I began submitting to Glimmer Train in 1997, the same year I received my undergrad degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan. That fall, following graduation, my now-wife and I moved to a small cabin on a lake in northern Michigan so that I could be “a writer.” I’d thought I needed to [...]

Editor’s note: As part of our focus on teaching this month, we’re delighted to present this guest post by Kevin Haworth.
People tell me that I am a poetic writer.
My response to this characterization varies from Thanks! to What does that mean? to Yes, my novel did sell like poetry to I want people to love [...]

How does one teach those phenomenal, force-of-nature fiction writing students who walk into a classroom with their own identities? With the expectation that the teacher will change, too, writes Steven Wingate in his latest Quotes and Notes column.

As part of our teaching theme this month, we’re sharing some of our favorite exercises in our “Get Writing” series for classroom (or personal) use. Enjoy!
Last week, Michael Rudin suggested that stealing a first line can help you overcome that new-story inertia. Here’s another larcenous twist: instead of stealing a line, steal a [...]

North Carolina’s esteemed novelist, short story writer, teacher, and former poet laureate Fred Chappell came along at a critical moment in my writing life: when I was starting to hear voices.
Trained as a journalist but always identifying as a writer, I resumed a childhood poetry habit after it had been on hiatus during college. [...]

When I was an MFA student at the University of Maryland, Stanley Plumly said two things about my poetry that have stuck with me and shaped not only how I think about my writing process but also how I approach teaching creative writing.
In one conference, he asked, Will you ever write a ten-syllable line? Stanley [...]

This week’s feature is A Kite in the Wind, edited by Andrea Barrett and Peter Turchi. Published this spring by Trinity University Press, the book is the most recent title in a series of craft books that are drawn predominately from lecturers given as a part of the Warren Wilson MFA program. Previous collections include [...]

On a bright Friday morning in late April, I met up with Michele Kotler, Founder and Director of The Community-Word Project (CWP) for a classroom visit to PS/MS 279 in the Bronx. In their own words,
CWP is a New York City based arts-in-education organization that inspires children in underserved communities to read, interpret and respond [...]

Editor’s note: As part of our focus on teaching this month, we’re delighted to present this guest post by Peter Turchi.
Nearly twenty years ago, when I became director of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers, I moved into a small office that had been left neat and nearly empty by the previous director. [...]

As you may have noticed, our blog posts and features this week have all centered on the art of writing and the particular art of teaching writing. Some argue that writing can’t be taught, of course. Others say that only the craft of writing is teachable–that the spark of imagination and the vision of creation [...]