Future teachers often manifest a low confidence in their own writing and do not see themselves as writers. Developing an identity as authors requires ample opportunities for writing that sustain preservice teachers' discourses and cultural models. As writing across the content areas is considered a powerful way of learning, creating spaces for…

This article employs an autoethnographic, rhizotextual approach to analyse the compositional processes involved in the construction of two poems by the same author. What the analysis reveals is not only the internal thinking of the author in the process of composition but how the socio-cultural standpoint of the author is implicated in the texts.…

Students seem to believe that novels appear whole cloth; the writer just types away, channeling the muse in the attic. Poetry is pure inspiration--one has the gift or one does not. Students need to know that writing is hard work, and that the blank page stares down every good writer, even authors whose books have won critical acclaim and graced…

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) is well known as an early twentieth century writer, but less well known is her involvement in automatic writing research. Critics of Stein's literary works suggest that her research had a significant influence on her poetry and fiction, though Stein denied any influence. A partial replication of Stein's 1896 study was…

This book captures the diversity and richness of writing as it relates to different forms of abilities, skills, competencies, and expertise. Psychologists, educators, researchers, and practitioners in neighboring areas are interested in exploring how writing develops and in what manner this development can be fostered, but they lack a handy,…

Presents an interview with poet and novelist Fanny Howe. Discusses the nature of titles, the peripatetic poem, and the "perilous point" from which her favorite authors write. (RS)

Profiles writer and poet Barbara Juster Esbensen. Discusses her beginnings as a writer, writing and revising, work with children, and classroom uses of Esbensen's books. (SR)

This theme issue features 11 articles on the research interests of Indiana University faculty whose work on various campuses continues to advance knowledge about creative writing. Articles in this issue are "Creative Writing and the Future" (Roger Mitchell) which outlines the historical beginnings of the intellectual disciplines of…

Profiles J. Patrick Lewis, a college professor and a writer of children's literature. (RS)

Interviews poet Janet Wong, writer of six collections of poetry for children. Discusses how she moved from despising poetry to writing it, her writing processes, her life history and mentors (including her work with Myra Cohn Livingston), her extensive work with poetry in the schools, and her insights on cross cultural matters. (SR)

Offers an interview with poet X. J. Kennedy, winner of the prestigious National Council of Teachers of English Award for Poetry for Children for the year 2000. Outlines how he began writing poetry, his work writing poetry for adults, and how he began writing poems for children. Offers an overview of his work. (SR)

Discusses, in poetic form, the writing of the play "Salvador" from the perspective of the author. Explains her thoughts about writing for children, including didactic relationships with children, didactic functions of art, and how adults teachers try to create a sterilized, lifeless, good-thinking, and artificial world for children when they are…

Describes a two-day residence in a fifth- and sixth-grade classroom of poet Arnold Adoff. Presents his interaction with five students as they struggle with their poetry writing. (HTH)

Presents an interview with award-winning children's author and teacher educator Bernice E. Cullinan. Discusses the children's-literature publishing industry, children's poetry, her role in the "literature-based" reading movement, and the issue of phonics and skills in children's literature. (RS)

Focusing on children's books identified as "notable" for their rich use of language, this book presents essays that discuss literary genres and literary language, responding to the language of Notable Books, and developing an appreciation for language diversity. The book also presents brief essays by well-known children's authors…