Creative Writing: Education, Culture and Community

Creative Writing: Education, Culture and Community offers the first conceptual account of creative writing, one of the most popular - and controversial - educational subjects. O'Rourke, a long-established member of the creative writing community, provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to the issues and tensions associated with creative writing and puts them in the context of current policy debates. These debates include how best to manage, teach and learn creative writing; how to value and evaluate these activities; and the interface between arts activity and educational inclusiveness. This compelling and lucid text argues that the current dominance of educational values and processes in cultural policy is problematic for advocates of cultural action as a catalyst for radical social change. The book offers both a detailed ethnographic study and a careful historical account of creative writing in cultural policy and educational provision, and provides a contextual framework that highlights the contribution of adult education to cultural change and community development.