Despite claims that Creative Writing and Composition don't speak to one another, this article finds that composition does borrow fictional craft elements and artistic tools. Moreover, these devices and tools show up in composition pedagogy in two ways: explicitly or implicitly. Many of the tools found come from fiction writers and poets, while…

Our thesis is more finely tuned to Thomas Merton (1915-68) the writer, more specifically, the poet/artist/writer and thinker. These are the components of the "Merton" voice. Merton senses the quality of innocence as the "sine qua non" of the poet or writer's vocation: "His art depends on an ingrained innocence which he would lose in business, in…

From September 2008 to July 2009, the author traded academic robes for the Army Combat Uniform issued to US Navy personnel deploying to Afghanistan. Along with using the ceramic and Kevlar body armor he learned to don at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he metaphorically defended himself from the disruption to his personal and professional life that…

In this article, the author narrates his lifelong relationship with a major American poet, Walt Whitman. He describes how Whitman's "Song of Myself" and poetic idea influenced his life and way of thinking.

Three English teachers share their ideas on how their work as a writer helped them as a teacher. One teacher has found that the desire for meaningful response to her own writing has led her to evaluate her students similarly. A second teacher discusses how personal experience translates into teaching how to convey rejection in a useful and tactful…

The stereotype of the poet or novelist working in unappreciated solitude got a workout recently at the Carbondale campus of Southern Illinois University. The 9th annual Young Writer's Workshop brought 30 high-school students onto the campus for four intense days of poetry and fiction writing, critiques, panels and readings. The workshop is one of…

Provides background on poet, fiction writer, and teacher Alan Ziegler. (FL)

Presents an interview with poet John Ashbery about how to teach one of his poems to people of high school age. (RS)

In many classrooms, poetry is shoved to the neglected edge of language arts, out of the bright core of content that may (should) include grammar, vocabulary, and strong literature. If time permits, a class may read a few poems and discuss them from a so-called "interpretive" point of view. All of this takes place in the context of an apparent…

An interview with a well-known writer reveals how he writes and how he feels about the way writing is being taught. (FL)

Relates the experiences of a poet visiting and teaching in three Alaskan villages. (RL)

Describes one day of a poet-in-residency at a high school in rural Ohio. (MM)

Presents an interview with English professor and Pulitzer Prize Award winning poet Gary Snyder. Discusses his writing processes, journal writing, writing instruction, and writing evaluation. (SR)

Presents Part Two of the ongoing series Letters to a Young Writer where poet and professor Susan Mitchell corresponds with a contemporary composer as a means of exploring the relationship between poetry and the human voice. Reflects on the role of the poet in a civilization, a "habitat," under attack. (SG)

Argues that writing charged with spiritual awareness can also be politically responsible. Uses poetry as an illustration, specifically the poetry of George Oppen, a Jewish-American who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1969. Discusses his poetry. Examines what the act of remembering means for a researcher and composition teacher. (PA)