This book advances creative writing studies as a developing field of inquiry, scholarship, and research. It discusses the practice of creative writing studies, the establishment of a body of professional knowledge, and the goals and future direction of the discipline within the academy.

Dr. Dianne Donnelly is the associate director of the CCCC-Award winning composition program at the University of South Florida. In addition to her interests in rhetoric & composition and writing program administration, she is a creative writer and craft critic who addresses the theory and pedagogy of creative writing. Her pedagogical works include Does the Writing Workshop Still Work? (2010), The Emergence of Creative Writing Studies as an Academic Discipline (2011), and Key Issues in Creative Writing (with Graeme Harper, 2012). She is a frequent presenter at the creative writing pedagogy forums at CCCC and AWP; reviewer for Pedagogy, TEXT, and multiple presses; senior creative writing editor for Writing Commons; and editorial board member for New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing.

Dianne Donnelly is the editor of Does the Writing Workshop Still Work? (2010) and co-editor of Key Issues in Creative Writing (forthcoming). Her fiction and scholarship appear in numerous venues, and she is a frequent conference presenter on the subject of creative writing. She teaches at the University of South Florida where she is also the Associate Director of Composition.

The book is well researched. Donnelly offers a measured and cogent contribution to what I would prefer to call the emerging discipline of writing studies. I recommend it to all teachers of writing.

Patrick Bizzaro, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA:

Dianne Donnelly does a service to scholars in English studies by tracing in this important book the growth of creative writing scholarship, including relevant work by others alongside her own important investigation into the workshop.

Nigel McLoughlin, University of Gloucestershire, UK:

In a welcome addition to the field of creative writing studies, Dianne Donnelly has examined the theoretical bases of the prevailing pedagogies within the discipline. This book should be required reading for courses on creative writing pedagogy; for advanced students who hope to become academics in the field; and for those concerned with the future of creative writing as an academic discipline.

Joseph Moxley, Editor, Creative Writing in America:

This is a stunning challenge to MFA Programs! While critiques to the workshop method have been commonplace over the past decade, Donnelly provides a compelling argument for the creation of a new academic discipline: Creative Writing Studies. Bringing intellectual rigor to creative writing programs will do more than provide a seat at the table of literary critics and composition scholars: it will reinvigorate the workshop method and creative writing classroom. This is a must read book for anyone serious about teaching writing.