On Unknowing Creative Writing Pedagogy

Abstract

This article questions the authority of the current-traditional creative writing workshop, with its process of readings and discussions of student texts in the presence of a master teacher, and offers mentoring as an alternative to this marginally functioning pedagogy. The traditional workshop can marginalize student writers, allowing the master writer to serve as the primary voice of response. Often these masters direct their students to write in a style that imitates them. Wendy Bishop defines the traditional workshop that relegates the apprentice writer to imitation of the master’s style as “elitist, often sexist, and falsely collaborative†(Released into Language 87). Providing alternatives to the traditional workshop that focuses on finding fault and avoiding communication, this article positions the mentor/protégé relationship in juxtaposition to the traditional master/apprentice relationship. A mentoring pedagogy is distinctive, providing the protégé with professional and personal support, allowing the mentor to serve as a role model for the protégé. Dismissing the authority of the workshop for the discipline of mentorship, the author embraces opportunities to develop professional and personal relationships with students and their writing, opportunities to teach into the unknown space outside of the current-traditional workshop, toward the future of creative writing pedagogy.