—ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPERAY Trang 8 ContentsPreface Stephanie Vanderslice ixAcknowledgments xx1 How We Got Here: The History of Creative Writing in Higher Education 12 Research and the T
Teaching Creative Writing Teaching Creative Writing The Essential Guide Stephanie Vanderslice BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2024 Copyright © Stephanie Vanderslice, 2024 Stephanie Vanderslice has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p xx constitute an extension of this copyright page Cover design: Rebecca Heselton Cover image: marekuliasz/iStock All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Vanderslice, Stephanie, author Title: Teaching creative writing : the essential guide / Stephanie Vanderslice Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2024 | Includes bibliographical references and index Identifiers: LCCN 2023030919 (print) | LCCN 2023030920 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350276482 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350276499 (paperback) | ISBN 9781350276505 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781350276512 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Creative writing (Higher education) Classification: LCC PE1404 V37 2024 (print) | LCC PE1404 (ebook) | DDC 808/.0420711–dc23/eng/20231024 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023030919 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023030920 ISBN: HB: 978-1-3502-7648-2 PB: 978-1-3502-7649-9 ePDF: 978-1-3502-7650-5 eBook: 978-1-3502-7651-2 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters Your task is not to see the future, but to enable it —ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPERAY To generations of writers and creative writing teachers to come Contents Preface Stephanie Vanderslice ix Acknowledgments xx 1 How We Got Here: The History of Creative Writing in Higher Education 1 2 Research and the Teaching of Creative Writing: Why It Matters 11 3 Reading and Writing: Helping Students Make the Connection 27 4 Processes of Composing: Teaching and Modeling Generative Processes 35 5 Creating an Inclusive Creative Writing Classroom 41 6 “Literary” Writing, “Genre” Writing: Teaching Beyond the False Dichotomy 57 7 The Creative Writing Workshop 63 8 Revision, Responding, Assessing 73 9 Digital Creative Writing 85 10 Special Issues in Creative Writing: Trauma-Informed Teaching, Mental Health, Disability-Informed Pedagogy 91 11 Teaching Creative Writing in General Education and Across the Curriculum 107 viii Contents 12 Literary Citizenship and Professional Issues 113 13 The Sustainable College Teaching-Writing Career 119 Appendix A: Further Resources 129 Appendix B: Your Teaching Statement 133 Appendix C: Your Syllabus 141 Bibliography 156 Note on Contributors 161 Suggestions for Teaching This Book 163 Index 168 Preface Stephanie Vanderslice Creative writing has been taught in higher education for over a century; however, only in the last few decades has it been accepted as a teachable subject Indeed, there are still some holdovers from the “Old School” Creative Writing establishment who cling to the belief that creative writing cannot be taught, that community is all a creative writing classroom can provide, that all they can do is wave a magic “guiding” wand over their classes or send their students home to slide Proust under their pillows Fortunately, that establishment is on their way out Moving right along If creative writing is a teachable subject, it is worth our time and reflection as creative writing instructors to study and think about how to teach it well I have designed this book to help you in that goal, to give you a starting point for thinking about what it means to teach creative writing effectively, a starting point that I hope will inspire you to keep learning about it for the rest of your career