Beyond Craft: An Anti-Handbook for Creative Writers

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Simultaneously a handbook and a critique of one, Beyond Craft combines an orientation to the field of creative writing with an insight into current scholarship surrounding creative writing pedagogy. A much-needed alternative to the traditional craft guide, this text pairs advice and exercises on composition with an illuminating commentary on the issues surrounding these very techniques. Teaching the craft whilst apprising students of the issues of craft pedagogy, this book allows them to gain an awareness of how current pedagogy comes at the expense of larger and increasingly relevant cultural concerns. Westbrook and Ryan bring emerging writers into the larger conversations that define the field, inviting them to: - Contextualize their own writing practices and educational experiences in relation to the history of creative writing as an academic discipline. - Determine how New Critical lore and Romantic mythology may affecteven distorttheir understanding of literary production. - Critically examine their notions of authorship, collaboration, and invention in relation to contemporary literary and rhetorical theory. - Understand and evaluate the economic, social, political, and professional challenges facing creative writers today. - Analyze the contemporary literary marketplace not only to identify potential publication contexts but also to understand how issues of diversity and bias affect writing communities. - Reflect on how increasingly rapid technological developments may affect their own writing and the future of literature. Earnestly self-aware throughout, Beyond Craft both inducts new writers into the field of creative writing and infuses them with an understanding of the wider dialogue surrounding their craft.

Reviews

Beyond Craft is a carefully researched book capable of terrifying and inspiring writers all at once. Sometimes it is hard not to feel overwhelmed when presented with so many reasons to give up the practice; however, such brutally honest research not only contributes to dismantle unhelpful myths but also empowers writers to actively look for ways to change what is currently not working. For example, now that we understand how the image of the writer has been manipulated to promote harmful concepts like literary greatness and genius, we can get rid of such an awkward burden, and, as this handbook suggests, make room to new ideas reinventing what it means to be a creative writer in the 21st century. * Elena Traina, Journal of Creative Writing Studies *

Author Bio

Steve Westbrook is an associate professor of English at California State University Fullerton, where he teaches courses in creative writing, composition-rhetoric, and cultural studies. His edited collection, Composition & Copyright, is available from SUNY-Press, and his poetry chapbook, Vox Americana, is available from Orange Monkey. James Ryan is a PhD candidate in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He teaches composition and interactive fiction. James is the editor-in-chief of Journal of Creative Writing Studies. His narrative adventure game Roll Player: Adventures is forthcoming from Thunderworks Games.