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Nonfiction Books » Language » Writing Books

The best books on creative writing, recommended by andrew cowan.

The professor of creative writing at UEA says Joseph Conrad got it right when he said that the sitting down is all. He chooses five books to help aspiring writers.

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

On Becoming a Novelist by John C. Gardner

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett

1 Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

2 on becoming a novelist by john c. gardner, 3 on writing: a memoir of the craft by stephen king, 4 the forest for the trees by betsy lerner, 5 worstward ho by samuel beckett.

How would you describe creative writing?

But because it is in academia there is all this paraphernalia that has to go with it. So you get credits for attending classes. You have to do supporting modules; you have to be assessed. If you are doing an undergraduate degree you have to follow a particular curriculum and only about a quarter of that will be creative writing and the rest will be in the canon of English literature . If you are doing a PhD you have to support whatever the creative element is with a critical element. So there are these ways in which academia disciplines writing and I think of that as Creative Writing with a capital C and a capital W. All of us who teach creative writing are doing it, in a sense, to support our writing, but it is also often at the expense of our writing. We give up quite a lot of time and mental energy and also, I think, imaginative and creative energy to teach.

Your first choice is Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer , which for someone writing in 1934 sounds pretty forward thinking.

Because creative writing has now taken off and has become this very widespread academic discipline it is beginning to acquire its own canon of key works and key texts. This is one of the oldest of them. It’s a book that almost anyone who teaches creative writing will have read. They will probably have read it because some fundamentals are explained and I think the most important one is Brande’s sense of the creative writer being comprised of two people. One of them is the artist and the other is the critic.

Actually, Malcolm Bradbury who taught me at UEA, wrote the foreword to my edition of Becoming a Writer , and he talks about how Dorothea Brande was writing this book ‘in Freudian times’ – the 1930s in the States. And she does have this very Freudian idea of the writer as comprised of a child artist on the one hand, who is associated with spontaneity, unconscious processes, while on the other side there is the adult critic making very careful discriminations.

And did she think the adult critic hindered the child artist?

No. Her point is that the two have to work in harmony and in some way the writer has to achieve an effective balance between the two, which is often taken to mean that you allow the artist child free rein in the morning. So you just pour stuff on to the page in the morning when you are closest to the condition of sleep. The dream state for the writer is the one that is closest to the unconscious. And then in the afternoon you come back to your morning’s work with your critical head on and you consciously and objectively edit it. Lots of how-to-write books encourage writers to do it that way. It is also possible that you can just pour stuff on to the page for days on end as long as you come back to it eventually with a critical eye.

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Good! Your next book, John Gardner’s On Becoming a Novelist , is described as comfort food for the aspiring novelist.

This is another one of the classics. He was quite a successful novelist in the States, but possibly an even more successful teacher of creative writing. The short story writer and poet Raymond Carver, for instance, was one of his students. And he died young in a motorcycle accident when he was 49. There are two classic works by him. One is this book, On Becoming a Novelist , and the other is The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers . They were both put together from his teaching notes after he died.

On Becoming a Novelist  is the more succinct and, I think, is the better of the two. He talks about automatic writing and the idea, just like Dorothea Brande, of the artist being comprised of two people. But his key idea is the notion of the vivid and continuous dream. He suggests that when we read a novel we submit to the logic of that novel in the same way as we might submit to the logic of a dream – we sink into it, and clearly the events that occur could not exist outside the imagination.

What makes student writing in particular go wrong is when it draws attention to itself, either through bad writing or over-elaborate writing. He suggests that these faults in the aspirant writer alert the reader to the fact that they are reading a fiction and it is a bit like giving someone who is dreaming a nudge. It jolts them out of the dream. So he proposes that the student writer should try to create a dream state in the reader that is vivid and appeals to all the senses and is continuous. What you mustn’t do is alert the reader to the fact that they are reading a fiction.

It is a very good piece of advice for writers starting out but it is ultimately very limiting. It rules out all the great works of modernism and post-modernism, anything which is linguistically experimental. It rules out anything which draws attention to the words as words on a page. It’s a piece of advice which really applies to the writing of realist fiction, but is a very good place from which to begin.

And then people can move on.

I never would have expected the master of terror Stephen King to write a book about writing. But your next choice, On Writing , is more of an autobiography .

Yes. It is a surprise to a lot of people that this book is so widely read on university campuses and so widely recommended by teachers of writing. Students love it. It’s bracing: there’s no nonsense. He says somewhere in the foreword or preface that it is a short book because most books are filled with bullshit and he is determined not to offer bullshit but to tell it like it is.

It is autobiographical. It describes his struggle to emerge from his addictions – to alcohol and drugs – and he talks about how he managed to pull himself and his family out of poverty and the dead end into which he had taken them. He comes from a very disadvantaged background and through sheer hard work and determination he becomes this worldwide bestselling author. This is partly because of his idea of the creative muse. Most people think of this as some sprite or fairy that is usually feminine and flutters about your head offering inspiration. His idea of the muse is ‘a basement guy’, as he calls him, who is grumpy and turns up smoking a cigar. You have to be down in the basement every day clocking in to do your shift if you want to meet the basement guy.

Stephen King has this attitude that if you are going to be a writer you need to keep going and accept that quite a lot of what you produce is going to be rubbish and then you are going to revise it and keep working at it.

Do you agree with him?

He sounds inspirational. Your next book, Betsy Lerner’s The Forest for the Trees , looks at things from the editor’s point of view.

Yes, she was an editor at several major American publishing houses, such as Simon & Schuster. She went on to become an agent, and also did an MFA in poetry before that, so she came through the US creative writing process and understands where many writers are coming from.

The book is divided into two halves. In the second half she describes the process that goes from the completion of the author’s manuscript to submitting it to agents and editors. She explains what goes on at the agent’s offices and the publisher’s offices. She talks about the drawing up of contracts, negotiating advances and royalties. So she takes the manuscript from the author’s hands, all the way through the publishing process to its appearance in bookshops. She describes that from an insider’s point of view, which is hugely interesting.

But the reason I like this book is for the first half of it, which is very different. Here she offers six chapters, each of which is a character sketch of a different type of author. She has met each of them and so although she doesn’t mention names you feel she is revealing something to you about authors whose books you may have read. She describes six classic personality types. She has the ambivalent writer, the natural, the wicked child, the self-promoter, the neurotic and a chapter called ‘Touching Fire’, which is about the addictive and the mentally unstable.

Your final choice is Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett .

This is a tiny book – it is only about 40 pages and it has got these massive white margins and really large type. I haven’t counted, but I would guess it is only about two to three thousand words and it is dressed up as a novella when it is really only a short story. On the first page there is this riff: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’

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When I read this I thought I had discovered a slogan for the classroom that I could share with my students. I want to encourage them to make mistakes and not to be perfectionists, not to feel that everything they do has to be of publishable standard. The whole point of doing a course, especially a creative writing MA and attending workshops, is that you can treat the course as a sandpit. You go in there, you try things out which otherwise you wouldn’t try, and then you submit it to the scrutiny of your classmates and you get feedback. Inevitably there will be things that don’t work and your classmates will help you to identify those so that you can take it away and redraft it – you can try again. And inevitably you are going to fail again because any artistic endeavour is doomed to failure because the achievement can never match the ambition. That’s why artists keep producing their art and writers keep writing, because the thing you did last just didn’t quite satisfy you, just wasn’t quite right. And you keep going and trying to improve on that.

But why, when so much of it is about failing – failing to get published, failing to be satisfied, failing to be inspired – do writers carry on?

I have a really good quote from Joseph Conrad in which he says the sitting down is all. He spends eight hours at his desk, trying to write, failing to write, foaming at the mouth, and in the end wanting to hit his head on the wall but refraining from that for fear of alarming his wife!

It’s a familiar situation; lots of writers will have been there. For me it is a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is something I have to keep returning to. I have to keep going back to the sentences, trying to get them right. Trying to line them up correctly. I can’t let them go. It is endlessly frustrating because they are never quite right.

You have published four books. Are you happy with them?

Reasonably happy. Once they are done and gone I can relax and feel a little bit proud of them. But at the time I just experience agonies. It takes me ages. It takes me four or five years to finish a novel partly because I always find distractions – like working in academia – something that will keep me away from the writing, which is equally as unrewarding as it is rewarding!

September 27, 2012

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

Andrew Cowan

Andrew Cowan is Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Creative Writing programme at UEA. His first novel, Pig , won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Betty Trask Award, the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize, the Author’s Club First Novel Award and a Scottish Council Book Award. He is also the author of the novels Common Ground , Crustaceans ,  What I Know  and  Worthless Men . His own creative writing guidebook is  The  Art  of  Writing  Fiction .

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Essential Books for Writers

The Center for Fiction

Maybe calling our list "Essential Books for Writers" is a bit of a stretch. We know that there are many opinions on what makes great writing, and what works for one person may not work for the next. Can you imagine Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, and Charles Dickens debating about the right way to write? But we wanted to give you some options and inspiration on your path to whatever a successful life as a writer looks like to you. We hope you'll find your essential guide in our list. Happy reading and writing!

By Stephen King

Published by Scribner

Leave it to the literary rock star to compose a craft book that’s as entertaining as a good novel. “This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit,” King writes. What follows is a witty, practical, and sometimes poignant guide that is refreshingly devoid of the aforementioned BS. King relates his personal story of becoming a writer, then offers a “toolkit” of clear advice about everything from dialogue and descriptive passages to revisions and the head game. And there’s more: tips for beginning writers on submitting work for publication, a mark-up of one of King’s own manuscripts, and a reading list. You might not be awake at 3 a.m. turning these pages, but we promise  On Writing  will open your eyes to essential tricks of the trade.

Still Writing

By Dani Shapiro

Published by Grove/Atlantic

Dani Shapiro’s book,  Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life , is a perfect walk through an imperfect process. She shares the tried and true rules that some aspiring writers may want to hear, like using the five senses, sticking to a work schedule, and avoiding clichéd characters; but it is the places where Shapiro acknowledges the ambiguity of the process that stand out. Peppered with personal history and insight into how and where she created novels like  Black and White  as well as acclaimed memoirs  Devotion  and  Slow Motion , Shapiro gives us a road map to writing with one simple direction at its heart: Keep writing. The rules she lays out are meant to be broken; no life-story is more worthy of being written than any other; no process (unless it involves surfing the Web instead of actually writing) is wrong. Yes, Dani Shapiro is still writing, and because she possesses that all-important need to create, it seems she will be doing so for quite some time.

On Moral Fiction

By John Gardner

Published by HarperCollins

John Gardner’s  On Moral Fiction , by now a well-known classic, is as relevant in its exploration of the obligations of literature as when it was first published in 1979. Gardner discusses art and criticism, concluding that the artist has a responsibility to produce “moral” works for the sake of society. “Art discovers, generation after generation, what is necessary to humanness,” says Gardner. By linking literature to such elemental ideas as immortality and death, entropy and truth, Gardner dramatizes the act of writing itself, coloring literature and criticism with such vitality and excitement that it is hard not to become exhilarated. “Art gropes,” Gardner says. “It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself, waiting to pounce.” You might say that some of his ideas are outrageous or unconventional, but none of them lack the ability to provoke us.

First You Write

By Joni Rodgers

It’s fitting that Joni Rodgers’s  First You Write: The Worst Way to Become an Almost Famous Author and the Best Advice I Got While Doing It  is available only as an e-book. Rodgers’s writes with wit and candor not only about her circuitous route to becoming a  New York Times bestselling memoirist ( Bald in the Land of Big Hair , a searingly funny account of her journey through cancer) and a critically acclaimed small-press novelist ( Crazy for Trying ;  Sugar Land ), but also about her pioneering adventures in self-publishing on Kindle. Rodgers’s willingness to experiment (isn’t that what artists do?) and to turn preconceived publishing notions on their ear is wonderfully refreshing, and her whip-smart observations will keep you turning (virtual) pages.

The Forest for the Trees

By Betsy Lerner

Published by Penguin

Betsy Lerner’s  The Forest for The Trees  begins as a psychological compendium of the writer’s life; written to the writer, with love. Lerner diagnoses writers: the ambivalent, the natural, the neurotic, and as we relate to aspects of each, we are delivered through an embarrassing adolescence of our own writerly growth, discovering who we were, are, and might better be. Through humorous and often moving anecdotes and a wealth of quotable quotes, we sweep through the personal and into the political landscape of the literary industry. Like all good books, Lerner’s reflects the reader (as writer) back to herself at every moment. She morphs between midwife and editor, weaving stories that teach us how best to birth our own.

The Writing Life

By Annie Dillard

In the years since its original publication, Annie Dillard’s  The Writing Life  has become a must-read for aspiring writers of all walks. Perhaps this is because her approach to the creative process manages a kind of golden ratio, a balance of magic and pragmatism that continues to reveal its depths to writers of the 21st century. Plainly, this is not a field guide. Dillard does not draw a tidy map. She does the opposite, acknowledging the unknown and unknowable wilderness that every writer must face. “The line of words is a miner’s pick, a wood carver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next  year.” A master in the art of illumination, she focuses on the edges of big ideas. The resulting work is as mystifying as it is enduring.

Writing Past Dark

By Bonnie Friedman

In  Writing Past Dark , Bonnie Friedman shines a light on the hidden ways we mess ourselves up—with envy, fear, distraction, and other self-defeating habits of mind. “Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing,” she says. “They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.” With warmth and candor, Friedman offers insights into surmounting those tricky obstacles.

The Elements of Style

By William Strunk & E.B. White

Of the hundreds of volumes written about the art and craft of writing,  The Elements of Style  by William Strunk and E.B. White is the elegant granddad. This slim volume offers no touchy-feely solutions for writer’s block, no inspirational exercises, and no musings on the writing life. Instead, it contains clear, concise rules for writing well, delivered with panache. Whether you strive for formal excellence or stylistic innovation, whether you’re a first-time author or have a string of publications to your name, there’s something here to learn—or gladly rediscover.

By Robert McKee

Robert McKee (the renowned screenwriting guru whose real-life teaching persona was portrayed by Brian Cox in the film  Adaptation ) is required reading, but not just for screenwriters. He illustrates good plotting and structure that can make your novels or short stories as gripping as your favorite film. In Story , McKee structures his advice by first broadly stating a principle of writing, then expounding on different ways it can be applied, with examples from all kinds of scripts. His pearls of wisdom have been legendary in the Hollywood world, and they’ll certainly stick in your head after you’re through this book. Whether you’re writing for the screen or the page, this fantastic book will help you break your work down to the core of why we write fiction in the first place: the story.

Making Shapely Fiction

By Jerome Stern

Published by W. W. Norton

It’s easy, when one is far enough along in the “writing life,” to assume that a manual won’t have much to offer beyond technical guidance and fluffy prompts. But Stern’s wise and thorough little book should be as indispensable to the master of the form as the student. Like Stern himself, who was the head of the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University for many years, it takes a brass tacks approach to fiction, one that can be read straight through if you want to bone up on the basics or in bits and pieces as inspiration is needed. The “shapes” in question are sixteen storytelling archetypes which Stern breaks down in the book’s first section, followed by a tongue-in-cheek section on whether or not to write what you know, and finally a glossary of terms “from Accuracy to Zig-Zag.” This may all sound like stuff you already know, but to read them again in Stern’s irreverent voice is like revisiting fairy tales from your childhood and discovering all the dirty parts that went over your head. You’ll want to dig back into your own discarded ideas box and sculpt something new.

Steering the Craft

By Ursula K. Le Guin

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Le Guin has published two books about writing. The more recent of these,  Steering the Craft  (1998), is intended for experienced writers, the ones, she says, who “blow all Rules of Writing to bits.” It offers exercises and advice on storytelling, point of view, and grammar. For the younger author, there is her 1979 volume,  The Language of the Night , filled with inspirational essays on science fiction and fantasy, that are no less rigorous than the later book. “In art,” she observes, “‘good enough’ is not good enough.”

Discover Our Fiction, Essays & More

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Writing and Madness

Think Outside the Book

When Working on Your Writing Doesn't Look Like Writing

From Scratch

Interviewing for Fiction

The Writer's Trove

Something to Do with Work as Play: David Foster Wallace and “The Nature of the Fun”

Keeping Up the Pace

Scenes & Summary

An Unfunny Essay About Humor

Say Yes to Obsession

How to Steal Stuff

Writing to the Tension

How Walter White Can Make You a Better Writer

Inventing Time

Three-Dimensional Writing

How to Get Out of the Slush Pile

Playing With Status

10 Best Creative Writing Books to Read in 2023

Last updated: 5th september 2024.

Rhys Mackenzie

Disclaimer:.

Please note that the following list of books is recommended reading to broaden your knowledge and deepen your appreciation of creative writing and literature. While some of these books may be included in the Oxford Summer Courses curriculum, the specific content of the summer school can vary. If you wish to study these subjects with us, you can apply to our Creative Writing summer school.

1. On Writing, by Stephen King

• "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work."
• Published in 2000, "On Writing" by Stephen King is a masterclass in the craft of storytelling. It combines King's personal journey as a writer with practical advice on honing your writing skills during your time at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can Stephen King's advice on discipline and the writing process benefit aspiring writers at Oxford Summer Courses today?

2. Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

• "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere."
• Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird" is an encouraging guide for writers facing the daunting task of putting words on the page. Through humor and personal anecdotes, she offers valuable insights into the writing process during your Creative Writing summer school at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How does Lamott's emphasis on "shitty first drafts" resonate with your own experiences as a writer at Oxford Summer Courses?

3. The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

• "Omit needless words."
• A timeless classic, "The Elements of Style" is a concise guide to writing well. It provides essential rules of grammar and composition that every writer should know, especially during their time at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How do the principles outlined in "The Elements of Style" apply to various forms of creative writing, from fiction to poetry, at Oxford Summer Courses?

4. The story, by Robert McKee

• "Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact."
• Robert McKee's "Story" is a comprehensive exploration of the principles behind effective storytelling. It's a must-read for anyone looking to understand the structure and elements of compelling narratives during their time at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can the insights from "Story" enhance your ability to construct engaging and impactful stories during your Creative Writing summer school at Oxford Summer Courses?

5. Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert

• "Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart."
• In "Big Magic," Elizabeth Gilbert delves into the creative process and encourages writers to embrace their creativity with courage and curiosity, a valuable lesson during your time at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can Gilbert's philosophy on creativity inspire you to approach your writing with a sense of wonder and daring at Oxford Summer Courses?

6. The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner

• "Fiction seeks out truth. The writer has to go into the dark, quiet spaces of himself and feel around for the truth."
• John Gardner's "The Art of Fiction" offers profound insights into the art and craft of writing fiction. It explores the intricacies of character development, plot, and the writer's role in conveying truth through storytelling during your Creative Writing summer school at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can Gardner's exploration of truth in fiction inform your own creative writing endeavors at Oxford Summer Courses?

7. Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg

• "Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open."
• Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" is a meditative guide to writing practice. It encourages writers to tap into their innermost thoughts and emotions during their Creative Writing summer school at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can Goldberg's approach to writing as a form of meditation help you access deeper layers of creativity in your work at Oxford Summer Courses?

8. The Elements of Eloquence, by Mark Forsyth

• "Rhetoric is the art of dressing up some unimportant matter to fool the audience for the moment."
• "The Elements of Eloquence" explores the art of rhetoric and language play. Mark Forsyth's witty and informative book will inspire you to experiment with language in your writing during your time at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can a deeper understanding of rhetorical devices enhance your ability to craft persuasive and evocative prose at Oxford Summer Courses?

9. Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury

• "Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together."
• Ray Bradbury's "Zen in the Art of Writing" is a collection of essays that celebrate the joy and passion of writing. Bradbury shares his insights on creativity and the writing life during your Creative Writing summer school at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can Bradbury's enthusiasm for writing infuse your own creative process with energy and purpose at Oxford Summer Courses?

10. The Nighttime Novelist, by Joseph Bates

• "Writing is an exploration of the heart."
• "The Nighttime Novelist" by Joseph Bates is a practical guide for writers who balance their craft with busy lives. It offers strategies for maximizing your writing time and making progress on your projects during your time at Oxford Summer Courses.
• Discussion: How can the techniques outlined in "The Nighttime Novelist" help you maintain a consistent and productive writing practice at Oxford Summer Courses?

Oxford Summer Courses invites you to immerse yourself in the enchanting world of creative writing during your time at our summer school. In this blog post, we present a meticulously curated list of 10 classic books that will ignite your imagination and deepen your understanding of the art of storytelling. From Stephen King's practical wisdom in "On Writing" to Ray Bradbury's celebration of the writing life in "Zen in the Art of Writing," these books will serve as your companions on your creative writing journey at Oxford Summer Courses. Through our Creative Writing program, you will have the opportunity to explore these influential texts, share your insights with fellow writers, and refine your craft. Join us on this literary adventure and embark on a transformative experience that will shape your writing skills and inspire your creative spirit during your time at Oxford Summer Courses. Who knows, you might just discover a newfound passion for the art of storytelling and create narratives that resonate with readers for generations to come.

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Ignite your passion for creative writing at Oxford Summer Courses. Immerse yourself in a carefully curated list of books that will spark your creativity, refine your storytelling abilities, and help you embark on a transformative journey as a writer.

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Elements of Creative Writing

(3 reviews)

J.D. Schraffenberger, University of Northern Iowa

Rachel Morgan, University of Northern Iowa

Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright Year: 2023

ISBN 13: 9780915996179

Publisher: University of Northern Iowa

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Colin Rafferty, Professor, University of Mary Washington on 8/2/24

Fantastically thorough. By using three different authors, one for each genre of creative writing, the textbook allows for a wider diversity of thought and theory on writing as a whole, while still providing a solid grounding in the basics of each... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Fantastically thorough. By using three different authors, one for each genre of creative writing, the textbook allows for a wider diversity of thought and theory on writing as a whole, while still providing a solid grounding in the basics of each genre. The included links to referred texts also builds in an automatic, OER-based anthology for students. Terms are not only defined clearly, but also their utility is explained--here's what assonance can actually do in a poem, rather than simply "it's repeated vowel sounds,"

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Calling the content "accurate" requires a suspension of the notion that art and writing aren't subjective; instead, it might be more useful to judge the content on the potential usefulness to students, in which case it' s quite accurate. Reading this, I often found myself nodding in agreement with the authors' suggestions for considering published work and discussing workshop material, and their prompts for generating creative writing feel full of potential. It's as error-free, if not more so, than most OER textbooks (which is to say: a few typos here and there) and a surprising number of trade publications. It's not unbiased, per se--after all, these are literary magazine editors writing the textbook and often explaining what it is about a given piece of writing that they find (or do not find) engaging and admirable--but unbiased isn't necessarily a quantity one looks for in creative writing textbooks.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The thing about creative writing is that they keep making more of it, so eventually the anthology elements of this textbook will be less "look what's getting published these days" and more "look what was getting published back then," but the structure of the textbook should allow for substitution and replacement (that said, if UNI pulls funding for NAR, as too many universities are doing these days, then the bigger concern is about the archive vanishing). The more rhetorical elements of the textbook are solid, and should be useful to students and faculty for a long time.

Clarity rating: 5

Very clear, straightforward prose, and perhaps more importantly, there's a sense of each author that emerges in each section, demonstrating to students that writing, especially creative writing, comes from a person. As noted above, any technical jargon is not only explained, but also discussed, meaning that how and why one might use any particular literary technique are emphasized over simply rote memorization of terms.

Consistency rating: 4

It's consistent within each section, but the voice and approach change with each genre. This is a strength, not a weakness, and allows the textbook to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach of single-author creative writing textbooks. There are different "try this" exercises for each genre that strike me as calibrated to impress the facets of that particular genre on the student.

Modularity rating: 5

The three-part structure of the book allows teachers to start wherever they like, genre-wise. While the internal structure of each section does build upon and refer back to earlier chapters, that seems more like an advantage than a disadvantage. Honestly, there's probably enough flexibility built into the textbook that even the callbacks could be glossed over quickly enough in the classroom.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Chapters within each genre section build upon each other, starting with basics and developing the complexity and different elements of that genre. The textbook's overall organization allows some flexibility in terms of starting with fiction, poetry, or nonfiction.

Interface rating: 4

Easy to navigate. I particularly like the way that links for the anthology work in the nonfiction section (clearly appearing at the side of the text in addition to within it) and would like to see that consistently applied throughout.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

A few typos here and there, but you know what else generally has a few typos here and there? Expensive physical textbooks.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The anthology covers a diverse array of authors and cultural identities, and the textbook authors are not only conscious of their importance but also discuss how those identities affect decisions that the authors might have made, even on a formal level. If you find an underrepresented group missing, it should be easy enough to supplement this textbook with a poem/essay/story.

Very excited to use this in my Intro to CW classes--unlike other OERs that I've used for the field, this one feels like it could compete with the physical textbooks head-to-head. Other textbooks have felt more like a trade-off between content and cost.

Reviewed by Jeanne Cosmos, Adjunct Faculty, Massachusetts Bay Community College on 7/7/24

Direct language and concrete examples & Case Studies. read more

Direct language and concrete examples & Case Studies.

References to literature and writers- on track.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

On point for support to assist writers and creative process.

Direct language and easy to read.

First person to third person. Too informal in many areas of the text.

Units are readily accessible.

Process of creative writing and prompts- scaffold areas of learning for students.

Interface rating: 5

No issues found.

The book is accurate in this regard.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Always could be revised and better.

Yes. Textbook font is not academic and spacing - also not academic. A bit too primary. Suggest- Times New Roman 12- point font & a space plus - Some of the language and examples too informal and the tone of lst person would be more effective if - direct and not so 'chummy' as author references his personal recollections. Not effective.

Reviewed by Robert Moreira, Lecturer III, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 3/21/24

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama.

As far as I can tell, content is accurate, error free and unbiased.

The book is relevant and up-to-date.

The text is clear and easy to understand.

Consistency rating: 5

I would agree that the text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Text is modular, yes, but I would like to see the addition of a section on dramatic writing.

Topics are presented in logical, clear fashion.

Navigation is good.

No grammatical issues that I could see.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

I'd like to see more diverse creative writing examples.

As I stated above, textbook is good except that it does not include a section on dramatic writing.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: One Great Way to Write a Short Story
• Chapter Two: Plotting
• Chapter Three: Counterpointed Plotting
• Chapter Four: Show and Tell
• Chapter Five: Characterization and Method Writing
• Chapter Six: Character and Dialouge
• Chapter Seven: Setting, Stillness, and Voice
• Chapter Eight: Point of View
• Chapter Nine: Learning the Unwritten Rules
• Chapter One: A Poetry State of Mind
• Chapter Two: The Architecture of a Poem
• Chapter Three: Sound
• Chapter Four: Inspiration and Risk
• Chapter Five: Endings and Beginnings
• Chapter Six: Figurative Language
• Chapter Seven: Forms, Forms, Forms
• Chapter Eight: Go to the Image
• Chapter Nine: The Difficult Simplicity of Short Poems and Killing Darlings

Creative Nonfiction

• Chapter One: Creative Nonfiction and the Essay
• Chapter Two: Truth and Memory, Truth in Memory
• Chapter Three: Research and History
• Chapter Four: Writing Environments
• Chapter Five: Notes on Style
• Chapter Seven: Imagery and the Senses
• Chapter Eight: Writing the Body
• Chapter Nine: Forms

Back Matter

• Contributors
• North American Review Staff

Ancillary Material

• University of Northern Iowa

About the Book

This free and open access textbook introduces new writers to some basic elements of the craft of creative writing in the genres of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The authors—Rachel Morgan, Jeremy Schraffenberger, and Grant Tracey—are editors of the North American Review, the oldest and one of the most well-regarded literary magazines in the United States. They’ve selected nearly all of the readings and examples (more than 60) from writing that has appeared in NAR pages over the years. Because they had a hand in publishing these pieces originally, their perspective as editors permeates this book. As such, they hope that even seasoned writers might gain insight into the aesthetics of the magazine as they analyze and discuss some reasons this work is so remarkable—and therefore teachable. This project was supported by NAR staff and funded via the UNI Textbook Equity Mini-Grant Program.

About the Contributors

J.D. Schraffenberger  is a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of two books of poems,  Saint Joe's Passion  and  The Waxen Poor , and co-author with Martín Espada and Lauren Schmidt of  The Necessary Poetics of Atheism . His other work has appeared in  Best of Brevity ,  Best Creative Nonfiction ,  Notre Dame Review ,  Poetry East ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Rachel Morgan   is an instructor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. She is the author of the chapbook  Honey & Blood , Blood & Honey . Her work is included in the anthology  Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in American  and has appeared in the  Journal of American Medical Association ,  Boulevard ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Grant Tracey   author of three novels in the Hayden Fuller Mysteries ; the chapbook  Winsome  featuring cab driver Eddie Sands; and the story collection  Final Stanzas , is fiction editor of the  North American Review  and an English professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where he teaches film, modern drama, and creative writing. Nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize, he has published nearly fifty short stories and three previous collections. He has acted in over forty community theater productions and has published critical work on Samuel Fuller and James Cagney. He lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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Literature Resource Reference

Your students will find reading a pleasurable experience and writing a natural, enjoyable outlet with the A.C.E. Literature and Creative Writing course. Animated cartoon characters—Ace, Christi, and their friends—help students put critical thinking skills into action while leading them through the foundational concepts of writing.

Level 3—Literature and Creative Writing

PACEs 1025-1036, #652337 (12 PACEs) Score Keys 1025-1036, #652338 (4 Keys) Resource Books:

• Summer Fun with Ace and Christi, #49 (1025-1031)
• Christians Courageous, #33 (1032-1036)

Level 4—Literature and Creative Writing

PACEs 1037-1048, #652354 (12 PACEs) Score Keys 1037-1048, #652355 (4 Keys) Resource Books:

• The Little Green Frog, #40 (1037-1038)
• Saved at Sea, #55 (1039-1040)
• Ace and Christi Series—The Red Rag Riddle, #69 (1041-1042)
• Charlotte’s Web, #35 (1043-1044)
• Children’s Missionary Library, #273 (1045-1046)
• Choice Stories for Children, #274 (1047-1048)

Level 5—Literature and Creative Writing

PACEs 1049-1060, #652374 (12 PACEs) Score Keys 1049-1060, #652375 (4 Keys) Resource Books: 

• Choice Stories for Children , #274 (1049-1050)
• North to Amaroqvik , #276 (1051-1052)
• Heidi , #50 (1053-1054)
• Ace and Christi Series—Miracle at Camp Friendship , #275 (1055-1056)
• A Dog of Flanders , #67 (1057-1058)
• Star of Light , #52 (1059-1060)

Level 6—Literature and Creative Writing

PACEs 1061-1072, #652394 (12 PACEs) Score Keys 1061-1072, #652395 (4 Keys) Resource Books:

• The Fugitive King , #57 (1061-1062)
• Christians with Courage , #112 (1063-1064)
• Alexi’s Secret Mission , #71 (1065-1066)
• Ace and Christi Series—Grandpa’s Christmas Gift , #129 (1067-1068)
• Little Pilgrim’s Progress , #62 (1069-1070)
• Treasures of the Snow , #60 (1071-1072)

Level 7—Basic Literature

Study Guide #63007 Key #63017 (1 Key) Resource Books:

• George Mueller , #74
• D.L. Moody: Greatest Evangelist of the 19th Century , #76
• Through Gates of Splendor , #78
• By Searching , #82
• The Swiss Family Robinson , #84

Level 8—Basic Literature

Study Guide #63008 Key #63018 (1 Key) Resource Books:

• God’s Adventurer , #85
• Little One, Maid of Israel , #100
• When Science Fails , #87
• Abraham Lincoln , #93
• Ann of Ava , #95
• In His Steps , #96

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The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing (Cambridge Introductions to Literature) Illustrated Edition

• ISBN-10 0521547547
• ISBN-13 978-0521547543
• Edition Illustrated
• Publisher Cambridge University Press
• Publication date May 28, 2007
• Part of series Cambridge Introductions to Literature
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
• Print length 286 pages
• See all details

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Book description, about the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; Illustrated edition (May 28, 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521547547
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521547543
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.07 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
• #92 in Literary Theory
• #2,930 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)
• #3,130 in Literary Criticism & Theory

About the author

David morley.

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English Literature and Creative Writing: Books

• Special Collections
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The University of Manchester Library is home to a significant collection of books for English Literature and Creative Writing.

E-book spotlight.

A Guide to Creative Writing and the Imagination

Teaching creative writing for the multicultural, global, and digital generation, this volume offers a fresh approach for enhancing core writing skills in the major forms of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama. Creative Writing and the Imagination aims to provide students with organic, active learning through imitation and examples which not only emphasize writing and reading but look to other art forms for inspiration. This volume's key features include: Strengthening key underlying capabilities of what we mean by imagination: physical and mental alertness, clarity of perception, listening skills, attention to detail, sustained concentration, lateral thinking, and enhanced memory. Taking direction from other art forms such as African American musical improvisation, Brancusi's sculptural idea of "finding form," key idea from drawing such as foreground, background, and negative space-and some of the great lessons learned from National Geographic photography. Incorporating techniques drawn from unusual sources such as advertising, military intelligence, ESL, working with the blind, stage magic, and oral traditions of remote indigenous cultures in Oceania and Africa. The work is intended for a global English market as core or supplementary text at the undergraduate level and as a supporting frame at the M.F.A. level (Provided by publisher).

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• For information on how to locate books in the Main Library, go to our Locating books on the shelves page .
• For information on how to borrow, return and renew books, go to our  Borrowing and returning books page . 

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The Library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme (Dewey for short) to arrange books and other resources on the shelves so you can locate them easily.

The vast majority of books relating to English Literature and Creative Writing and related subjects can be found in the Main Library . 

More information: Locating books on shelves

For help with finding your way around the Main Library, please use our new Interactive Map .

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You can access your course reading lists in Blackboard: 

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The Library provides access to numerous e-book collections that host many titles relating to English Literature & Creative Writing and other subjects. Follow this link to browse different collections you can explore to find e-books relating to your studies. 

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Theses and dissertations

Theses can be a valuable source of information for your research and are very useful points of reference for when you come to write your own thesis.

For detailed information on how to access theses from the University of Manchester, and from other universities in the UK and internationally, please visit our Theses Library Guide . 

Doctoral/Research Theses

• Electronic versions of many open-access University of Manchester research theses, submitted from the 2010 session onwards, are available on Research Explorer , the University of Manchester’s research database.

Theses from other UK/International Institutions

A searchable and browsable database of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day. It also offers full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. It contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. Designated as an official offsite repository for the U.S. Library of Congress, PQDT Global offers comprehensive historic and ongoing coverage for North American works and significant and growing international coverage from a multiyear program of expanding partnerships with international universities and national associations.

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Creative Writing and Literature

Undergraduate Program

The Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree is designed for industry professionals with years of work experience who wish to complete their degrees part time, both on campus and online, without disruption to their employment. Our typical student is over 30, has previously completed one or two years of college, and works full time.

Students enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts program in Creative Writing & Literature will develop skills in creative writing and literary analysis through literature courses and writing workshops in fiction, screenwriting, poetry, and nonfiction. Through online group courses and one-on-one tutorials, as well as a week on campus, students hone their craft and find their voice.

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Broad and narrow conceptions of poetry

Translation.

• The word as symbol
• Themes and their sources
• The writer’s personal involvement
• Objective-subjective expression
• Folk and elite literatures
• Modern popular literature
• Social and economic conditions
• National and group literature
• The writer’s position in society
• Literature and the other arts
• Lyric poetry
• Prose fiction
• Future developments
• Scholarly research
• Literary criticism

• Do adults read children's literature?
• When did American literature begin?
• Who are some important authors of American literature?
• What are the periods of American literature?

Literary composition

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Critical theories

If the early Egyptians or Sumerians had critical theories about the writing of literature, these have not survived. From the time of Classical Greece until the present day, however, Western criticism has been dominated by two opposing theories of the literary art, which might conveniently be called the expressive and constructive theories of composition .

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The Greek philosopher and scholar Aristotle is the first great representative of the constructive school of thought. His Poetics (the surviving fragment of which is limited to an analysis of tragedy and epic poetry) has sometimes been dismissed as a recipe book for the writing of potboilers. Certainly, Aristotle is primarily interested in the theoretical construction of tragedy, much as an architect might analyze the construction of a temple, but he is not exclusively objective and matter of fact. He does, however, regard the expressive elements in literature as of secondary importance, and the terms he uses to describe them have been open to interpretation and a matter of controversy ever since.

The 1st-century Greek treatise On the Sublime (conventionally attributed to the 3rd-century Longinus) deals with the question left unanswered by Aristotle—what makes great literature “great”? Its standards are almost entirely expressive. Where Aristotle is analytical and states general principles, the pseudo-Longinus is more specific and gives many quotations: even so, his critical theories are confined largely to impressionistic generalities.

Thus, at the beginning of Western literary criticism, the controversy already exists. Is the artist or writer a technician, like a cook or an engineer, who designs and constructs a sort of machine that will elicit an aesthetic response from his audience? Or is he a virtuoso who above all else expresses himself and, because he gives voice to the deepest realities of his own personality, generates a response from his readers because they admit some profound identification with him? This antithesis endures throughout western European history— Scholasticism versus Humanism , Classicism versus Romanticism , Cubism versus Expressionism —and survives to this day in the common judgment of our contemporary artists and writers. It is surprising how few critics have declared that the antithesis is unreal, that a work of literary or plastic art is at once constructive and expressive, and that it must in fact be both.

Critical theories of literature in Asian cultures , however, have been more varied. There is an immense amount of highly technical, critical literature in India . Some works are recipe books, vast collections of tropes and stylistic devices; others are philosophical and general. In the best period of Indian literature , the cultural climax of Sanskrit (c. 320–490), it is assumed by writers that expressive and constructive factors are twin aspects of one reality. The same could be said of the Chinese, whose literary manuals and books on prosody and rhetoric are, as with the West, relegated to the class of technical handbooks, while their literary criticism is concerned rather with subjective, expressive factors—and so aligns itself with the pseudo-Longinus’ “sublime.” In Japan , technical, stylistic elements are certainly important (Japanese discrimination in these matters is perhaps the most refined in the world), but both writer and reader above all seek qualities of subtlety and poignancy and look for intimations of profundity often so evanescent as to escape entirely the uninitiated reader.

East Asian literary tradition has raised the question of the broad and narrow definitions of poetry (a question familiar in the West from Edgar Allan Poe ’s advocacy of the short poem in his “Poetic Principle” [1850]). There are no long epic poems in Chinese, no verse novels of the sort written in England by Robert Browning or Alfred Lord Tennyson in the 19th century. In Chinese drama , apart from a very few of the songs, the verse as such is considered doggerel . The versified treatises on astronomy, agriculture, or fishing, of the sort written in Greek and Roman times and during the 18th century in the West, are almost unknown in East Asia . Chinese poetry is almost exclusively lyric , meditative, and elegiac, and rarely does any poem exceed 100 lines—most are little longer than Western sonnets; many are only quatrains. In Japan this tendency to limit length was carried even further. The ballad survives in folk poetry, as it did in China, but the “long poem” of very moderate length disappeared early from literature. For the Japanese, the tanka is a “long poem”: in its common form it has 31 syllables; the sedōka has 38; the dodoitsu , imitating folk song, has 26. From the 17th century and onward, the most popular poetic form was the haiku , which has only 17 syllables.

This development is relevant to the West because it spotlights the ever-increasing emphasis which has been laid on intensity of communication , a characteristic of Western poetry (and of literature generally) as it has evolved since the late 19th century. In East Asia all cultivated people were supposed to be able to write suitable occasional poetry, and so those qualities that distinguished a poem from the mass consequently came to be valued above all others. Similarly, as modern readers in the West struggle with a “communication avalanche” of words, they seek in literature those forms, ideas, values, vicarious experiences, and styles that transcend the verbiage to be had on every hand.

Literary language

In some literatures (notably classical Chinese, Old Norse, Old Irish), the language employed is quite different from that spoken or used in ordinary writing. This marks off the reading of literature as a special experience. In the Western tradition, it is only in comparatively modern times that literature has been written in the language of common speech. The Elizabethans did not talk like Shakespeare nor 18th-century people in the stately prose of Samuel Johnson or Edward Gibbon (the so-called Augustan plain style in literature became popular in the late 17th century and flourished throughout the 18th, but it was really a special form of rhetoric with antecedent models in Greek and Latin). The first person to write major works of literature in the ordinary English language of educated people was Daniel Defoe (1660?–1731), and it is remarkable how little the language has changed since. Robinson Crusoe (1719) is much more contemporary in tone than the elaborate prose of 19th-century writers like Thomas De Quincey or Walter Pater . (Defoe’s language is not, in fact, so very simple: simplicity is itself one form of artifice.)

Other writers have sought to use language for its most subtle and complex effects and have deliberately cultivated the ambiguity inherent in the multiple or shaded meanings of words. Between the two world wars, “ambiguity” became very fashionable in English and American poetry and the ferreting out of ambiguities—from even the simplest poem—was a favorite critical sport. T.S. Eliot in his literary essays is usually considered the founder of this movement. Actually, the platform of his critical attitudes is largely moral , but his two disciples , I.A. Richards in Principles of Literary Criticism (1924) and William Empson in Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), carried his method to extreme lengths. The basic document of the movement is C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards’ The Meaning of Meaning (1923), a work of enormous importance in its time. Only a generation later, however, their ideas were somewhat at a discount. However, ambiguity remained a principal shaping tool for the writer and a primary focus in literary criticism.

Certainly, William Blake or Thomas Campion , when they were writing their simple lyrics, were unaware of the ambiguities and multiple meanings that future critics would find in them. Nevertheless, language is complex. Words do have overtones; they do stir up complicated reverberations in the mind that are ignored in their dictionary definitions. Great stylists, and most especially great poets, work with at least a half-conscious, or subliminal, awareness of the infinite potentialities of language. This is one reason why the essence of most poetry and great prose is so resistant to translation (quite apart from the radically different sound patterns that are created in other-language versions). The translator must project himself into the mind of the original author; he must transport himself into an entirely different world of relationships between sounds and meanings, and at the same time he must establish an equivalence between one infinitely complex system and another. Since no two languages are truly equivalent in anything except the simplest terms, this is a most difficult accomplishment. Certain writers are exceptionally difficult to translate. There are no satisfactory English versions, for example, of the Latin of Catullus , the French of Baudelaire , the Russian of Pushkin , or of the majority of Persian and Arabic poetry. The splendor of Sophocles ’ Greek, of Plato at his best, is barely suggested even in the finest English versions. On the other hand, the Germans insist that Shakespeare is better in German than he is in English, a humorous exaggeration perhaps. But again, Shakespeare is resistant to translation into French. His English seems to lack equivalents in that language.

The very greatest translations may become classics in their own right, of enduring literary excellence (the King James Version of the Bible , appearing in 1611, is an outstanding example), but on the whole the approximate equivalence of most translations to their originals seems to have a very short life. The original work remains the same, of lasting value to its own people, but the translation becomes out of date with each succeeding generation as the language and criteria of literary taste change. Nothing demonstrates the complexity of literary language more vividly. An analogous process takes place when a reader experiences a literary work in his own language; each generation gets a “new version” from its own classics.

Yet the values of great literature are more fundamental than complexity and subtleties of meaning arising from language alone. Works far removed from contemporary humankind in time and in cultural background, composed in a variety of languages utterly different from one another in structure, have nevertheless been translated successfully enough to be deeply moving. The 20th century witnessed an immense mass of the oral literature of preliterate peoples and of the writings of all the great civilizations translated into modern languages. Translations of these literatures often distorted the original stories and, at best, captured only their essence. However, without these translations, such stories would most likely be forever lost.

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31 Of The Most Beautiful And Profound Passages In Literature You’ll Want To Read Over And Over Again

• https://thoughtcatalog.com/?p=493373

Whenever I’m feeling uninspired I look to a collection of my favorite literary quotes I keep in a document on my computer. Today was one of those days. As I was re-reading some of these and remembering why I love writing, reading, and the power of words and a good story, I thought perhaps someone somewhere out there might be feeling the same as me this morning. Here are 31 of the most beautiful passages in literature .

“Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. “Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“i took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. i am, i am, i am.” – sylvia plath, the bell jar, “we believe that we can change the things around us in accordance with our desires—we believe it because otherwise we can see no favourable outcome. we do not think of the outcome which generally comes to pass and is also favourable: we do not succeed in changing things in accordance with our desires, but gradually our desires change. the situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant to us. we have failed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us beyond it, and then if we turn round to gaze into the distance of the past, we can barely see it, so imperceptible has it become.” – marcel proust, in search of lost time, “the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” – antoine de saint-exupéry, the little prince, “hello babies. welcome to earth. it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. it’s round and wet and crowded. on the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. there’s only one rule that i know of, babies-“god damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” – kurt vonnegut, god bless you, mr. rosewater, “why, sometimes i’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – lewis carroll, alice in wonderland, “we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” – oscar wilde, lady windermere’s fan, “i must not fear. fear is the mind-killer. fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. i will face my fear. i will permit it to pass over me and through me. and when it has gone past i will turn the inner eye to see its path. where the fear has gone there will be nothing. only i will remain.” – frank herbert, dune, “nolite te bastardes carborundorum.” (don’t let the bastards grind you down) – margaret atwood, the handmaid’s tale, “just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. you might want to think about that. you forget some things, dont you yes. you forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.” – cormac mccarthy,  the road, “you can tell yourself that you would be willing to lose everything you have in order to get something you want. but it’s a catch-22: all of those things you’re willing to lose are what make you recognizable. lose them, and you’ve lost yourself.” – jodi picoult, handle with care, “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” – jack kerouac, on the road, “he allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” ― gabriel garcí­a márquez, love in the time of cholera, “there is an idea of a patrick bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though i can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: i simply am not there.” – bret easton ellis, american psycho, “sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. you change direction but the sandstorm chases you. you turn again, but the storm adjusts. over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. why because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. this storm is you. something inside of you. so all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. there’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. that’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine., and you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. no matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. people will bleed there, and you will bleed too. hot, red blood. you’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others., and once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. you won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. but one thing is certain. when you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. that’s what this storm’s all about.” – haruki murakami, kafka on the shore, “a heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others” – l. frank baum, the wonderful wizard of oz, “sometimes i can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives i’m not living.”- jonathan safran foer, extremely loud and incredibly close, “the most important things are the hardest to say. they are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. but it’s more than that, isn’t it the most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. and you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. that’s the worst, i think. when the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.” stephen king, different seasons, “i don’t have any problem understanding why people flunk out of college or quit their jobs or cheat on each other or break the law or spray-paint walls. a little bit outside of things is where some people feel each other. we do it to replace the frame of family. we do it to erase and remake our origins in their own images. to say, i too was here.” – lidia yuknavitch, the chronology of water, “i never believed in santa claus. none of us kids did. mom and dad refused to let us. they couldn’t afford expensive presents and they didn’t want us to think we weren’t as good as other kids who, on christmas morning, found all sorts of fancy toys under the tree that were supposedly left by santa claus. dad had lost his job at the gypsum, and when christmas came that year, we had no money at all. on christmas eve, dad took each one of us kids out into the desert night one by one., “pick out your favorite star”, dad said., “i like that one” i said., dad grinned, “that’s venus”, he said. he explained to me that planets glowed because reflected light was constant and stars twinkled because their light pulsed., “i like it anyway” i said., “what the hell,” dad said. “it’s christmas. you can have a planet if you want.” and he gave me venus., venus didn’t have any moons or satellites or even a magnetic field, but it did have an atmosphere sort of similar to earth’s, except it was super hot-about 500 degrees or more. “so,” dad said, “when the sun starts to burn out and earth turns cold, everyone might want to move to venus to get warm. and they’ll have to get permission from your descendants first., we laughed about all the kids who believed in the santa myth and got nothing for christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. “years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,” dad said, “you’ll still have your stars.” – jeannette walls, the glass castle, “lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. my sin, my soul. lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. lo. lee. ta. she was lo, plain lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. she was lola in slacks. she was dolly at school. she was dolores on the dotted line. but in my arms she was always lolita. did she have a precursor she did, indeed she did. in point of fact, there might have been no lolita at all had i not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. in a princedom by the sea. oh when about as many years before lolita was born as my age was that summer. you can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. look at this tangle of thorns.” vladimir nabokov, lolita, “you think because he doesn’t love you that you are worthless. you think that because he doesn’t want you anymore that he is right — that his judgement and opinion of you are correct. if he throws you out, then you are garbage. you think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. don’t. it’s a bad word, ‘belong.’ especially when you put it with somebody you love. love shouldn’t be like that. did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain they circle all around it; sometimes you can’t even see the mountain for the clouds. but you know what you go up top and what do you see his head. the clouds never cover the head. his head pokes through, beacuse the clouds let him; they don’t wrap him up. they let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him. you can’t own a human being. you can’t lose what you don’t own. suppose you did own him. could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you you really want somebody like that somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door you don’t, do you and neither does he. you’re turning over your whole life to him. your whole life, girl. and if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him he can’t value you more than you value yourself.” – toni morrison, song of solomon, “…i think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. we forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. we forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.” ― joan didion, slouching towards bethlehem, “i don’t let anyone touch me,” i finally said. why not” why not because i was tired of men. hanging in doorways, standing too close, their smell of beer or fifteen-year-old whiskey. men who didn’t come to the emergency room with you, men who left on christmas eve. men who slammed the security gates, who made you love them then changed their minds. forests of boys, their ragged shrubs full of eyes following you, grabbing your breasts, waving their money, eyes already knocking you down, taking what they felt was theirs. (…) it was a play and i knew how it ended, i didn’t want to audition for any of the roles. it was no game, no casual thrill. it was three-bullet russian roulette.” – janet fitch, white oleander, “i wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. not fuck, like in those movies. not even have sex. just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. but i lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and i was gawky and she was gorgeous and i was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. so i walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, i was drizzle and she was hurricane.” ― john green, looking for alaska, “but i tried, didn’t i goddamnit, at least i did that.” – ken kesey, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest, “if you’re going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don’t even start. this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. it could mean not eating for three or four days. it could mean freezing on a park bench. it could mean jail. it could mean derision. it could mean mockery–isolation. isolation is the gift. all the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. and, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. and it will be better than anything else you can imagine. if you’re going to try, go all the way. there is no other feeling like that. you will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. you will ride life straight to perfect laughter. it’s the only good fight there is.” ― charles bukowski, factotum, “i will be very careful the next time i fall in love, she told herself. also, she had made a promise to herself that she intended on keeping. she was never going to go out with another writer: no matter how charming, sensitive, inventive or fun they could be. they weren’t worth it in the long run. they were emotionally too expensive and the upkeep was complicated. they were like having a vacuum cleaner around the house that broke all the time and only einstein could fix it. she wanted her next lover to be a broom.” ― richard brautigan, sombrero fallout, “usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. “i’m okay” we say. “i’m alright”. but sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can’t get it off. that’s when you realize that sometimes it isn’t even an answer–it’s a question. even now, i wonder how much of my life is convinced.” ― markus zusak, the book thief, “i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. i love you simply, without problems or pride: i love you in this way because i do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no i or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when i fall asleep your eyes close.” ― pablo neruda, 100 love sonnets, “it doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. i want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing., it doesn’t interest me how old you are. i want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive., it doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. i want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further paini want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it., i want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human., it doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. i want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy., i want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence., i want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “yes”, it doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. i want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children., it doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. i want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back., it doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. i want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away., i want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.”, ― oriah mountain dreamer, the invitation.

About the author

Koty Neelis

Former senior staff writer and producer at Thought Catalog.

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Scots language in literature and creative writing

Description

Table of contents

1. introduction, 3.1. lesson planning, 4. application, 5. community link, 6. research, 7. professional recognition, 8. further engagement, 9. references.

This unit by Pauline Turner allows you to explore the rich diversity and creativity of the Scots language through a wide range of literature before applying resources and techniques to your own teaching of creative writing using Scots.

Contemporary Scots is written in the manner in which it is spoken and since there are multiple dialects, each with their own distinct grammatical and syntactical features, it is important for learners to listen to the sounds, intonation and rhythm of the words, as well as the way in which sentences are constructed. Therefore, listening and reading texts aloud as often as possible is a fundamental part of the creative writing process irrespective of the related reading and writing level within the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

Although perhaps initially daunting, it is this language diversity and the idiosyncratic features of Scots which lend themselves perfectly to creative writing. For learners whose first language is Scots, writing in their mither tongue brings not only freedom of expression, but expands their linguistic repertoire and therefore creativity, while also supporting and improving written English. Where Scots is being learned as a second or third language, first language speakers of Scots can support them in the classroom, particularly in oral storytelling and reading aloud. Overall, creative writing offers a privileged and 'safe space', particularly in fiction writing, to explore identity and experiment with language.

Based on Education Scotland's Creativity across learning 3-18, Impact report , your knowledge of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reading and writing levels, as per Literacy and English: experiences and outcomes , and your own interests and experiences, you will study this unit to accomplish the following objectives.

Key learning points

to learn about the role of Scots language in literature and its use in informing and supporting creative writing in the classroom.

to understand the integral nature of Scots language creative writing within other areas of the curriculum.

to write a lesson plan for Scots language creative writing, sourcing and evaluating appropriate tools and resources.

to embrace community resources and encourage involvement of learners' family and friends as a bridge beyond the classroom.

While old literary Scots, such as Robert Burns' poetry, represents a more standardized form of the written language, contemporary Scots is written in the same form as the spoken word. To gain a better understanding of storytelling traditions in various forms in Scots, engage with Unit 13, Storytelling, comedy and popular culture . Also study Unit 17, Grammar , of the Open University's Scots language and culture course, where you will be able to gain a useful overview of key grammatical features in various Scots dialects and how these are used.

Undertake as many activities as you can in the units, taking notes on aspects that are relevant for the key learning points listed for this unit. You may want to take your notes in the learning log for future reference. You can also consolidate your learning further by engaging with the Scots syntax atlas .

Learning log

A key point to remember about creative writing in Scots

Since Scots is non-standardised and diverse, it is important that learners use and experiment with Scots language in their writing without the fear of 'getting it wrong.' Rather than excessive correction, the aim of writing is to encourage consistency.

You will start working on creative writing in Scots with an example produced by S2 pupil Oriana Strahan from Largs Academy. 

Oriana won the SCILT  Words of the World  poetry competition 2021 with her poem   ‘Power and Peace’.

1.  Watch the recording of Oriana reciting  her poem  (23 seconds into the video). When watching, take notes on aspects of the poem you find interesting and relate to the topic of this course, i.e. language use, themes etc.

2.  Are Oriana’s poem and the interview resources you would consider using in your own classroom? Why/why not?

3.  Can you think of ways in which you could create a lesson/activities leading to similar outputs by your pupils? Take some notes to gather ideas for your lesson planning.

You will now start to think about Scots language in creative writing and its integral relationship with Scots literature. Watch author and translator, Matthew Fitt, inspire a group of children by reading Chairlie and the Chocolate Works aloud and engaging them in interactive Scots language activities during Authors Live: Roald Dahl Day organised by the Scottish Book Trust .

The organisers list the recording under the following categories:

Language: English, Scots

Genre: Classics, Humour, Local Interest

Age group: 6-8, 9-11

Topics:  Scots

First of all, watch an interviewwith Matthew Fitt in six parts recoded by BBC Scotland. Watch all six parts (Scots; Writing in Scots; Minging!; Taking on Roald Dahl; The right words; Quentin Blake)

When listeing, make notes that respond to the following questions:

Why is Scots language important to Matthew?

What difficulties did he have when he started to write and how did he overcome them?

What tips did he give for starting the writing process?

Matthew doesn't agree with excessive dictionary use in creative writing but can you think of any instances where dictionary use is important?

Apart from the words, what else gives meaning when he reads aloud?

How does he engage the children when he reads?

What other warm up activities does he use?

Now think about your own teaching context and take notes to answer the following questions.

Would you use this book with your own class as a creative writing prompt? Why/why not?

Do you feel confident to read aloud in Scots and if not, what other options could you use?

Depending on CfE level, Matthew Fitt's warm up activities may not be appropriate as a starting point for writing. Can you think of alternatives?

Using the reading activity in the video as a starting point, come up with at least two ideas for follow-on creative writing.

How could you use creative writing activities such as this one to interest learners' family and friends in the community?

If it is suitable for your teaching context, you may want to try out the teaching activity suggested by the Scottish Book Trust in connection with Matthew Fitt’s reading. Note that you could use aspects of the recording Book Trust event filmed by the BBC for your teaching.

Remember, even though you might be teaching an older age group, the activity can easily be adapted. For example:

- pupils can re-write elements of it in Scots using a different setting, different characters etc.

- pupils at Highers level could analyse and discuss what Matthew Fitt says in terms of writing in Scots and link his statements to the wider discussion of people writing in Scots in the classroom and beyond. This article in The Conversation by E Jamieson and Sadie Ryan ‘How Twitter is helping the Scots language thrive in the 21st century ’ will offer further useful material for this discussion and can inspire young people to try out writing in Scots.

[You will be engaging in more depth with the article in section 6 of this unit.]

To support your pupils in their creative writing, you can refer back to Unit 2 of this course as well as Unit 2, Vocabulary Old and New , of the Open University's Scots Language and Culture course (Part 1). The Units give guidance on Scots vocabulary and how to work with it. Unit 4 of this course contains a very useful section on working with a dictionary to expand the understanding of texts in Scots and build your own Scots vocabulary.

3. Tutorial

The next activity will further develop and consolidate your ideas with regards to your Scots language in literature and creative writing lesson plan.

To prepare for the tutorial of this unit, take some notes to bring to the tutorial revolving around attitudes to and problems around writing in Scots. The following questions might help you focus your thoughts.

What is your experience of writing in Scots? And what is your pupils’ as far as you know?

What might be difficulties you have to overcome when using creative writing in Scots in your classroom?

What do you consider advantages of using creative writing in Scots in your classroom?

What teaching ideas you have come across in this unit would you like to try out in your classroom and why?

To prepare your own lesson planning and help you get ready for the tutorial, make notes on any of the following resources or activities which are interesting and appropriate and which you might use in your lesson plan for the Application task of this unit.

The Scottish Book Trust has a section dedicated to Scots literacies: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/topics/scots . Explore the 'Learning resources' section and in particular, 'Using Scots in schools' PDF, and the Scots writing activities there, which are documented from p4.

Also see the following:

https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/creative-writing-activities-for-upper-primary

https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/creative-writing-for-secondary

The Scots Language Centre learning section has great creative writing resources. For those who like poetry, 'The Kist' is a selection of written and spoken poetry with creative writing ideas available at https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/658 .

In preparation for the tutorial, write a rough plan for a lesson activity involving the Scots language, building on the knowledge and skills that you have acquired through the study of this unit so far. Pay particular attention to your notes from the various aspects of Activity 3 and as required, review Unit 2, Activity 4: 'Key aspects to consider when planning a Scots language lesson or activity.'

Bring this draft plan as well as any questions you might have about planning something suitable to the tutorial session.

You can find out when the tutorial will take place in your study planner document.

Your plan should include the following:

the age group and subject area

suitable Scots vocabulary you plan to use/introduce

a suitable resource or more which you want introduce, to support the use of Scots in your classroom

suitable activities around the resource/s that can help develop your learners’:

understanding of the Scots language

their confidence in using it

their understanding of a particular aspect of your subject area

Remember to reference CfE  Literacy and English experiences and outcomes (2020)  in your lesson plan. Refresh your knowledge by reviewing the section on writing and taking any notes that you feel might help you in writing your lesson plan.

In the midst of lesson planning it is sometimes good to remind yourself that this is an important stepping-stone to children continuing to read and write in Scots beyond the walls of the classroom. Think about how you could facilitate this.

Don’t forget to share examples of the fantastic teaching and learning going on in your classrooms. Share on social media using    #OUScotsCP D , and tagging us in your posts  @OUScotland ,  @OULanguages ,  @EducationScot .

Now you will finish preparing your own lesson based on what you have studied in this unit by planning the activities and learning outcomes you plan to include.

You may wish to refer to the 3-18 Literacy and English Review (see pages 66 and 67 for specific reference to Scots) as well as the Education Scotland resources on the National Improvement Hub .

The CfE Experiences and Outcomes should be referenced as often as possible.

Using the notes and ideas that you began to gather during the tutorial, complete steps 1-5. 

1. In your own time, continue planning your chosen activity, adding more detail where required. 

2. Having planned your lesson, you will now carry it out with your learners, remembering that this is a highly creative activity and therefore you may need to adapt your plan according to need.

• You might want to gather some feedback from your learners about the activity as well, which you can bring to the course and share with your fellow students.
•   If required, you can remind yourself of Gibb's Reflective Cycle here.
• Accordingly, you should think about literature choice and resources, learner engagement with warm up and main writing activities and your future goals.  
• What do you think worked particularly well in your classroom application? 
• Is there anything you would do differently if you were to repeat this lesson?  
• What are the next steps for your learners? 
• How will you provide further opportunities to practise and reinforce the use and awareness of the Scots language? 

4. Then post your reflective account in your Course forum .

Writing with a clear purpose for a specific audience is extremely motivating. We want to introduce you to three initiatives around creative writing which you and your pupils might want to engage with.

Scottish Book Trust: What’s your story?

You can find out about a number of fantastic teen initiatives run by the Scottish Book Trust as well as links to writing competitions here .

Scots Hoose - Scots in Schools

Scots story competition which runs each year on Scots Hoose website

(please copy and paste this link into your browser):

http://www.scotsinschools.co.uk/index.html   

Young Scots Writer of the Year Award

"Stories, poems, spoken word pieces, comics, videos or other pieces of writing – we want to see it all, as long as it's in Scots and under 2500 words or up to ten minutes."

As the topic of this unit is writing in Scots, we want to introduce you to an area where Scots is thriving as a written language – social media. It is important to note that the younger generations are driving this movement and that the way in which Scots is used as a written language here is even driving wider changes in the language.

To start with, please read this  article by Jamieson and Ryan in The Conversation on ‘How Twitter is helping the Scots language thrive in the 21st century’.

1. When reading the article, take notes on points covered in this piece which you consider important, especially on the areas identified by the article’s two sub-headings:

The private and the public voice

Writing like you speak

2. You may want to follow some of the links to other publications on the use of Scots on social media, for example Eve Livingston’s   recent article   for  The Face  or  research showing  that people are more likely to write in a minority language such as Scots in posts directed at a specific user. Another fascinating publication is Sadie Ryan’s  research  on the computer-mediated communication of Glaswegian pre-teens.

3. Once you have finished reading the article, consider what aspects are particularly pertinent when you think about writing in Scots in the context of formal education, again coming back to the aspects of private vs public language use and writing like one speaks (something pupils are normally told not to do!). Take some notes and make plans an what you need to be mindful of when teaching writing in Scots and encouraging pupils to overcome mental barriers they might have due to how they have been taught writing in English, where there is a formal standard they learned to adhere to.

Activity 10

In this activity you will write your reflective blog post for the professional recognition element, which should be informed by your learning during the unit. You should write critically and in some depth about at least one of the following: 

• your understanding of/thinking about the theme of the unit in general, 
• a particular experience/incident arising either in the peer community of the course or in your workplace, 
• a specific piece of reading associated with the theme. 

Your post should: 

• be  500-750 words  in length. You may write a longer contribution if you wish.
• address the programme’s three Masters level criteria: 

1. Knowledge and understanding 

2. Critical analysis 

3. Structure, communication and presentation 

In writing your post, you may choose to: 

• use one or more prompt from the bank of reflective prompts  provided to frame your writing, 
• make connections between readings related to the theme and your practice,  
• explore the extent to which you agree/disagree with or were surprised/impressed by an aspect of the peer discussion in the course forum. 

Reflective blog

• Unit 19 of the Open University Scots language and culture course by Alan Riach focuses on literary prose in Scots language and prose in Scots fiction. This will be a useful introduction to prose in Scots language literature.
• Scots Hoose is a fantastic resource for teaching Scots language to children. In particular, look at the 'screive' section for creative writing ideas and resources: http://www.scotshoose.com/index.html
• The National Museum of Scotland have collaborated with the Scottish Book Trust to 'Build a story at the museum': https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/resources/build-a-story/
• Follow the link from the Scots Language Centre to read 'Teaching Shakespeare, using Scots,' which is an inspirational blog by English teacher, Amy Douglas. This is also available on Glow Scotland.
• The Scottish Poetry Library has a large number of resources.
• The book 'Addressing the Bard: twelve contemporary poets respond to Robert Burns' (Gifford (ed), 2009) showcases old literary Scots alongside contemporary Scots and is a good teaching resource for language discussion. This resource is available online for free at https://studylib.net/doc/13151635/addressing-the-bard .
• Traditional ghost stories are a good stimulus for writing. Author, Alan Bissett, narrates some here: https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/515/type/referance
• In addition to the research you have engaged with, you can explore a research paper on creative writing in the English as a Foreign Language classroom, which takes account of the fact the writing is the most difficult skill to master in the English as a Foreign Language learning context. You will be able to see some similarities with teaching creative writing in Scots and might be able to pick up some useful teaching strategies from this paper, too.
• To access Esma Şenel’s paper ‘The Integration of Creative Writing into Academic Writing Skills in EFL Classes’, go here .
• Read a sociolinguistic study that highlights how Twitter users modulate how they use Scottish vocabulary depending on the audience they want to address with their tweets.  Access the article 'Topic and audience effects on distinctively Scottish vocabulary usage in Twitter data'  by Shoemark, Kirby and Goldwater  here .

Burns, R. (n.d) 'Tam o Shanter' at Scotland on Screen [Online]. Available at https://scotlandonscreen.org.uk/browse-films/007-000-002-065-c (Accessed 4th December 2023).

Dempster, M. (2017) 'Ma Emoji Tae Scots Dictionar', in Mind yer Language? [Online]. Available at http://mindyerlanguage.scot/ma-emoji-tae-scots-dictionar (Accessed 4th December 2023

Dictionary of the Scots Language [Online]. Available at https://dsl.ac.uk/ (Accessed 4th December 2023).

Education Scotland (2013) 'Creativity Across learning 3-18: Impact report,' [Online]. Available at https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf (Accessed 4th December 2023).

Jamieson, E. and Ryan, S. (2019) ‘How Twitter is helping the Scots language thrive in the 21st century’, The Conversation, 13 August [Online] Available at https://theconversation.com/how-twitter-is-helping-the-scots-language-thrive-in-the-21st-century-121783 (Accessed 4th December 2023)

Potter, B. translated by McGeachie L. (n.d.) 'The Tale O Peter Kinnen' [Online]. Available at https://www.scotslanguage.com/Education/Audio_resources/The_Tale_O_Peter_Kinnen_uid2294 (accessed 4th December 2023).

Robertson, C. (2020) 'Hot seat', British Council: Teaching English [Online]. Available at https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/hot-seat-0 (Accessed 4th December 2023).

Scottish Book Trust (2020) 'Roald Dahl Day with Matthew Fitt' [Online]. Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e2jj5v/play/ard6gw/p0482rf5  (Accessed 22 January 2024).

Scottish Book Trust (2020) 'Scots' [Online]. Available at https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/topics/scots (Accessed 4th December 2023)

Scottish Book Trust (2020) 'Creative writing resources for upper primary' [Online]. Available at https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/creative-writing-activities-for-upper-primary (4th December 2023).

Scottish Book Trust (2020) 'Creative writing resources for secondary' [Online]. Available at https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/creative-writing-for-secondary (4th December 2023).

Scottish Government (2020) 'Literacy and English experiences and outcomes ' , Curriculum for Excellence [Online]. Available at https://education.gov.scot/Documents/literacy-english-eo.pdf   (Accessed 22 January 2024)

Scots Language Centre (2020) 'The Kist' [Online]. Available at https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/658 (Accessed 4th December 2023).

Scots Syntax Atlas (2020) [Online]. Available at https://scotssyntaxatlas.ac.uk/ (Accessed 4th December 2023).

Şenel, E. (2018) ‘The Integration of Creative Writing into Academic Writing Skills in EFL Classes’, International Journal of Languages Education and Teaching , vol. 6, issue 2, pp. 115-20.

Shoemark, P., Kirby, J. and Goldwater, S. (2017) ‘Topic and audience effects on distinctively Scottish vocabulary usage in Twitter data’ [Online] Available at https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W17-4908.pdf (4th December 2023) DOI:  10.18653/v1/W17-4908

University of Edinburgh (2020) 'Reflection toolkit' [Online]. Available at https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle (Accessed 4th December 2023)

Youtube (2013) 'Freewriting', [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0EMX0nnl4 (Accessed 4th December 2023)

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• Postgraduate study
• Postgraduate taught courses

English Literature (Creative Writing)

Explore this course:.

Applications for 2024 entry closed at 5pm on Friday 6 September. Applications for 2025 entry open on Monday 16 September.

School of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Course description

You’ll study contemporary creative writing methods and practices and develop your skills in different genres, cross-genres and a wide range of formal and genre experimentations. You’ll also develop and explore your own creative and critical writing through practical workshops and the critical reading of contemporary creative and theoretical texts.

You’ll be encouraged to take all four creative writing core modules, with a minimum of three, which are designed to interact with each other theoretically, thematically and methodologically, to allow for experimentation between literary practices and productive genre crossovers.

The course culminates in a dissertation. You’ll be producing portfolios of both creative and critical work for each module and for your dissertation, all of which may take the form of poetry, prose poetry, short stories, a novel extract, poetic prose, hybrid texts and other genres, as well as formal or cross-media experimentations.

This MA will help you develop your creative writing to a publishable quality, providing a positive, friendly, nurturing, intellectual and creative environment for confident, bold and imaginative development of contemporary creative writing forms and practices. You’ll explore your own writing through practical workshops and learn how to creatively and constructively critique your own and other students' work.

You’ll benefit from the buzzing literary culture at Sheffield and get involved in public and university readings, publications and festivals throughout your time with us. You're encouraged to publish your work and to participate in student-led, peer-feedback editorial sessions.

We run monthly public readings within the Centre for Poetry and Poetics with established writers and have an annually published creative writing journal, Route 57 , which is edited and assembled by our own creative writing students. Each year we also run various creative writing projects, student readings and hubs which will give you a variety of opportunities to meet fellow writers within our well established Postgraduate Creative Writing community which comprises current and alumni students of the MA and PhD.

An open day gives you the best opportunity to hear first-hand from our current students and staff about our courses.

You may also be able to pre-book a department/school visit as part of a campus tour. Open days and campus tours

• 1 year full-time
• 2 years part-time

How we teach core modules

For the four core creative writing modules, you’ll meet for a two-hour workshop each week. These workshops are held in the late afternoons or early evenings.

A workshop is an informal, creative and critical environment that allows you to receive feedback on your writing from both the tutor and your fellow students. 

You’ll have the opportunity to discuss creative and theoretical practices, drawing on a wide range of selected contemporary reading material. You'll be encouraged to produce new writing on a weekly basis, which we discuss in the workshops.

How we teach optional modules

Modules from MA English Literature are taught in seminars, which can vary from 1.5 to 2.5 hours long. These are held weekly or fortnightly depending on the module. Many of these seminars are held during the day.

Teaching staff

Our current staff are active and internationally-recognised authors, academics and creative forces in their fields:

• Dr Agnes Lehoczky (Programme Convenor for the MA in Creative Writing, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing)
• Professor Adam Piette (Professor of Modern Literature)
• Clare Fisher (Lecturer in Creative Writing)
• Dr Michael Kindellan (Vice Chancellor’s Fellow)
• Jane Lowe (Creative Writing Programme Administrator)

Former teaching staff have included Dr Vahni Capildeo, Professor Simon Armitage, Dr Honor Gavin, Professor Denise Riley, Dr Laura Joyce and Dr Rachel Genn.

You'll be assessed at the end of each term on creative writing portfolios which will include your creative work and a critical essay as well as your dissertation project which will consist of both creative and critical components.

The dissertation is 80% creative and 20% critical reflection on your own work, genre or relevant literary tradition. You'll prepare for it through work you've done in both creative writing modules. The word count for fiction is:

• 12,000 words of creative work
• 4,000 words of which may already have been workshopped or submitted
• 3,000-5,000 word critical essay

For poetry, the word count is:

• 20 poems, or equivalent (roughly up to 400 lines approx), five of which may have already been previously workshopped or submitted (as long as drafts are submitted to indicate changes)
• 3,000-5,000 words critical essay

Mixed portfolios are welcome. For work previously submitted, we would like you to submit drafts to show changes and developments made to the material.

Your career

Our alumni have gone on to publish creative work and pursue research paths in various sectors. View a list of publications by our current students and alumni who have published work during and since completing our degree programme in Creative Writing.

Alumni and student publications

Your career - the School of English

School of English

We're a research-intensive school with an international perspective on English studies. Students can specialise in their chosen subject, while taking modules from other programmes, forging interdisciplinary connections. We encourage you to get involved and to apply your academic learning, working in partnership with external organisations both within the city of Sheffield and beyond.

Our staff are researchers, critics, and writers. They're also passionate, dedicated teachers who work tirelessly to ensure their students are inspired.

We keep seminar groups small because we believe that's the best way to stimulate discussion and debate. Our modules use a range of innovative assessments and can include designing websites, writing blog posts, and working with publishing software, in addition to writing essays and delivering presentations.

We're committed to providing you with the pastoral support you need in order to thrive on your degree. You'll be assigned a personal tutor with whom you'll have regular meetings. You're welcome to see any of our academic staff in their regular student consultations if there's anything you want to ask.

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate honours degree in a relevant subject.

Subject requirements

We accept degrees in the following subject areas: 

• English Language
• English Literature
• Linguistics
• Modern Languages

Your degree should be in an Arts and Humanities or Social Sciences subject.

View an indicative list of degree titles we would consider

IELTS 7.5 (with 7 in each component) or University equivalent

If you're an international student who does not meet the entry requirements for this course, you have the opportunity to apply for a pre-masters programme in Business, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Sheffield International College . This course is designed to develop your English language and academic skills. Upon successful completion, you can progress to degree level study at the University of Sheffield.

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the school/department .

Fees and funding

There are a number of studentships and fee bursaries available, funded by the University. Deadlines for funding applications are usually in winter/early spring.

Applications for 2024 entry closed at 5pm on Friday 6 September. Applications for 2025 open on Monday 16 September.

More information

[email protected] +44 114 222 0220

Sept. 11, 2024

VCU creative writing student Josh Galarza’s debut novel longlisted for National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

The finalists will be announced oct. 1 by the national book foundation., share this story.

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By Sian Wilkerson

 “The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky,” the debut novel from Virginia Commonwealth University MFA candidate Josh Galarza, is among 10 works longlisted for this year’s  National Book Award for Young People’s Literature .

Galarza, who is in his third year of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the Department of English in VCU's College of Humanities and Sciences , wanted to bring authenticity to a work imbued with elements  of his identity and life story.  “The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky,”  published by Henry Holt and Company, tells the story of Brett, who is forced to confront his deepest insecurities after his journal goes viral on social media.

The National Book Foundation will announce finalists for the award on Oct. 1, and the winner will be announced Nov. 20.

“This recognition from the National Book Foundation is thrilling and validating for me as an artist,” Galarza said. “Being in the company of such powerful books by similarly bold authors is a welcome reminder that I have never been alone in my belief in children and their capacity to change the world through their innate sense of justice, boundless curiosity and expansive imaginations.”

He added, “I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to the National Book Foundation, the judging panelists and the incredible people in my life who shaped me and this story in ways both small and profound. Special tips of the hat to my editor, Jess Harold; my agent, David Dunton; and my beloved writers’ community here at VCU, who make every day a joy.”

“The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky” has been recognized by the American Booksellers Association on its Indies Introduce and Kids’ Indie Next lists, was chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was named a Best July Book for Young Readers by Kirkus Reviews. It also received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.

SJ Sindu, Ph.D., an assistant professor of creative writing in VCU's Department of English, called Galarza an extremely talented writer whose debut work gave her everything she looks for in a novel.

“This is a riveting read,” she said. “Josh writes the way a precision driver handles a vehicle, and I can’t wait to see where his career leads.”

Next month, Galarza will put his work into focus during two on-campus events.

On Oct. 2, he will join Annie Haynos, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, for “The Many Faces of Disordered Eating,” part of the Uncommon Connections series. The event will explore the manifestations of disordered eating and the pathways to recovery, as well as the intersection of scientific research and creative expression.

On Oct. 7, Galarza will discuss his journey during a  Meet VCU Authors  talk with the Humanities Research Center.

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Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books. In the late 1980s and 90s, he worked on developing East Asia-Russia business, trade and investment.

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