Editing Creative writing (section)

===In academia===
Creative writing is considered by some academics (mostly in the US) to be an extension of [[English studies]], although it is taught around the world in many languages. Some academics see creative writing as a challenge to the tradition in English studies of dealing with the critical study of literary forms, not the creation of literary forms. In the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Australia]], as well as increasingly in the US and the rest of the world, creative writing is considered a discipline in its own right, not an offshoot of any other discipline.
{{cquote|To say that the creative has no part in education is to argue that a university is not universal.<ref>{{cite book |last=Engle |first=Paul |chapter=The Writer and the Place |title=A Community of Writers: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers' Workshop |editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Dana |location=Iowa City |publisher=University of Iowa Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-87745-668-2 |page=3 }}</ref>}}
Those who support creative writing programs—either as part of or separate from the study of English—argue for the academic worth of the experience. They suggest creative writing hones the students' abilities to clearly express their thoughts and entails an in-depth study of literary terms and mechanisms that can improve the writers' work. The planning, development, critical analysis and creative [[problem-solving]] skills are further used in other areas beyond creative writing.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Some people suggest that creative writing cannot be taught. In an article for the ''New Yorker'', essayist [[Louis Menand]] quotes [[Kay Boyle]], the director of the creative writing program at San Francisco State University for sixteen years, who said, "all creative-writing programs ought to be abolished by law".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Show or Tell - Should Creative Writing be Taught? |first=Louis |last=Menand |magazine=The New Yorker |date=June 8, 2009 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/08/show-or-tell |archive-date=August 30, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830182154/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/06/08/090608crat_atlarge_menand }}</ref> The [[pedagogy]] of creative writing is also a source of debate. Critics of MFA and English graduate programs say the methods of instruction discriminate against people with disabilities, emphasizing writing practices such as daily writing requirements or location-based writing that students with chronic illnesses, physical or mental health barriers, and neurodivergency are unable to access.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Cripping Pedagogy in the Creative Writing Classroom: A Critical Disability Studies Perspective |encyclopedia=A Socially Just Classroom: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Writing Across the Humanities |publisher=Vernon Press |last=Milbrodt |first=Teresa |editor-last=Coffey |editor-first=Kristin |publication-place=Wilmington, DE |pages=51–66 |isbn=9781648891755}}</ref> The selection of texts used in traditional creative writing programs has also been criticized, with scholars such as Caleb González saying that the [[Western canon|Western literary canon]] and writing pedagogy are "historically rooted and linked to exclusion and structural racism in creative writing programs".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=González |first1=Caleb |date=25 March 2021 |title=On Writing in Two Languages in the Creative Writing Workshop: Exploring Diverse and Inclusive Workshop Models and Pedagogies |url=https://repository.rit.edu/jcws/vol6/iss1/37 |journal=Journal of Creative Writing Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |issn=2474-2937 |access-date=29 February 2024}}</ref>