Abstract

In this compelling collection of essays contributors critically examine Creative Writing in American Higher Education. Considering Creative Writing teaching, learning and knowledge, the book recognizes historical strengths and weaknesses. The authors cover topics ranging from the relationship between Creative Writing and Composition and Literary Studies to what it means to write and be a creative writer; from new technologies and neuroscience to the nature of written language; from job prospects and graduate study to the values of creativity; from moments of teaching to persuasive ideas and theories; from interdisciplinary studies to the qualifications needed to teach Creative Writing in contemporary Higher Education. Most of all it explores the possibilities for the future of Creative Writing as an academic subject in America.

Graeme Harper is a Professor of Creative Writing and Dean of The Honors College at Oakland University in Michigan, USA. An award-winning fiction writer, and former Commonwealth scholar in Creative Writing, he has published widely on Creative Writing and its development as an academic discipline. He is Editor of the journal New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing and is Editor-In-Chief of the book series New Writing Viewpoints. His latest work of fiction is The Japanese Cook (Parlor, 2017). In 2015 he edited Creative Writing and Education (Multilingual Matters).

This book arrives at a fortunate moment for anyone interested in Creative Writing Studies. As issues of disciplinary identity and institutional positioning are being brought in sharp focus by changes in universities and the culture at large, this book raises important questions about potential futures for Creative Writing. The authors, coming from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, survey, but also push against, the boundaries of theory, policy, and writing practice to explore the landscape of Creative Writing in the contemporary university in ways that are rigorously intellectual and bountifully creative.

Notable for their variety of subjects and differences in approach but all gorgeously written, the chapters in this book ask us to consider how we educate our students, how we think about our artistic practice, how we consider and write our history, and what our place in the academy is and should be. Both practically and theoretically useful, this book will convince you that the questions it poses, and begins to try to answer, are important ones.