Negotiating the Personal in Creative Writing is a brave and far-reaching addition to the New Writing Viewpoints series. Carl Vandermeulen tackles some of the stickiest issues in creative writing pedagogy, including grading, the position of the self, and how sometimes the best of plans goes awry. Negotiating the Personal in Creative Writing thoughtfully posits who we think we are, what works in our undergraduate classrooms, and what we must reconsider. This book contains a wealth of honest experiences and useful ideas, from effective workshop questions to the three writing selves to writers' groups to solitude, research, and memorization.Anna Leahy, editor of Power and Identity in the Creative Writing ClassroomCarl Vandermeulen's Negotiating the Personal in Creative Writing is a sensible, useful synthesis of the last decade's meditations on how to teach creative writing. He offers real advice for teaching reflection, response, critique and mentorship, drawing on the collective expertise of many creative writing teachers. Any teacher of creative writing will recognize themselves in this book; any good teacher of creative writing will find something new to try in their own classrooms, and good reasons for doing so.Robert E. Brooke, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
