In my Sunday morning travels, I came across this article in The New Yorker.
Show or Tell – Should Creative Writing Be Taught?
It also asks the more direct question, “can it be taught?” and since no one has ever (really) successfully answered this question, there is a belief that all this training and socialization—which never really touches the heart of the imaginative process—is what marks creative-writing programs as “creative.” Academic creative-writing programs are, as McGurl puts it, examples of “the institutionalization of anti-institutionality.”
This article is well worth the read…
And after you have chewed this one over, check out this great reading by Roger McGough at the 1971 Bedford Poetry Bang.
And if you want some more, visit the BBC’s Poetry: Out Loud Page.
After all, it’s Sunday morning… so put down that paper and pick up a poem.
Another Lost Shark 
Just a note, the BBC site is listed as being no longer updated
🙂
Of course
I really enjoyed the New Yorker article. Wonder if any similar research has been done in Australia. There are a hell of a lot of poets with PhDs out there.
I read this article as well. I think the creative writing workshop, from my perspective as a participant and a teacher, teaches writers how to generate writing that works for an audience. Giving students deadlines and readers for their work is incredibly valuable. By learning how to read and critique other writers’ work, they learn how to become stronger editors of their own work.