For years now, many of our colleagues have been members of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). According to its website at www.awpwriter.org, the mission of this organization is “is to foster literary talent and achievement, to advance the art of writing as essential to a good education, and to serve the makers, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing." As our own Creative Writing course offerings have expanded, so has the participation of our faculty in AWP's annual conference.
In the Spring of 2006, I proposed a panel which would focus exclusively on Creative Writing Pedagogy. My hope was to attract instructors from various two-year institutions who would have sharply different methods and philosophies. I put out my request to the Two Year Caucus Listserv, and responses began to accumulate. However, none of them seemed particularly thoughtful. I began to wonder if I would ever find a stranger who was as articulate as Alan Elyshevitz, as passionate as Leslye Friedberg, or as creative as Larry Mackenzie. As the deadline for submitting the proposal approached, I realized that the presentation would be more meaningful if, in fact, a group discussed the application of different methods to a similar pool of students, in other words, the students at our institution. I asked my colleagues if they would be interested in joining me in Austin, Texas for the conference, and "Rock, Paper, Scissors" was born.
The panel received an enthusiastic response. Our audience was particularly interested in the CAP literary magazine, and Leslye was invited back to take part in a panel on community involvement in literary magazines at this year's AWP conference in Atlanta. I am pleased to see our presentations continue to live on in this edition of Viewpoints. Particularly relevant is the discussion of the use of Creative Writing techniques in composition classes. I hope these "sharply different perspectives" will begin a thoughtful discussion that will continue outside of these pages. – Simone Zelitch
Real Toads, Accidental Beauty, and the Writing Workshop by Simone Zelitch
In DevEd and Freshman Comp, Creative Writing Can Make a Difference by Larry Mackenzie
Poetry and Empathy: Transforming Developmental English by Leslye Friedberg
Teaching Creative Writing at a Community College: The Apprenticeship Model by Alan Elyshevitz
Thoughts on the Meanings of Words by Larry Mackenzie
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Maintained by Jay Howard,Jan 2007