Foreword
David Starkey
Guest Editor
Until recently, creative writing has been, like composition,
one of the stepchildren of English studies. Though many teachers
have employed creative writing in their curricula in a number of
imaginative ways, the subject itself was not worthy of being
labeled a "discipline." Fiction writers, playwrights and poets
simply wrote: one didn't inquire how. To do so, in fact,
was considered not only bad form, but potentially dangerous to
the creative artist. Indeed, the myth still persists that
writers who look too closely at their own creative processes are
as likely as not to jinx themselves, to weld shut the lid on
their source of inspiration.
In the mid-1980s, however, people like Eve Shelnutt, Joseph
Moxley and Wendy Bishop--writers doubling as theorists--began to
question the integrity of this model. After all, they wondered,
weren't creative writing teachers doing their students a
disservice by ignoring what the teachers themselves knew about
their own methods of invention, drafting and revision? And
wasn't there something important to be learned about creative
writing from the burgeoning field of rhetoric and composition?
In the past five years, a number of theorists have answered
a resounding Yes to these questions, and Carolina English
Teacher's readers are fortunate to benefit from thinking by
some of the most brilliant creative writing teachers in the
country. My call for manuscripts attracted instructors from all
across the country. Three contributors are from the Palmetto
State, but we also have work from North Carolina, Florida, New
Hampshire, New York, Nebraska, Wyoming and Washington.
CET readers will no doubt recognize many well-known names
in the table of contents.
While Middle School and High School teachers are
represented, the preponderance of the work submitted focused on
creative writing at the college level. Articles, therefore, were
selected with an eye to their applicability to all levels
of instruction. William Ramsey's "Creative Writing in Literature
Classes," for instance--a detailed overview of the use of
creative portfolios as a substitute for conventional essay exams-
-should work as well in an eighth-grade English class is it does
in Dr. Ramsey's college courses. Likewise, Sheryl Lain's
"Writing's in the Bag" exercise--which is geared for ninth-
graders--is one I can easily envision using in my introductory
poetry class at Francis Marion University. Moreover, articles
like Donald Murray's "Before Writing: Remember What Makes Writing
Easy" and Alice Brand's "Myths and Little Miracles" should prove
valuable to teachers and students engaged in serious writing at
any level.
Variety, hybridization and cross-fertilization are recurrent
themes in this issue of Carolina English Teacher: a poet
uses literary theory; a literary theorist uses poetry; a
composition teacher uses theory, poetry and expository writing; a
long-dead poet, thought to be hopelessly conservative, is found
on
reexamination to be a radical precursor of current writing
theorists. The prevailing notion of writing pedagogy as a bazaar
with many booths offering many different kinds of commodities is
evident throughout the following pages.
Granted, some readers, wary of cryptic and unnecessary
jargon, may twinge at the repetitions of the word "theory" and
"theorist" in the previous paragraph. They shouldn't. Theory in
the hands of the present contributors is not some Frankenstein's
monster which turns on its master, but instead provides a way of
thinking clearly and coherently about a given topic. The present
articles should furnish ample evidence that writing theorists
don't have to drape themselves in obscurity when they say what
they want to say.
I'd like to thank CETs regular editors, Warren and
Holly Westcott, for giving me the opportunity to put together
this special issue. Their advice and encouragement was
essential. Our manuscript readers were equally indispensable:
Lynn Kostoff at Francis Marion University, Ed Epps at McCracken
Junior High School, Nell Braswell at Winthrop University, Curt
Elliott at Richland School District 1 , Libby Bernadine and
Harriet Williams at the University of South Carolina. Many of
the articles that follow have profited from the critical acumen
of these hardworking colleagues. Finally, I want to thank the
members of the South Carolina Council of Teachers of English for
their willingness to take a new look at an old subject. If
readers of this issue of Carolina English Teacher find themselves
reexamining their attitudes towards creative writing even a
little, the project will have been worthwhile.
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