Description
Book SynopsisThis textbook takes a new approach to teaching creative writing that centers the concerns of multicultural students. It focuses on the experiences of those who wish to write through their diverse identities, including ethnic, cultural, racial, national, regional, and international identity as well as gender identity, sexual preference, class position, and disability. Combining the study of culturally diverse literature with the process of writing, students are encouraged to engage with various texts and to use them to inspire their own work. Organized around a series of writing prompts and discussions of literary readings that address identity, place, perception, family, community, encounters, inheritance, and resistance, this book offers both writers and teachers a way to engage with the practice of writing from a multicultural perspective.
Table of ContentsA DIVERSE APPROACH TO TEACHING CREATIVE WRITING
How to Use This Book
FOR TEACHERS: DESIGNING THE COURSE
Creating the Classroom
Class Size
Class Level
Confidentiality
Workshop Style
Reading Work Aloud
Literature Discussion
Literary Papers
Creative Prompts
Writing, Reading, and Responding
In-class Writing Prompts
Out of Class Writing and Reading in Class
Out of Class Writing and Responding
Portfolios
Revisions
Revision Notes
Reflection Statement
FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS: READINGS AND PROMPTS
Time And Place And Ritual
Introductory Material
Identity
Write About Your Name
Write About Hair
Write About Clothes
Write About Physical Appearance
Write About Food
Write About Language
Place
Write About Home
Write About Departure
Write About the Loss of Place
Write About Feeling Trapped
Write About a Landscape
Write About an Airport
Perception
Write About Being Misperceived
Write About Stereotypes
Write About a Political Event That Impacted You
Write About Rejection
Write About Hiding Yourself
Write About Code Switching
Family
Write About Parent-Child Relationships
Write About Parental Expectations
Write About an Older Relative
Write About the Loss of Someone Connected to Your Culture
Write About Forbidden Relationships
Write About Romantic Relationships
Community
Write About a Communal Cultural Experience
Write About a Neighborhood
Write About a School Experience
Write About a Holiday
Write About Class Position and Cultural Identity
Write About Music
Encounters
Write About an Encounter with Someone of a Different Culture
Write About an Interaction that Shifted Your Sense of Identity
Write About Explaining Your Culture
Write about Microaggressions
Write an Argument in Dialogue Focusing on Culture
Write About Travel
Inheritance
Write About the First Stories You Were Told
Write About Your Origins
Write About Returning to Homeland
Write about Superstitions
Write From a Photograph or a Series of Photographs
Write a Letter/Poem Addressed to Children
Resistance
Write About Obstacles/Limitations/Restrictions
Write About an Act of Resistance
Write About an Object You’ve Held Onto
Write About a Secret
Write about Movement
Write In Multiple Languages
Self-Designed Assignment
Approaches
Write From Anger
Write From Imagination
Write From Humor
Experiments/Innovations
Form /Structure
Narrative Perspective
Main Characters
Poetry and Prose
Text and Visual
Reflection: A Writer’s Identity
WRITERS AND TEACHERS
Chrystos: If Education Is Not Multicultural, It Isn't Education
Susan Muaddi Darraj: The Curriculum: How I Learned to Be a Writer
Balli Kaur Jaswal: Imaginary Homelands and Moveable Feasts:
An Indian Diaspora Woman Writer’s Perspective
David Mura: Questions of Race & Audience for BIPOC Writers
Khaled Mattawa: The Eternal Gain that is Translation
Rebecca Balcárcel: Loosening the Collars
Lisa Suhair Majaj: A Mapmaker’s Journey
T.J. Anderson III: Call and Response: Writing Lives
REFERENCES
Literary Works Works Cited
