6th Annual Creative Writing Studies Conference Online
Creative Writing as Care & Other Lessons of the Pandemic #CWSC21
Friday and Saturday, October 8 and 9, 2021
Thank you for your interest in our 2021 conference. Below, you’ll find an archive of the schedule. Q&As were held via Zoom with a link sent out to all current members the week of the conference. No registration was required. Videos remain part of our YouTube Channel in an effort to expand the accessibility of academic conferences. Check out the #CWSC21 Playlist for a quick look at all the presentations in order.
As we imagine possibilities for a post-pandemic world, we use this conference to recenter care. How can creative writing studies build or rebuild practices and communities of care? The ongoing global pandemic has challenged our notions of productivity and created unexpected hardships for writers and students. What lessons will we choose to take forward into the After Times? In the post-pandemic world, we must absolutely reject the spurious argument that caring for students or acknowledging the therapeutic benefit of writing somehow negates the artistic and intellectual value of the field.
Presenters with an asterisk beside their name will serve as a facilitator for the Q & A.
Friday, October 8
Friday Morning Sessions
8:30-9AM EDT COFFEE & WELCOME with Rachel Haley Himmelheber
9-9:30 Time to prep for first panel Q&A
9:30-10 EDT Research in/as Creative Writing Q & A
John Vigna, “Why I Invited Peers to Review My Teaching in All of My Classes”
Sophia Stid & Carlina Duan, “Research as Creative Practice”
*Khem K. Aryal, “Writer as Creative Writing Researcher: Linking Writers’ Self-Reports to Autoethnography”
10-10:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A
10:30-11 EDT Student-Centered Care Q & A
Audrey T. Heffers, “In the Room Where It Happens: Access, Equity, and the Creative Writing Classroom”
Sydney Austin, “Expelling Joker from the Workshop: Approaching Mental Illness in the Creative Writing Classroom with Universal Design”
Zoë Bossiere & Sarah Haak, “Teaching Creative Writing in Times of Crisis: A Student-Centered Response”
11-11:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A
11:30-12 EDT Joy and Self-Determination Q & A
Bronwen Tate, “Reflect, Experiment, Report Back: Building Sustainable Writing Habits in a Context of Communal Care”
*Rachel Haley Himmelheber, “Hot Streaks, Magic Circles, and Loose Parts: Making Paths to a More Playful Pedagogy”
Chris Drew, “Finding the Full Value of Joy: The Unique Social and Emotional Power of Creative Writing during Difficult Times”
12-1 LUNCH BREAK
Friday Afternoon Sessions
1-1:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel
1:30-2 EDT The Workshop Q & A
Emily Capettini, “Fandom Practices in the Workshop”
Elena Traina, “Best Practice and Pedagogical Considerations from the ‘Sentimental Structure’ Workshop”
Hans Lind, “Repairing the Creative Writing Workshop”
2-2:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel
2:30-3 EDT Interdisciplinary Takes Q & A
Laura Wetherington, “Henk Rossouw’s Xamissa and Creative Writing’s Imaginary Potentials”
*Cymelle Edwards, “On Declaration & Interpretation of Black Performance & Performativity”
3-3:20 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel
3:20-4 EDT Ritual and Wonder Workshop Session
Danielle Holmes, Alysse Kathleen McCanna & Juan J. Morales, “Ritual and Wonder: Methods of Reopening and Unsilencing the Workshop”
Saturday, October 9
Saturday Morning Sessions
8:30-9AM EDT COFFEE & WELCOME with Alexa Garvoille
9-9:30 Time to prep for first panel
9:30-10 EDT Community and Collaboration Q & A
*Brandi Reissenweber, “Collaborative Storytelling as Community Care”
Sam Meekings, “Fostering Collaborative Writing and Creative Communities as Acts of Communal Care in Creative Writing Pedagogy”
Kara Mae Brown, “Nanofiction, Attention, and Care: Very Short Lessons in Building Classroom Community”
10-10:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A
10:30-11 EDT Care and Creative Nonfiction Q & A
Jennifer Case, “Carework in the Creative Nonfiction Classroom: A Synthesis of Narrative Medicine, Expressive Writing, and Trauma-Informed Pedagogy”
Darryl Whetter, “True (Caregiving) Stories, Well Told” (video|text)
11-11:20 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A [Links to video and script below]
11:20-12 EDT Graduate Student Pedagogy Workshop Session
Casey O’Ceallaigh, Daphne Daughtery, Gitte Frandsen, and Beth Vigoren, “Compassionate Pedagogy: Teaching Graduate Students How to Teach and Integrating Creative Writing in the Composition Classroom”
12-1 LUNCH BREAK
Saturday Afternoon Sessions
1-1:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A
1:30-2 EDT Studies of the Individual Q & A
Hunter Blackwell, “Say It With Your Whole Chest: Knowing Your Voice Matters in Craft”
Kimberly K. Williams, “Making Room for the Spirit: Encouraging Exploration of the Ineffable Self as Form of Self-care through Creative Writing”
*C. Connor Syrewicz, “How do Expert (Creative) Writers Write? A Literature Review”
2-2:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A
2:30-3 EDT Against Shame Q & A
PANEL: “Against Shame, Towards Embodiment: Expression and Pleasure in the 21st Century Creative Writing Classroom”
- *Alyse Bensel, “Embodiment in the Creative Writing Classroom”
- Sara Henning, “Give It Back to the Body: Writing Toward Pleasure in the Creative Writing Classroom”
- Jennifer Pullen, “Pleasure Not So Guilty: Toward Subverting Shame and Returning the Joy of Reading”
- Simone Savannah
3-3:30 Stretch your legs and prep for the next panel Q&A
3:30-4 EDT Secondary and MFA Educations
Anna Leahy, Terry Thaxton, *Stephanie Vanderslice, “Business as Unusual: The MFA Professionalization Course & Identity Formation”
Connie Martin, “Towards Cohesive Creative Writing Instruction: A Curriculum Artifact Demonstrating How Threshold Concepts Can Create Cohesion in Secondary Creative Writing Curriculum”
4-5 EDT Final Toast and Social Hour