Howmanytimeshaveyouheardthatcreativewritingprogrammesarefactoriesthatproducethesamekindofwriters,isolatedfromreallife?Onlybyescapingacademiacanwritersbecompletelyfree.Universitiesareprofoundlyconservativeplaces,designedtofavouracertainwayofwriting-preferablyinformedbyliterarytheory.Thosewhorejectthecreative/criticaldiscourseofacademiaarethetruerebels,condemnedtolive(orsurvive)inatoughliterarymarketplace.Conformityisonthesideofacademia,thestorygoes,andrebellionisontheotherside.Thisbookarguesagainstthenotionthatcreativewritingprogrammesaredrivenbyconformity.Instead,itshowsthattheseprogrammesintheUnitedStatesandBritainwerefoundedanddevelopedbyliteraryoutsiders,wholeftanenduringmarkontheirdiscipline.Tothisday,creativewritingoccupiesamarginalpositioninAnglo-Americanuniversities.Themultiplicationofnewprogrammes,accompaniedbyrisingstudentenrolments,hasdonenothingtochangethatpositioning.Asadiscipline,creativewritingstrivesonoppositiontothemainstreamuniversity,whilebenefitingfromwhattheuniversityhastooffer.Historically,thisoppositiontoscholarswassovirulentthatitoftenledtotheseparationofcreativewritingandliteraturedepartments.TheIowaWriters’Workshop,foundedinthe1930s,separatedfromtheEnglishdepartmentthreedecadeslater--anditstilloccupiesadifferentbuildingoncampus,withlittlecommunicationbetweenwritersandscholars.ThismodelofinstitutionaldivisionislesscommoninBritain,wherethedisciplineformallyemergedinthelate1960sandearly1970s.Butevenwhencreativewritingislocatedwithinliteraturedepartments,relationshipswithscholarsremainuneasy.Creativewritersandscholarsarenot,andhaveneverbeen,naturalbedfellows.
