Creative Manoeuvres

Creative Manoeuvres is a collection of new writings on a topic of enduring interest: the role of creative practice in the formation of knowledge. The contributors to this collection are primarily creative writers, working in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and ethnography. Many include the visual or performing arts within their practice; and all are academics as well as creative writers. Their chapters move the study of creative writing beyond subjective accounts of ‘how I write’ towards broader issues of how knowledge is addressed by, or incorporated into, or embodied in, art. Each chapter also does double duty as a case study on approaches to creative and research work, both describing and critically exploring the strategies, or ‘creative manoeuvres’, these writers have adopted to advance their practice in both creative and critical domains. In this way, the book not only exemplifies moves in the contemporary academy to understand better the value creative practice can offer to the university, but also provides a rich and engaging set of narratives about ways of being, ways of making and ways of coming to know. In both practical and theoretical modes, it contributes to the ongoing questions about creativity and/versus scholarship that have been debated over recent decades.

As the impact of climate change has become harder to ignore, it has become increasingly evident that children will inherit futures where climate challenges require new ways of thinking about how humans can live better with the world. This book re-situates weather in early childhood education, examining people as inherently a part of and affected by nature, and challenges the positioning of humans at the centre of progress and decision-making. Exploring the ways children can learn with weather, this book for researchers and advanced students, works with the pedagogical potential in children’s relations with weather as a vital way of connecting with and responding to wider climate concerns.

This dynamic collection offers a breadth of expertise and informed pedagogies on teaching multimodal and digital creative writing in the college classroom. This book gives clear guidance with lesson plans, online resources, sample student work, and adaptable assignments.

Publishing is currently going through dramatic changes, from globalisation to the digital revolution. A whole culture of events, practices and processes has emerged centred around books and writing, which means that scholars of publishing need to understand it as a social and cultural practice as much as it is a business. This book explores the culture, practice and business of book production, distribution, publication and reception. It discusses topics as diverse as emerging publishing models, book making, writers’ festivals, fan communities, celebrity authors, new publishing technologies, self-publishing, book design and the role of class, race, gender and sexuality in publishing or book culture. This volume will be of interest to those in the disciplines of publishing studies, creative writing, English literature, cultural studies and cultural industries.

This book contributes to recent debates in transnationalism, mobilities and migration studies by offering the first in-depth sociological examination of the global phenomenon of action sports and the transnational networks and connections being established within and across local contexts around the world.

'A wonderful discovery' (Ian McEwan), this is a beguiling dystopian tale of a young man confronted with the truth about freedom. On a hot summer night, a young man sits in a dark cell in a Hungarian prison. The guards do not explain why he is here; he does not know if he will ever be released. But he is far from alone. Others, too, are trapped within the stone walls - singers and students, sages and spies. As the days pass, the man is drawn into their conversations and their lives, and soon becomes a witness to their sometimes outlandish acts of rebellion. Written in the early 1980s and inspired by Andrew Szepessy's own experiences, Epitaphs for Underdogs is a beguiling and exhilarating novel about power, justice and freedom, and about the solidarity that can be found in even the most unexpected places. 'Beautiful... With its sense of the absurd, its laughter in the dark, it belongs in the great tradition of dystopian literature, with echoes of early Kundera and Nabokov' IAN McEWAN

Thinking Creative Writing explores the many ways in which creative writing can be critically considered, and understood, as well as the teaching and learning of creative writing. Featuring thematic ideas and practice-orientated thoughts, such as those related to the value of distraction when undertaking creative work, the book also presents contemporary work in the field of what is termed ‘Creative Writing Studies’, and offers an analysis of doctoral research on Creative Writing. Additionally, the book includes reports on cultural and heritage studies of creative writing as a practice, in relation to the literature it brings about and the audiences it engages. Thinking Creative Writing presents a snapshot of contemporary work in and around departments of creative writing in our universities and colleges. It will be of interest to those researching in the field, as well as those with a broader interest in writing creatively. The chapters in this book were originally published as articles in the New Writing journal.