Why Teach Creative Writing? Examining the Challenges of Its Pedagogies

This article examines the deeper purposes behind the teaching of creative writing. To extend an analogy created by William Blake in his poem ‘The Tyger’, its furnaces are examined and its ‘deadly terrors’ clasped. It re-interprets the different views of teaching English, as drawn up in the United Kingdom’s Cox Report. It argues that these views can be used to help pedagogues consider why they are teaching creative writing, design lessons and reflect upon practice. Significantly, it offers a contemporary reworking of the views. In brief, it suggests that different creative writing teachers aim to: Facilitate their students’ personal growth and healingEncourage the exploration of unknown topics ? Help their students sell their writingConnect them with significant texts and well-established creative writing processes and practicesFoster critique about the world through their writing ? Cultivate profound learning