Issue 63 / Spring 2017
63 / How We Teach
Shaping lives in the classroom and beyond
Creative Nonfiction #63: “How We Teach,” reaches far beyond the traditional classroom. Contributors travel to the kitchen, to rehab centers, to the dentist’s office, and as far as Saudi Arabia in these stories about making a meaningful impact.
Plus, immersion artist Ted Conover on the importance of talking with people on the other side of the political divide; Sheryl St. Germain’s argument for broadening the scope of the creative writing MFA; teaching writing in twenty minutes a day; tiny truths; and more.
Already a subscriber?
Read this issue nowTable of Contents
What’s the Story #63
"There's something about focusing on the basics that can inspire innovation and transformation"The Ink that Binds: Creative Writing & Addiction
Could requiring community service help creative writing MFA programs become less elitist?Diving Deep: An Interview With Ted Conover
Serial immersionist Ted Conover on the connections between anthropology and journalism; knowing when to resist digression; and the importance of writing “across the aisle”The Month That I Taught English, We Had Prisoners Running Through Our Backyards
(It was a pretty wild month)Debriefing
A mother bonds with her autistic son by riding the trains during summer vacationEverything Connected, Everything Broken
For the decline of an island species, causation and solution are easily identified; it's harder to pinpoint where a troubled teen gets lostDentistry’s Problem Children
A good mother takes her victories where she finds themI’ve Taught Monsters
Helping students slay their worst fears with nothing more than a pencil, plenty of paper, and faith in the power of storytellingKhalid
In Saudi Arabia, favors can buy almost anything—including, sometimes, a passing gradePiano Lessons
We practice to get closer to perfection, but often it's the mistake that brings understandingHighly Gifted/Highly At-Risk
Can poetry really help a class of "really smart gangbangers"?Just Write
High Intensity Practice builds better writers, twenty minutes at a timeConcatenate
Achieving mastery of a graduate-level lexiconSharp Scissors
"My hope is always that others will understand and connect with my work"“I couldn’t have known what a story he would live”
Cecilia Woloch, one of our essayists from the "How We Teach" issue, tracks down a student from her past. Hear what she has to say about the relationship we have to those whom we write aboutTeaching, Writing, and Reflecting
The winner of Creative Nonfiction's "How We Teach" essay contest discusses her first teaching experience and the lessons she learned from it