Genre by Example: Writing What We Teach

by David Starkey

Peter Elbow claims that "a good essay or biography requires just as much creativity as a good poem; and . . . a good poem requires just as much truth as a good essay." The contributors to Genre by Example would agree. Their book argues that creativity need not be muted simply to meet the perceived boundaries of the academic essay, that, in fact, an author immersed in a form has special insight unavailable through any other means. The authors all implicitly endorse the contention that we know best by doing.

Too often, writing theorists prescribe rules for their students and fellow teachers without providing any evidence that they themselves can comply with their own prescriptions. The contributors to Genre by Example are not evasive in this way. "Practice what you preach" might well be the book's ultimate pedagogy, a philosophy the contributors have embraced. They not only tell, they show. Bound by the conventions of a genre, they are better able to understand and explain the limitations, difficulties, and pleasures inherent in that genre. And the contributors find themselves saying exactly what they mean rather than engaging in jargon that is impressive and meaningful chiefly to academics.

Ultimately, the contributors' approach to the book's central concept has been limited by their knowledge that the readers will be primarily composition teachers, with instructors of creative writing and literature survey courses as secondary audiences. Genre by Example assumes these readers will welcome imaginative approaches to writing, but will also need to incorporate these ideas into their own classes. To that end, nearly every chapter offers specific, practical applications.

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College.
Among his poetry collections are Starkey's Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year.
In addition, over the past twenty years he has published more than 400 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cutbank, Faultline, Greensboro Review, The Journal, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Nebraska Review, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Review, and Wormwood Review. He has also written two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (McGraw-Hill, 1999). With Paul Willis, he co-edited In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (Iowa, 2005), and he is the editor of Living Blue in the Red States (Nebraska, 2007). Keywords in Creative Writing, which he co-authored with the late Wendy Bishop, was published in 2006 by Utah State University Press.

Reviews

[Laura Julier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful for graduate students in composition and rhetoric. Concise.