>In a message dated 1/25/02 1:49:49 GMT Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
>
>What I wanted to ask is, could anyone offer any advice about creative
>writing courses?
>
>
>
>My instinctive response is 'dont do it'! Especially if you are very new
>to writing....... much better to attend lots of readings/performances,
>read all you can (esp in small mags and off-beat publications) and go to
>as many workshops as you can until you find people who are with you. And
>then hold onto to them and keep working with them in all the ways you can.
>
>I think very many of us work in isolation (see a dimly remembered recent
>mail of Daves) and feel the lack of companionship. But that seems to come
>with the territory. I think a course would simply fix and narrow your
>range to what is recognised in an academic setting, which can be a very
>small slice of the world. You need to be very strong in what you do to
>withstand the onslaught of people with strong opinions about what you
>should be doing (I say this as a teacher myself!)
>
>move to somewhere more interesting might be a better solution
>Liz
>
Well, I'd reply, that it depends. Many creative writing courses _are_
workshops. Certaily for some new to writing they help, & the people I know
who do them insist that their students _read_. Some people insist that only
the way they do things counts, but most are more open to a wider range of
choices than that. And, again, it depends on what you mean by 'an academic
setting.' I can only say that the one in which I teach, & others in Canda
(at least Western Canada), rather seek to widen the range of possibilities
as much as possible.
Of course a course without recourse to all the other possibilities, reading
on your own, attending readings etc, won't do much...
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
Cinder of the lexical drift.
Susan Howe
|