Suspend Your Disbelief

Neil Connelly

contributor

Neil Connelly teaches writing at Shippensburg University. His seventh book, Into the Hurricane, is due out in June.


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Essays |

Gargoyles in the Classroom: Some Reflections on Popular Fiction in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Workshop

Back in the 90’s, I was teaching a multi-genre creative writing class at Cape Fear Community College, a name I am not making up. There were almost thirty students, with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, and abilities. At the time, inexperienced, I was still letting folks workshop whatever they wanted, without any restraints on content or pre-screening by me. I was more giddy cheerleader than true teacher, with vague hopes of leaping onto my desk, Robin-Williams like, and inspiring bemusement and admiration from my young students. All this led to some unusual situations, like the young man who plagiarized […]