). Pennington’s books on pronunciation are Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach(Longman), Phonology in Context (Palgrave Macmillan), and (with P Rogerson-Revell) English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). She has published articles on the teaching of pronunciation in edited collections and in TESOL Quarterly, The Modern Language Journal, and RELC Journal, and has guest-edited a special issue (52.1) of RELC Journal on Pronunciation Teaching.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy: Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers offers a unique view of creative practices and pedagogy in writing from the perspective of writing teachers, creativity researchers and scholars, and writers themselves. The volume, collected and edited by a poet and a scholar who are both involved in the teaching of writing, seeks to bridge between the creative writing and the academic writing communities in building a case for creativity as central to all writing programs and showcasing creative practices in writing. With this goal in mind, the book combines a practical emphasis on creativity in writing pedagogy and curriculum with research and reflections on writing practices. Part 1 frames the collection by providing the editors’ perspectives, followed by five chapters in Part 2 which take research perspectives on creativity in writing. Part 3 offers four views of writers’ creative practices, and Part 4 offers two reflections on creative writing pedagogy. Part 5 broadens the coverage on writing and creativity to include travel, testing, and curriculum development in an international context. Creativity and Writing Pedagogy is unusual in linking research and practice in writing and the teaching of writing, as well as creative writing and academic writing orientations. The collection should be of interest to all writers and teachers of writing who want to expand their knowledge of creativity and creative practices in writing and the teaching of writing.
Part 1. Framing the Collection
Drexel University
Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
The co-editor of the volume provides a personal introduction to the collection and an overview of the contents, explaining that the overriding questions the editors and authors asked themselves in assembling this volume was: How do practicing writers enhance their own creativity, and how successful have they been in helping their students become more creative? Could the very same approaches that writers use for their own creative practice be taught to their students? Could a body of best practices be assembled, or is creativity still an individual response?
2. Towards a Creative Writing Pedagogy [+–] 17-24
Birkbeck University of London
Martha C Pennington is a Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck University of London. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she became a tenured Lecturer teaching English to international students while completing her degree. She has also held Professorial and administrative posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of Bedfordshire, Elizabethtown College, and the School for African and Oriental Studies of the University of London. She previously edited a column for Gendai Eigo Kyoiku (Modern English Teaching) and was editor-in-chief of Writing & Pedagogy. She is currently editor of the book series Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching (Brill, formerly Elsevier), Frameworks for Writing (Equinox), and Applied Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching (Equinox). Pennington’s books on pronunciation are Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach(Longman), Phonology in Context (Palgrave Macmillan), and (with P Rogerson-Revell) English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). She has published articles on the teaching of pronunciation in edited collections and in TESOL Quarterly, The Modern Language Journal, and RELC Journal, and has guest-edited a special issue (52.1) of RELC Journal on Pronunciation Teaching.
In Chapter 2, Co-Editor Martha Pennington adds further framing for the book by offering a view in her essay, “Towards a Creative Writing Pedagogy,” of the transgressive nature of writing in both “non-creative” (academic) writing and literary writing. Pennington’s notion expands the study of creativity to include the processes behind all acts of writing.
Part 2. Research Perspectives on Creativity in Writing
3. Writing and Drugs [+–] 25-47
Harvard Medical School
Alice W. Flaherty is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her her A.B. and M. D. at Harvard and did a Ph.D. at M.I.T. Her scientific research focuses on brain systems that control drives, whether to walk, to communicate, or to create. Her general audience book, The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, and her childrens’ book, The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating, have received public honors. Both have been multiply translated, and dramatized. Dr. Flaherty has appeared in documentaries and news features on ABC, BBC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and in Japan, Germany, Australia, and the Middle East.
Brain diseases and their medical treatment may help or hurt creativity. They do so by changing the brain’s motivational system. Scientists and cultural historians have proposed links between creativity and disorders ranging from depression and psychosis to epilepsy and syphilis, but the best evidence is for conditions such as hypomania (mild mania) that elevate energy and mood. Many writers with symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or even insomnia need advice about what medications can do to creativity. Doctors, however, typically dodge the issue. This article describes what drugs may be safest, and also reviews the effects of intoxicants such as alcohol. In general, treating severe illness has benefit to creativity that outweighs the medication side effects, but some medications are better than others.
Drexel University
Fredricka K. Reisman holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Syracuse University and is Professor and Director of the Drexel Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation at Drexel University. Dr. Reisman is founding director of the Drexel School of Education and oversees the Master in Creativity and Innovation degree and certificates in the Goodwin College of Professional Studies. She is president of the American Creativity Association and has authored a trilogy on teaching mathematics creatively with E. Paul Torrance. She is grateful for her 30 year friendship and collaboration with E. Paul Torrance commencing with her academic appointments at the University of Georgia and continuing until his death in 2003.
This article integrates a research foundation in creativity with practical applications to writing pedagogy. A creativity assessment based upon the work of Torrance and Guilford and designed for diagnosing rather than predicting individual creative thinking strengths ispresented along with tools and techniques for enhancing creative writing pedagogy and a preliminary analysis of user comments on effectiveness.
5. Detecting the Creative in Written Discourse [+–] 89-118
Victoria University of Wellington
Sky Marsen is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Communication at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Marsen, who has a background in Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Cognitive Science, and Information and Communication Studies, has previously published Professional Writing: The Complete Guide for Business, Industry and IT (Palgrave, 2nd Edition, 2007); Communication Studies (Palgrave, 2006); and Narrative Dimensions of Philosophy: A Semiotic Exploration in the Work of Merleau-Ponty, Kierkegaard and Austin (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). In addition to her academic work, she has advised on communication issues in professional contexts, notably as a project manager at IBM.
This article explores the creative aspects of written discourse. It argues that all written texts, regardless of genre, contain creative elements to varying degrees, largely because of the representational aspects of written language. The article proposes an approach that places creative elements of texts on a continuum of low to high creativity, and it discusses the stylistic factors that underpin this continuum. By analyzing selected examples from a database of texts, the article explains some pertinent linguistic and non-linguistic approaches to creativity, and it leads to a typology of semantic, syntactic and textual techniques through which creativity can be studied.
Columbia University
Dorothea Lasky recently completed her Ed.D. in the Teaching, Learning, and Leadership program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. In addition, she holds an Ed.M. in Arts Education from Harvard University and a M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the author of three full-length books of poems, AWE, Black Life, and Thunderbird, all from Wave Books. She is also the author of nine chapbooks, including Poetry is Not a Project (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). She has taught poetry at New York University, Columbia University, and Wesleyan University, among other places.
This article discusses creativity within the classroom with a focus on creative writing. First, it reviews concepts of creativity in the educational literature and a previous study on how science teachers fostered “small c” creativity in their classrooms. Small-c creativity values the kind of thinking that produces new ideas in learners but is not necessarily historically important to any field or domain. It can be argued that when educators help their students excel at thinking creatively every day, it assists them in more frequently producing creative products. Using this theoretical lens, an analytical study framework was developed from a review of the literature stating that teachers who foster small-c creativity: (1) support divergent thinking; (2) accept learning artifacts that are novel; (3) nurture collaboration in which individual kinds of creativity are supported; (4) provide choices in what is an acceptable response; and (5) include lesson guidelines that enhance learning and self-confidence. Findings of the science study were applied to the writing classroom, as five poet-teachers were interviewed regarding their beliefs about small-c creativity. The themes that emerged within the teacher interviews are discussed. The piece concludes with recommendations for writing teachers geared to help them foster small-c creativity in their classrooms.
Rebecca Ingalls £17.50
Taking a hybrid approach of research and narrative, theory and reflection, this essay utilizes yogic theory as a lens to discuss how students can negotiate one of the more challenging aspects of their research writing: freely setting out into the realm of creative, original research while negotiating genre-based constraints. I present research on genre and the “containment” of composition that highlights some of the past and current discussion about the potentially inhibiting heuristics that can shut down students’ constructions of agency and creativity in researched writing. Drawing upon research in contemplative pedagogy, essential texts of yogic philosophy, and images of the body in asana, I use the philosophy and language of yogic practice to propose a pedagogy that invites students to see their way toward an embodied practice of research, one that helps them to acknowledge and negotiate generic constraints, seek innovation, and accept uncertainty in their research-based writing.
Part 3. Writers’ Creative Practices
Bellvue College
Martha Silano is the author of three books of poetry: What the Truth Tastes Like (Nightshade Press, 1999), Blue Positive (Steel Toe Books, 2006), and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, chosen by Campbell McGrath as the winner of the 2010 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry Daily, AGNI, American Poetry Review, and The Best American Poetry 2009, among others. Martha holds degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Washington and teaches at Bellevue College.
No one has enough time to write; take that as a given, but nearly everyone can find 10-20 minutes a day to jot down a few notes – things noticed, a fact read in the newspaper or book, or heard on the radio. These notes will come in handy when a larger block of time for writing presents itself, for they are often the kindling for a first draft. Writing a little bit each day is akin to leaving the faucets dripping on a cold January night; while the ideas are flowing the creative pipes won’t freeze.
9. Beating Drums in the Caves of the Underworld: The Creative Process as a Journey into the Spirit World [+–] 179-191
Georgia Southern University
Laura Valeri is the author of two collections of short stories, Safe in Your Head (Stephen F. Austin University Press) and The Kinds of Things Saints Do (University of Iowa Press), both recipients of literary awards and honors. She has written numerous short stories and essays on craft for a variety of journals and e-zines, and she is currently at work on a novel about Sumerian mythology. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from Florida International University and an M.F.A. in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University.
Writing a story is on the surface only a matter of discipline, but I argue that inherent in the creative process is a battle between order and chaos documented in the earliest myths of civilization. I examine several myths about the journey to the underworld to suggest that these stories are metaphors for the biology and psychology that empower the creative process.
Fairfield University
Sonya Huber is an Assistant Professor teaching creative writing and composition at Fairfield University, Connecticut (USA). Her background includes sociology/anthropology at Carleton University, an M.A. in journalism, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University. Among her many publications in a wide variety of genres are the books Opa Nobody and Cover Me, A Health Insurance Memoir, both with the University of Nebraska Press; articles in Psychology Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Sojourner; and creative writing in Literary Mama and Fourth Genre.
The trilingual anthology How to Write an Earthquake /Comment écrire /Mou pou 12 Janvye, edited by Beaudelaine Pierre and Nataša Ďurovičová, offers an invaluable account of the Haitian earthquake of January 2010. The anthology stands as an implicit alternative to the mainstream conceptions of relevant “public” literary nonfiction writing in the United States and argues that the creative process of the individual authors offers a path not only for individual but also for social and even global understanding of a public trauma.
Georgia Southern University
Emma Bolden is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Georgia Southern University. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She is the author of three chapbooks of poetry: How to Recognize a Lady, published as part of Edge by Edge, the third in Toadlily Press’ Quartet Series; The Mariner’s Wife, published by Finishing Line Press; and The Sad Epistles, published by Dancing Girl Press. Her work has appeared in journals such as Prairie Schooner, the Indiana Review, the Greensboro Review, Feminist Studies, and Guernica.
Advances in computer coding and Internet technology are drastically redefining publishing and literature itself. This article examines how e-literature, literary texts dependent on code, differs from and works to supplement traditionally printed literature. In particular, e-literature alters traditional concepts of authorship and readership. A coded interface requires the input of a reader to generate a text; the resulting text is therefore a collaboration between the reader and the author, resulting in a change each time the text is read. . The article examines how hypertext pioneers have explored the possibilities offered by computer coding and the Internet, expanding the limits of literary creation and altering the very definition of literature itself.
Part 4. Creative Writing Pedagogy
12. Using Fractals to Undermine Familiarity: Implementing Writing Pedagogy through the Operations of Shape and Chance [+–] 209-218
Central Connecticut State University
Ravi Shankar is Associate Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University, founding editor and Executive Director of Drunken Boat, the international online journal of the arts, and Chairman of the Connecticut Young Writers Trust. He has published or edited seven books or chapbooks of poetry, including the 2010 National Poetry Review Prize winner, Deepening Groove (National Poetry Review). Along with Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, he edited Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from Asia, the Middle East & Beyond (W.W Norton & Co.), called “a beautiful achievement for world literature” by Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer. He has won a Pushcart Prize, been featured in The New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education, appeared on the BBC and NPR, and has performed his work around the world. He is currently on the faculty of the first international MFA Program at City University of Hong Kong.
More than mere mathematical form, the fractal and other processes of chance can be used to help spur creative writing in new directions. From the inception of the I Ching, some form of constraint and the use of chance operations have been employed for centuries to free the creative impulse from overdetermination. This essay explores how one writer uses the flux of chaos both in the classroom and in his own writing, from collaborations to specifically designed writing exercises that help free the unconscious mind while still providing a sturdy architecture for perception.
Villanova University
Lisa Sewell holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.F.A. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Tufts University. Her most recent books are Name Withheld (Four Way Books), Long Corridor (7K Press), and Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics across North America,
the latter co-edited with Claudia Rankine (Wesleyan University Press). She has received grants from the Leeway Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown. She is an Associate Professor in the English Department and Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies
Program at Villanova University.
the latter co-edited with Claudia Rankine (Wesleyan University Press). She has received grants from the Leeway Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown. She is an Associate Professor in the English Department and Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies
Program at Villanova University.
Many writers begin as avid readers: reading can be the impetus and inspiration for their own work. In addition, many writers teach in undergraduate creative writing programs where they are confronted with students who do not share their relationship to reading or to language. This situation creates two problems: students aren’t engaged enough by language to make creative use of their reading and they lack a sense of authority that might allow them to be helpful critics of one another’s work. This essay explores and explains one strategy I have used in my undergraduate creative writing courses to address both issues. By asking my students to write creative responses to each other’s work, they learn to read more closely and carefully and also gain a sense of authority and competence in providing constructive criticism.
Part 5. Broadening the Contexts of Creativity and Writing
14. The Creative Process and Travel [+–] 229-238
University of Iowa
Robin Hemley has authored ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including Turning Life into Fiction; Do-Over!; and most recently, A Field Guide for Immersion Writing: Memoir, Travel, and Journalism (University of Georgia Press); and Reply All, his third collection of award-winning stories (Break Away Books, Indiana University Press). He has taught creative writing workshops around the world and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He directs the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa, is the founder of the biennial conference NonfictioNow, is a senior editor at The Iowa Review and the editor of the online magazine, Defunct (Defunctmag.com). He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Writing trips overseas are recalled and proposed as a valuable source of inspiration for budding writers when they are thrown into a new context. The focus of discussion is on a program that takes a creative writing class abroad as part of the university curriculum.
15. Assessing Creativity in College through Writing [+–] 239-243
Oklahoma State University
Robert J. Sternberg is Provost, Senior Vice President, and Regents Professor of Psychology and Education at Oklahoma State University, as well as Honorary Professor at Heidelberg University in Germany. His Ph.D. is from Stanford University in psychology and he holds 12 honorary doctorates. He is a former President of the American Psychological Association and is President of the Federation of Associations of Brain and Behavioral Sciences.
Assessment of students for college admissions and performance tends to emphasize memory and analytical skills – that is, one’s retrieval of acquired knowledge and one’s skill in analyzing that knowledge. But in everyday life, individuals need creative skills to generate new ideas, analytical skills to assess the value of those ideas, practical skills to implement the ideas and to persuade others of their value, and wisdom-based skills to ensure the ideas help achieve a common good. I discuss in this article a program for assessing the creative, practical, and wisdom-based skills that currently are neglected by many assessments, and provide data regarding the outcomes of the program.
University of Reading
Rodney H. Jones is Professor of Sociolinguistics at University of Reading. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Macquarie University. His recent books include Discourse and Creativity (Pearson, 2012), Discourse Analysis: A Resource Book for Students (Routledge, 2012), and Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction (with Christoph Hafner, 2012, Routledge).
City University of Hong Kong
Xu Xi 許素細 (www.xuxiwriter.com) is author of nine books of
fiction and essays, most recently Access Thirteen Tales (2011);
the novel Habit of a Foreign Sky (2010), which was a finalist for
the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize; and Evanescent Isles
(2008), an essay collection. She is also editor or co-editor of four
anthologies of Hong Kong writing in English, most recently The
Queen of Statue Square: New Hong Kong Short Fiction, to be
published in 2014 by CCC Press, Nottingham, U.K. In 2010, she
joined City University of Hong Kong as the Writer-in-Residence
in the Department of English, where she helped to establish and
now directs Asia’s first low-residency MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)
in Creative Writing (www.english.cityu.edu.hk/mfa). The author
holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst.
fiction and essays, most recently Access Thirteen Tales (2011);
the novel Habit of a Foreign Sky (2010), which was a finalist for
the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize; and Evanescent Isles
(2008), an essay collection. She is also editor or co-editor of four
anthologies of Hong Kong writing in English, most recently The
Queen of Statue Square: New Hong Kong Short Fiction, to be
published in 2014 by CCC Press, Nottingham, U.K. In 2010, she
joined City University of Hong Kong as the Writer-in-Residence
in the Department of English, where she helped to establish and
now directs Asia’s first low-residency MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)
in Creative Writing (www.english.cityu.edu.hk/mfa). The author
holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst.
This article explores the prospects for internationalizing the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, a degree that has gained considerable popularity in the United States in the past half century but has yet to gain much of a foothold in other countries. As part of this exploration, we describe the experiences of establishing the first low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Asia at City University of Hong Kong, explaining the justification for setting up such a program with reference to the history of teaching creative writing and the current conditions for literary writing in English in Asia and globally. We also reflect upon the processes of planning, curriculum design, and administrative negotiation and that went into setting up the program and report on feedback from the first cohort of students. The experience of setting up this program is used as the basis for raising a number of more general issues regarding the teaching of creative writing in English in international contexts.
End Matter
Author Index [+–] 261-267
Drexel University
Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy: Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers offers a unique view of creative practices and pedagogy in writing from the perspective of writing teachers, creativity researchers and scholars, and writers themselves. The volume, collected and edited by a poet and a scholar who are both involved in the teaching of writing, seeks to bridge between the creative writing and the academic writing communities in building a case for creativity as central to all writing programs and showcasing creative practices in writing. With this goal in mind, the book combines a practical emphasis on creativity in writing pedagogy and curriculum with research and reflections on writing practices. Part 1 frames the collection by providing the editors’ perspectives, followed by five chapters in Part 2 which take research perspectives on creativity in writing. Part 3 offers four views of writers’ creative practices, and Part 4 offers two reflections on creative writing pedagogy. Part 5 broadens the coverage on writing and creativity to include travel, testing, and curriculum development in an international context. Creativity and Writing Pedagogy is unusual in linking research and practice in writing and the teaching of writing, as well as creative writing and academic writing orientations. The collection should be of interest to all writers and teachers of writing who want to expand their knowledge of creativity and creative practices in writing and the teaching of writing.
Subject Index [+–] 269-275
Drexel University
Harriet Levin Millan (MFA, University of Iowa Writers Workshop) is an associate teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University. Her books include Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) and The Christmas Show (Beacon Press), which was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A former New York State Poet in the Schools, she has received grants from The Vermont Studio Center and from Summer Literary Seminars for travel to Kenya. She is currently writing a novel set in Kenya, Sudan, and Philadelphia. The first chapter can be found in the January 2011 Issue of The Kenyon Review.
Creativity and Writing Pedagogy: Linking Creative Writers, Researchers, and Teachers offers a unique view of creative practices and pedagogy in writing from the perspective of writing teachers, creativity researchers and scholars, and writers themselves. The volume, collected and edited by a poet and a scholar who are both involved in the teaching of writing, seeks to bridge between the creative writing and the academic writing communities in building a case for creativity as central to all writing programs and showcasing creative practices in writing. With this goal in mind, the book combines a practical emphasis on creativity in writing pedagogy and curriculum with research and reflections on writing practices. Part 1 frames the collection by providing the editors’ perspectives, followed by five chapters in Part 2 which take research perspectives on creativity in writing. Part 3 offers four views of writers’ creative practices, and Part 4 offers two reflections on creative writing pedagogy. Part 5 broadens the coverage on writing and creativity to include travel, testing, and curriculum development in an international context. Creativity and Writing Pedagogy is unusual in linking research and practice in writing and the teaching of writing, as well as creative writing and academic writing orientations. The collection should be of interest to all writers and teachers of writing who want to expand their knowledge of creativity and creative practices in writing and the teaching of writing.
ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9781781791158
Price (Hardback)
£75.00 / $95.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9781781791165
Price (Paperback)
£25.00 / $34.95
ISBN (eBook)
9781781793237
Price (eBook)
Individual
£25.00 / $34.95
Institutional
£550.00 / $700.00
£25.00 / $34.95
Institutional
£550.00 / $700.00
Publication
07/11/2014
Pages
294
Size
234 x 156
Readership
writing instructors
Availability
Individual chapters are available for purchase. Where applicable, VAT will be charged at the prevailing rate.
