Edited by Steven Earnshaw ‘This is a timely and perceptive guide to the practice, pedagogy, and prospects for one of the fastest growing areas in English studies. For the range and richness of its contributions covering the craft of composition from every imaginable angle, and for the variety and vibrancy of its engagement with literary art as a public form, this volume will become a touchstone for all who value creative writing as an engaging art, and an art of engagement.’ Professor Willy Maley, University of Glasgow An extensive, practical and inspirational resource, this three-in-one volume is aimed at students and practitioners of creative writing at all levels. In forty-eight distinctive chapters the Handbook: • examines the critical theories behind the practice of creative writing (Part 1) • explains the basics of how to write a novel, script or poetry (Part 2) • explores how to deal with the practicalities and problems of becoming a writer (Part 3). As well as the main creative writing activities, chapters cover other practices, from translation to starting a small magazine and from memoir writing to writing for children. Contributors are all experts in their fields: poets, novelists, dramatists, agents, publishers, editors, tutors, critics and academics. Anyone with an interest in creative writing will find this book invaluable in developing their own creative writing projects and as a way into new areas of writing activity. Steven Earnshaw is Principal Lecturer in English at Sheffield Hallam University. Cover illustration: ©Imagezoo.com Cover design: Cathy Sprent Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk ISBN 978 0 7486 2136 1 Edited by Steven Earnshaw Ed inburgh Creative Writing THE HANDBOOK OF CREATIVE WRITING The Handbook of THE HANDBOOK OF Creative Writing Edited by Steven Earnshaw The Handbook of Creative Writing [...]... excellence in the craft of writing but also place their work within the larger context of the Judeo–Christian tradition of faith In 2006, both Chatham College and Iowa State University planned to offer MFA degrees in creative writing and the environment Iowa State’s creative writing programme has defined its mission this way: 14 The Handbook of Creative Writing Under the broad rubric of ‘environment’,... multi-vocal workshop-based classroom 16 The Handbook of Creative Writing The University of Cardiff offers a graduate degree in the ‘Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing , according to its website, thereby claiming that creative writing can be taught and that the combination of creativity and pedagogy is an important emerging area: ‘With increased interest in the relevance of creativity to current educational... Engle’s thesis, Worn Earth, the 1932 winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award, became the first poetry thesis at the University of Iowa to be published (Wilbers 1980: 39) Norman Foerster, director of the School of Letters, pushed forward with the creative writing programme throughout the 1930s But when Engle joined the faculty in 1937, he jump-started the Iowa Writers Workshop and became its of cial director... point for creative writing, but a fruitful one As Swander, Leahy and Cantrell point out in their chapter on ‘Theories of Creativity and Creative Writing Pedagogy’, creative writing within the academy has had a rather difficult time compared to other arts Artists and composers predated the arrival of writers into academe, where it was not until the 1920s that writing started to lay down roots at the University... in the US, the UK and elsewhere, some of these issues remain (see Jenny Newman’s essay on ‘Evaluation and Assessment’) The tension is not always generated by the literary critics either: it is not unusual for writers themselves to have mixed feelings about their place within the academy, especially those who have not gone through a creative writing programme The growth of creative writing within the. .. about writing Mary Mount’s The World of Publishing’ will give you insights into how the world looks like from that end of fiction, and Alison Baverstock’s ‘How to Get Published’ will give you a measure of how professional you need to be beyond the writing (as will Livi Michael’s chapter) Students often believe that things will take care of themselves based on the merit of their writing, but as all these... composition theorists Wendy Bishop is the lead example of a theorist who straddled the fence between composition and creative writing, who attempted to bring the theories underpinning the two disciplines together, and who brought not only composition approaches to creative writing but also vice versa One of the important arguments that Bishop (2003: xi) and other compositionists have made to counter the assertion... disproportionate share of those who retreat from theory’ (1994: xii) Indeed, the hallmarks for successful undergraduate and graduate creative writing programmes in The AWP Directors’ Handbook state that creative writing faculty consist of ‘writers whose work has been published by 20 The Handbook of Creative Writing nationally known, professional journals and presses respected by other writers, editors,... explore the evaluation of creative writing at postgraduate level, to help you choose the MA with the ‘assessment pattern’ best suited to your needs, and to enable you to avoid some of the pitfalls awaiting postgraduate writers Choosing a course There is no standard curriculum for Creative Writing MAs, and they vary dramatically in their approach to writing, their teaching methods, their links with theatres,... worldwide, the UK, Australia, Ireland, and Canada all have universities offering university and graduate programmes leading to degrees with an emphasis in creative writing Korea, Mexico, Spain, Norway, and the Philippines also support such programmes Even high school students in both the US and the UK are often offered the opportunity for creative writing as part of their English studies Yet the inclusion of . Earnshaw Ed inburgh Creative Writing THE HANDBOOK OF CREATIVE WRITING The Handbook of THE HANDBOOK OF Creative Writing Edited by Steven Earnshaw The Handbook of Creative Writing