Creative Writing Commons^™

An Essential Guide To An Invisible Art: A Review Of The Invisible Art Of Literary Editing, Jennifer Pullen

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Review of Bryan Furuness and Sarah Layden. The Invisible Art of Literary Editing. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. 152 pages

Craft And Conscience: Writing And Social Justice, Janelle Adsit

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Review of Kavita Das. Craft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Issues. Beacon, 2022. 320 pages.

“A Book Of Many Rooms”: Joshua Bennett As Personal Tour Guide Through Decades Of Spoken Word Poetry, Michael Baumann

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Review of Joshua Bennett, Spoken Word: A Cultural History. Knopf, 2023. 304 pages.

The Making Of Instinct: A Review Of Marbles On The Floor: How To Assemble A Book Of Poems, Mitchell James

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Review of Sarah Girgagosian and Virginia Konchoan, editors. Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems. Akron UP, 2023. 220 pages.

"Give 'Em Something To Talk About: Love, Generosity, And Wonder In The Portrait Of The Artist Workshop", Florence Gonsalves, Matthew Vollmer

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This article argues for the employment of an alternative approach to the traditional writing workshop model called “Portrait of the Artist” (POTA). First, we acknowledge the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the dominant Iowa model, and engage with scholars who practice pedagogies that challenge the “gag-rule.” Second, we introduce POTA, which dismantles and reimagines the foundations of a traditional creative writing workshop by emphasizing curiosity rather than suspicion, dialogue rather than imposed silence, process over product, and person over piece. The outcomes lead us to conclude that POTA workshops are necessary, especially for marginalized student-writers most harmed by antiquated practices …

Creative Writing In A University Bridging Program For Underprivileged Stem Students, Glen Retief, Yolandi Woest, Nosipho Mthethwa

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Underprivileged and additional-language students struggle to access university-level STEM instruction in English. Yet efforts to bridge academic readiness gaps often founder on ineffective instructional approaches. This study used student questionnaires and writing sample comparisons to investigate the impact of weekly creative writing lessons on students enrolled in a STEM-focused, university bridging program for high school students in the Black working-class township of Mamelodi, South Africa. Our tentative results suggest that creative writing teaching may have a significant role in building confidence, written communication skills, intellectual community, and improved program retention. However, further research is needed.

Analysis Of Narrative Arcs Of College Writers’ Creative Writing: Implications For Engaging Creative Writing Across The Curriculum, Justin Nicholes

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Creative writing across the curriculum (CWAC) represents one especially meaningful college-writing experience in various settings in higher education (Nicholes “Creative Writing across the Curriculum”; Creative Writing across the Curriculum; Hanauer “Meaningful Literacy”). To further understand experiences of CWAC from the perspective of student authors, this study linguistically examined two sets of texts from undergraduate writers: 221 works of creative nonfiction (CNF) and 43 works of science fiction prototyping (SFP), composed in first-year and advanced writing courses at one predominantly White, public Midwest US polytechnic university. LIWC-22 was utilized to produce descriptive statistics characterizing the narrative arcs typical in each …

A Proposal: Healing Impacts Of Writing Groups On Cancer Survivors, Cassandra M. Normand

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Those diagnosed with cancer not only suffer from the disease itself, but also psychological distress, including feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, and depression. Writing groups have been found to positively impact attendees’ well-being, including decreasing anxiety, depression, and other psychological symptoms. Despite the benefits of writing groups, little research examines the impact of cancer survivors attending writing groups. This study utilized previous literature to create a curriculum for a writing group specifically for cancer survivors. This curriculum was then pilot tested with a group of cancer survivors in May and June of 2022. Psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress were …

Teaching Poetry To Med Students? A Conversation With Owen Lewis And Abriana Jetté, Owen W. Lewis M.D., Abriana Jette

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

A Narrative Medicine curriculum is now generally part of medical education to promote capacities for reflection, observation, engagement, and empathy. The impact of this curriculum is furthered when students are given specific arts training in a limited, but focused, way. This paper details the approach of an intensive poetry reading and craft course embedded in a broader Narrative Medicine curriculum

Body And Art As Message: An Experience With Chronic Pain, Writing, And The Mind-Body Connection, Mitchell R. James

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This introduction to the special section of Volume 9, Issue 1 of the Journal of Creative Writing Studies on writing and mind-body connection uses memoir to emphasize the important relationship between writing and the management of chronic pain.

Why Poetry Comics? An Overview Of The Form's Origins, Creative Potential, And Pedagogical Benefits, Mara Beneway

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Abstract: Poetry comics are a subgenre or hybrid form that appropriate elements and techniques from its foundational genres: poetry and comics. A form that braids literary traditions with visual art, poetry comics’ rich history and metaphorical possibility make for innate and deep engagement. This paper offers a brief history of visual poetry, an explicit definition of poetry comics along with theoretical context for engagement, and pedagogical approaches to using poetry comics in the creative writing classroom. In a discussion focused on interpretation and individual meaning-making, I reference Bianca Stone’s creative work, Sarah Minor’s scholarship on “textual reading” vs. “visual seeing,” …

Rethinking Length And Form In Fiction: Workshopping Short Stories, Novels, Novellas, Flash, And Hybrid, Kevin Clouther

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This essay challenges dominant workshop practices and details efforts to diversify workshops with particular attention to what is workshopped and how workshops can become inclusive of not only short stories but also various lengths and forms of fiction: novels, novellas, flash, and hybrid. This essay addresses face-to-face as well as online workshops.

Crossing The Boundaries: Integrating Poetry Writing With Translation Practice, Xia Fang

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

How is poetry translation essentially different from poetry writing? Poetry writing pertains primarily to the acquisition of a main skills set, for instance the mastery of poetic forms and of literary devices. At the writing level, how does translation correlate with poetry writing? On the one hand, poetry translation predominantly grapples with losses and gains due to incongruities and constraints rooted in poetic forms. Either choosing to comply with or digressing from a certain poetic form remains a constant issue that poetry translation incontrovertibly addresses; the outcome of such often involving rewriting. On the other hand, the practice of poetry …

Research Pipeline? How About Research Forest?, Jen Hirt

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

In this statement from editor Jen Hirt, she highlights the accomplishments from past contributors and makes the case for re-phrasing the "research pipeline" to "research forest."

Barriers To Creative Writing Among University Students In Qatar, Sam Meekings Dr, Lujain Assaf, Gwiza Gwiza, Tayyibah Kazim, Laiba Mubashar

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Matthew Salesses (2021) asks ‘How can we rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds? How can we invite diverse storytelling traditions into literary spaces?’ This paper applies these questions to students in the Arab Gulf, by presenting and analysing the results of a research project investigating the barriers (culturally, locally, and in terms of colonial conceptions of craft) that impede student creative writers in Qatar. Aided by a Provost Grant from Northwestern University, we carried out interviews among students from a range of universities in Qatar in order to catalogue local writing habits, …

Speaking The Unspoken: Reconsidering The Craft Of Subtext In Fiction Through Nafissa Thompson-Spires’S Use Of Palimptext In “Heads Of The Colored People”, Karen Lee Boren

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This essay suggests new craft techniques in fiction are emerging, which act as a palimptext, a writing, erasure, and overwriting of subtext, establishing new relationships between writer and reader. Traditional uses of subtext rely on an unspoken relationship between writers and readers wherein writers “hide” thematic meaning in subtextual layers of fiction and readers “dig” for these deeper meanings. However, this essay shows reading practices have changed from deep reading to skimming and information-seeking practices. Further, subtext’s need to give the unseen and unspoken a limited and veiled presence in a text has shifted. Current unspoken assumptions about the …

The De-Indigenisation Of The English Language: On Linguistic Idiosyncrasy, Fayssal Bensalah

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This paper introduces and explains a fresh adaptation of linguistic hybridity. This creative strategy is common among postcolonial, transnational and transcultural writers, who would import linguistic features from their first languages to hybridise their prose and paint it with a distinctive identity. I aim, however, to demonstrate that my English text can be hybridised without looking outside the English language, but rather by looking within it. The English language, as I argue, is already a hybrid language, populated by thousands of words borrowed from various languages, including Arabic. The words of this latter, if used intelligently and selectively in my …

Water Trembles: Alternative Experiences Of Poetry, Su Hyun Nam

Frameless

Water Trembles is a poetry game, which will be published along with the forthcoming poetry book, Fast Fire (Carnegie Mellon University Press). This project is developed by the Burnt Orange Game Lab at Syracuse University, led by Su Hyun Nam, Rainie Oet, and Regan Henley, in collaboration with students in the Computer Art and Animation program. In the game, the main character Gertie, who has locked themself in their room after their mother died, solves puzzles by collecting poems about memories of their mother. By progressing the game, Gertie completes the poetry book and also takes themself out to the …

Challenging Conventional Approaches To Teaching Creative Writing In Italy, Elena Traina

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This is an overview of how creative writing is currently taught in Italy and of the reasons why this discipline is struggling to establish itself in public universities. After investigating the relationship between Italian academia and creative arts, I will look at the private nature of these courses in relation to issues of inclusion and diversity; and will highlight some of the pedagogical concerns deriving from having imported the anglophone model. Looking at the wider cultural sector, I will present some reflections on the Italian book industry as a system which prioritises personal connections over literary value, a process often …

The Virtues Of Podcasting And Multimodal Literacies In The Creative Writing Classroom: Diversity, Voice, And The New Digital Environment, Saul B. Lemerond Phd, Leigh Camacho Rourks Phd

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

No abstract provided.

Bi Design: Strategies For Fiction, Audrey T. Heffers

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

How can bisexuality be represented in fiction in a way that is realistic and nuanced? This article presents five strategies of representing bisexuality in fiction, listed here as Implying, Demonstrating, Describing, Using Explicit Labels, and Having Conversations. These practical approaches highlight craft techniques that writers can implement in their own work. By articulating some of the ways in which bisexuality is already written in fiction, these strategies provide tools for writers to write bisexuality in ways that work against common stereotypes. These strategies are presented through an interdisciplinary lens, primarily relying upon Creative Writing Studies, …

Setting The Scene For Community-Based Learning: Creative Writing As A Platform For Inquiry And Integrative Learning, Adam Watkins

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Creative writing pedagogy has received a surge of critical interest of late, though much remains to be said about its capacity to support trans-disciplinary learning outcomes, such as those related to community-based learning. Through an assessment of a place-based course focused on community-based learning, this article provides evidence that creative writing assignments can be an effective learning tool for cultivating community engagement and intercultural competencies. The educational value of creative writing, this study shows, has much to do with its unique mode of inquiry, which is well suited for integrating diverse perspectives, multi-modal research, and multiple ways of knowing.

Coda -- Or -- Now What?, Abriana Jette, Brandi Reissenweber

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

The special issue editors reflect on the issue's contents and offer further suggestions for moving forward.

Cultivating The Cyborg Voice: Technology In The Creative Writing Classroom, Rebecca Valley

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This article takes a critical look at pieces generated from a capstone project in a recent mixed-genre Intro to Creative Writing workshop. It was inspired by an open-ended creative project asking students to use technology to generate unconventional works of fiction, poetry, memoir, and theatre. Writer and educator Rebecca Valley's hope when assigning this project was to encourage students to innovate and step outside their standard forms. But beyond mere innovation of form, students surprised her in their capacity to use technology to hybridize their authorial voices – rather than merely changing the form of their own words, they became …

Centering The Activity Of Writing: Designing Writing Tasks For The Introductory Creative-Writing Classroom, C. Connor Syrewicz

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

In this paper, I argue that writing tasks (assignments, exercises, prompts, activities, etc.) are one of the best tools we have to teach our students how to perform the activity of writing more effectively. Contemporary creative writing instructors tend to be suspicious of writing tasks, and I argue that this suspicion is a largely result of the predominantly “text-centered” view of writing instruction that prioritizes teaching students “textual knowledge” above all else. Following others, I call for placing a much greater pedagogical emphasis upon the process of producing texts, and I argue that this can only be accomplished by centering …

What Do Introductory Students Learn By Creating Shareable Digital Artifacts?, Jill Stukenberg

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

In this critical reflection, an instructor of Introduction to Creative Writing discusses student learning from the study and creation of “sharable digital artifacts”—for example poem films and Instagram poetry. This practice benefits both non-majors and majors as students make gains in specific skills of revision, metaphor making, and image creation. Further, students make gains in threshold concepts of creative writing through the activity of transferring their knowledge across creative writing genres.

Writing Here, Writing Now; Making Sense Of It All: Examining Cultural And Historical Context In The Introductory Creative Writing Class, Oindrila Mukherjee

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Writers are a product of their environment. The time and place in which they live inevitably impact what they write, why they write, and how they write. I assign a brief reflection essay in my Introduction to Creative Writing class which asks students to consider social, historical, and cultural factors that influence the poetry, fiction, or nonfiction they write, either directly or indirectly. It encourages students to identify patterns in their writing, and to reflect on what it means to live in a specific part of the world at a specific time in history. This makes them more aware of …

Grading What We Value: A Conversation For Creative Writing, Erika Luckert, Jason Mccormick

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This essay considers how we might grade creative writing in a way that is better aligned with our values as writers and teachers. The authors, in the form of an active dialogue, reflect on their efforts to develop an alternative grading method, and discuss their experiences putting that method into practice at two different City University of New York (CUNY) colleges. They detail the considerations that informed their “rubric” and its four central values: professionalism, community, exploration, and revision. They also discuss their strategies for putting those values into practice, through collective brainstorming with students, and the development of individualized …

The Craft Of The Unknown: Transnational Texts In The Creative Writing Classroom, Hannah Kroonblawd

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This article addresses the role(s) reading and exemplar texts play in the creative writing classroom, as well as the responsibility taken up by the creative writing instructor as they place particular texts before their students. Focusing on the introductory creative writing classroom and beginning with a general overview of the purpose (university-prescribed or generally implied) of such a space, this article promotes expansive and generous reading practices via transnational texts. Using cosmopolitanism as an anchor, and concluding with a list of practical in-print and online resources, this article asks how creative writers learn to make meaning, both for others and …

(Re)Considering Craft And Centralizing Cultures: A Revision Of The Introductory Creative Writing Workshop, Zoë Bossiere, Micah Mccrary

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This article explores options for introductory creative writing curricula that allow for and encourage a greater consideration of personal identity and audience on the part of the student-author. It reaches toward possibilities for revising the introductory creative writing course as a space for student-authors to not only consider the cultural positions of the professional authors they study, but also the ways in which their own subject-positions influence their writing practices, craft choices, and understandings of genre. The article overall proposes a holistic revision to the standard, introductory creative writing curriculum, moving student-authors beyond considerations of “good” creative writing, and toward …