The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Patrick O’Neil
Patrick O'Neil talks about his debut memoir Gun Needle Spoon, being big in France, the drug/recovery genre, and writing through trauma.
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teaching writing
144 posts
Keep It Simple
Recently, several novelists have criticized the primary curriculum in the UK for teaching a brand of creative writing that is too “complex.” For the Guardian, Ella Slater explains why she agrees…
The Rumpus Interview with Paul Griner
Paul Griner talks about his newest novel, Second Life, his just-released story collection Hurry Please I Want to Know, putting real life into fiction, and whether creative writing can be taught.
Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Julia MacDonnell
Julia was one of those “students” whom you suspect, after maybe fifteen seconds, should actually be teaching the class you are currently (allegedly) teaching.
The Rumpus Interview with Christian Kiefer
Writer, musician, and poet Christian Kiefer discusses his literary influences, the "beautiful, beat up, and weird town" that is Reno, and writing from the perspective of beasts in his new novel The Animals.
Word of the Day: Didascalic
(adj.); intended to teach; related to teaching or education “How did it come to be … that ‘those of us for whom English is a line of work are also…
MFA-Gate Continues
Last week, Ryan Boudinot published the MFA-disparaging essay/listicle/cranky advice column that launched a thousand angry tweets. Electric Literature has two responses: one supporting Boudinot’s core argument and one rebutting it.
The Unteachable Dark
Writers Rivka Galchen and Zoë Heller, over at The New York Times, discuss the question that will never go away: can writing be taught? They raise valid points about whether teaching writing…
Not Writing to Write Better
Julia Fierro has a debut novel Cutting Teeth, but for much of the last decade, the writer was so dispirited by the rejection of her first manuscript that she stopped writing.…
“Please Let It Go Okay”
Teaching is a complicated profession, especially in the field of creative writing where emotions run high. Does teaching hurt your writing? What if you’re an able writer but a mediocre…
The Only Woman in the Room
At the Tazewell County Justice Center, on a Monday night in May, five women gather for a creative-writing class. They microwave plastic cups of instant coffee, then drag chairs up to the conference table where we’ll write.
To Teach Or Not to Teach?
The ever-contentious subject of teaching creative writing is up for discussion. You can teach the elements, but there are always the “intangibles that cannot be taught.” Roxane Gay is inciting…