Episode 11: Composing Creatively

Many of us have feet in both the rhetoric/composition community and the creative writing community. To figure out why that is and what we can do about it, I focused this episode around the new book Creative Composition: Inspiration and Techniques for Writing Instruction.

First you'll hear an interview I conducted with one of the book's co-editors, Danita Berg. Then you'll hear 3 short pieces from contributors to the volume: Denise Landrum-Geyer, Anna Leahy, and Shawn Kerivan, all touching on different aspects of the overlap.

What are the intersections between composition pedagogy and creative writing?
Plugs, Play, Pedagogy

Episode 11: Composing Creatively

Transcript available as a Google Doc here; check it out for more links, and feel free to comment on anything that needs comments.

Part 1: Why this book?

First, you'll hear me talk to Danita Berg, one of the co-editors of Creative Composition: Inspiration and Techniques for Writing Instruction.

We discuss the different training that MFAs and PhDs in rhet/comp get, the need for this book, and where the split in the fields came from. Eventually, we got into a big, rambly conversation about multimodality and technology in both fields, but it was too crazy to edit down for this episode--so you'll just have to ask us about it later.

Part 2: Digging into Details

Next, you'll hear 3 pieces self-produced by authors of chapters in Creative Composition:

Denise Landrum-Geyer talks about the importance of essaying, as a verb, a concept that connects our fields.
Anna Leahy discusses how to cultivate talent, get better at writing, and be gritty.
Shawn Kerivan defends the teaching of grammar as a tool with its own history, meaning, and depth, not as something dry to discuss in a vacuum.

End Matter

Produced and recorded by Kyle Stedman ([email protected]; @kstedman), assistant professor of English at Rockford University, in cooperation with KairosCast and Writing Commons. Please contact me if you have ideas for future episodes or stories about how you've used the ideas you've heard on the show!

The theme music at the beginning of the episode is by Cactus May, graduate student in rhetoric and composition, and you heard three pieces that are freely available at OverClocked ReMix:

Zisotto, "The Depetrification of the Submerged Forest"
Omni-Psyence & TeraCMusic, "Jewel of Enhasa"
Disco Dan, "Blue Lightning"

The show is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.