Toward an Inclusive Creative Writing

The creative writing workshop has existed since the early part of the 20th century, but does it adequately serve the students who come to it today? While the workshop is often thought of as a form of student-centered pedagogy, it turns out that workshop conversations serve to marginalize a range of aesthetic orientations and the cultural histories to which they belong. Given the shifting demographics of higher education, it is time to re-evaluate the creative writing curriculum and move literary writing pedagogy toward a more inclusive, equitable model.

Toward an Inclusive Creative Writing makes the argu​ment that creative writing stands upon problematic assumptions about what counts as valid artistic production, and these implicit beliefs result in exclusionary pedagogical practices. To counter this tendency of creative writing, this book proposes a revised curriculum that rests upon a series of threshold concepts that can serve to transform the teaching of literary writing craft. 

“An absolutely stellar work of pedagogical scholarship, grounded in concrete discussion of the discipline of creative writing and in deep understandings of inclusion and pedagogy, this is undoubtedly one of the most important books published to date on teaching creative writing. But, to me, its relevance extends to teachers in any discipline (though especially the humanities and social sciences) interested in inclusive and effective teaching.”
​—Paul T. Corrigan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, Southeastern University

“For the discipline of creative writing, Adsit advocates a critical creative writing pedagogy that takes a long, hard look at the construction of writerly identity and literary values—what it tells its students to be and not be, write and not write. Quite possibly, this approach asks the most pressing questions in the field today.”
—Alexandria Peary, Ph.D., Professor of English, Salem State University (from review published in New Writing)

​