ENGLISH 890: STUDIES IN COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC "TEACHING CREATIVE WRITING: THEORIES AND PRACTICES"

Composition Studies, Fall 2003 by Dawes, Kwame, Friend, Christy

Hemley, Robin. "Teaching Our Uncertainties." The Writer's Chronicle Feb. 2000. .

Elbow, Peter. "TheTcacherless Writing Class." Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. 77-135.

DeSalvo, Louise. "How Writing Can Help Us to Heal" and "Writing as a Therapeutic Process." Writing as a Way Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives. Boston: Beacon, 1999.

Berman, Jeffrey. Excerpt from Risky Writing: Self-Disclosure and Self-Transfor- mation in the Classroom. Amherst: U Massachusetts P, 2001. 1-67.

Green, Chris. "Materializing the Sublime Reader: Cultural Studies, Reader Response and Community Service in the Creative Writing Workshop." College English 64(2001): 153-174.

Cowan, Kay W. "The Arts and Emergent Literacy." Primary Voices K-6 9.4 (2001): 11-18.

Michaels, judith Rowe. Excerpt from Risking Intensity: reading and Writing Poetry with High School Students. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1999. 1-15.

Fenza, D.W. "Creative Writing and Its Discontents." The Writer's Chronicle Mar./Apr. 2000. .

Chihak, judy. "Success Is in the Details: Publishing to Validate Elementary Authors." Language Arts; 76 ( 1999): 491 -498.

Lardncr, Ted et al. "Interchange: Inquiring into the Nexus of Composition Studies and Creative Writing." CCC 51 (1999): 71-95.

Kostelhantz, Richard. "Opinion: Teaching and the 'Alternative' Writer." Co/lege English 64 (2001): 228-234.

Pound, Ezra. ABC of Reading. New York: New Directions, 1987. Ritter, Kelly. "Professional Writers/Writing Professionals: Revamping Teacher Training in Creative Writing Ph.D. Programs." College English 64 (2001): 202-227.

CRITICAL STATEMENT________________________________

In the past few years, specialists in creative writing and composition have called for increased collaboration between the two fields. Recent theme issues of College and CCC, at least one book (Bishop and Ostrom), and several articles in The Writer's Chronicle (see Penza, Hemley, Lott) have explored topics like creative writing pedagogy, the teaching of creative nonfiction, and intersections between composition theory and creative writing. Many of these discussions call attention to values and practices our fields share. Eor example, George Kalamaras believes that despite institutional histories that separate us, creative writing and composition nonetheless hold "a common position in relation to a shared object-the study, practice, and teaching of writing" (77). AWP Director D.W. Ecnza agrees that, especially at the undergraduate level, creative writing and composition courses have similar goals; both teach students "critical reading skills, the elements of craft, general persuasive writing skills, and an appreciation for literary works" (68).

Other discussions center on what teachers in the two fields might learn from each other. Kelly Ritter suggests that creative writing programs might emulate composition programs' models for training and mentoring novice instructors (220). Tim Mayers adds that composition theory could inform creative writing courses by calling attention to sociopolitical dimensions of literacy that fiction and poetry workshops often neglect (83). By the same token, Wendy Bishop argues that creative writers possess valuable resources for teaching craft and style - elements of writing currently out of vogue in composition scholarship ("Suddenly" 263). She further recommends that firstyear composition curricula expand their purview to encompass creative genres as well as academic ones, contending that students would find such courses more engaging and more relevant ("Suddenly" 265).