The world’s highest selling writer says 22-hour working days are the route to literary riches. But, say, our literary experts, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Man Out of Time is an affecting portrait of a family rocked by the patriarchal figure’s long-term depression.
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Stephanie Bishop’s latest novel demonstrates a sophisticated approach to the relationship between time and narrative: novelists and aspiring writers would do well to look closely at her achievement.
Writing for pleasure improves long-term learning outcomes in a range of areas, including maths and science.
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Not every student will publish work or win prizes and very few will be able to earn a living putting pen to paper, but the teaching of creative writing is about more than that.
Okri (left) and Liam Bell right)
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Modernism – and western culture generally since the late 18th century – taught us that books were written in solitary creative frenzies. But ghostwriters are increasingly challenging that assumption.
Will a computer algorithm understand the creativity, flair, irony, wit and unconventional approaches used in kids’ writing?
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NAPLAN is going to be marked by computers from 2017. Can an algorithm understand the complex and emotional writing techniques we want our children to be learning?
Former US Poet Laureate Philip Levine (1928-2015) was down to earth and humble. But he spared no rage towards those he deemed selfish and narcissistic.
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Kate Daniels, the director of Vanderbilt’s creative writing program, recalls the life and work of her mentor, a man “devoted…to creating gritty and empathetic portraits of American blue collar workers.”
If you’re not born with creativity, do you have to struggle to acquire it?
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Recently one of my Masters students, a filmmaker from the Czech Republic, told me his friends back at home were completely baffled that he was in Australia studying creative writing. You were either creative…
What happens when a Surrealist parlour game turns into a writing exercise that’s pubilshed? Can we truly call it a collaborative process?
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Pema Düddul, Southern Cross University; Jen Webb, University of Canberra, and Nike Sulway, University of Southern Queensland
Recently, The Conversation published what was described as “an experiment in collaborative writing” (featuring, among others, Dallas J Baker and Nike Sulway of this present article). The question behind…
What are you waiting for? Just write!
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This year the UK’s biggest poetry award, the TS Eliot prize, has gone to David Harsent for his 11th collection, Fire Songs. He joins a sequence of prestigious poets such as Ted Hughes, Derek Walcott and…
Many hands have helped author The Conversation’s first collaborative writing experiment.
We’re starting 2015 with an experiment in collaborative creative writing. What happens when you ask ten academics to write a story together? Taking our cue from the Exquisite Cadaver game played by Surrealist…
Literary awards can have a profound impact on sales – and, in the future, which books get published and promoted.
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There’s a lot of attention right now on diversity in children’s books – or, more accurately, the lack of it. It’s not a new problem. White people have been talking about this issue since Nancy Larrick…
Writing programs don’t just produce strong writers, they produce critical thinkers with strong skills for the workplace.
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Whether creative writing can be taught is a question that has been debated on and off for decades. Are writers born, is the question, or can they be made? Neither side of the debate has offered incontrovertible…
Apparently, Jane Austen needs updating. Yet again. She’s a stranger to the 21st-century world. Her novels need rewriting for a modern readership, and this is what The Austen Project aims to do to get younger…