Journal of Literary Education is a refereed, peer reviewed, electronic journal for those interested in the study and development of Literary Education. Its readership comprises practitioners, teacher educators, librarians, researchers and both undergraduate and graduate students. Journal of Literary Education offers educators a forum for debate about this discipline from a broad perspective. General issues and special issues are published.

CFP Creative Writing in Literary Education

Tzina Kalogirou, Xavier Mínguez López & Catalina Millán

I write only because

There is a voice within me

That will not be still.

Sylvia Plath

Creative Writing is a form of writing that involves imagination, creativity and an imaginative style of language that goes beyond other types of writing, either formal, technical, or professional. It encompasses different genres or styles. Creative Writing is a form of personal expression, a yearning to say something original to the world, something that is essential for the writer. The controlled nature of writing -carefully constructed words fixed on paper/screen- creates a secure imaginative ‘space’ for writers to inhabit, a realm within which the boundaries between imagination and reality, between self and other, between inner and outer experience, are temporarily blurred.

Creative Writing can be considered an essential component of the Literary Education discipline. It is undoubtedly true that various creative writing strategies or activities are used throughout literature teaching with the aim of having students and teachers alike participate in a literary and writing game, which ought to be considered an “open work; a work in progress”, in the words of Umberto Eco (1989). More specifically, activities -individual or group ones- can be creative and playful, and seek to encourage pupils/students create written pieces of work through which to express their inner voice “that will not be still”. The writing activities’ target is to emphasize the multi-vocal nature that literary texts should have and to inspire pupils/students to create something on their own and let go of the anxiety regarding exposure (Buss, 1977; Earnshaw, 2007). Additionally, Creative Writing is strongly related to developments that have transformed Literary Education as an academic subject. Nowadays, Literary Education is viewed as a field that fosters creativity and artistic self-expression, that promotes experimentation, as well as active reading and writing: the reader becomes the writer and vice versa.

The next issue of the Journal of Literary Education is dedicated to Creative Writing and its role in Literary Education. We welcome case studies, teaching practices and activities, or theoretical approaches about writing.  

We invite papers related to the overall theme of the issue as described above. Potential research areas include, but are not restricted to:

-  Creative writing in the literary classroom

- The child as writer

- Creative Writing Workshops: design, activities, evaluation

- Creative Writing beyond the binary opposition inspiration vs perspiration

- The uses of Creative Writing in Literature Teaching

- The therapeutic aspects of Creative Writing

- Towards a Creative Writing Pedagogy

References/Bibliography

Bruss, E. W. (1977). The Game of Literature and Some Literary Games. New Literary History. Self-Confrontation and Social Vision. The John Hopkins University Press.

Earnshaw, S. (2007) (eds.) The Handbook of Creative Writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Eco, U. (1989). The Open Work. Trans. A. Cancogni. Introd. D. Robey. Cambridge/Mass: Harvard UP.