ABSTRACT
The questions this chapter addresses ultimately have their origin in 1996, in a creative writing workshop run by British poet Roger McGough, whose work I had always admired. I had never thought of myself as a poet manqué, but I was intrigued by the notion that creative writing might be something that can be taught. Unsure of whether I would be able to rise to the occasion, I went in as a reluctant writer and emerged from the workshop hooked, both on poetry as a genre for creative writing and on exploring pedagogical strategies that lead to the creation of texts that, at best, can make refreshingly original and enjoyable reading but that, at the very least, avoid the kind of hackneyed and clichéd writing that seems to be the hallmark of the uninspired dabbler. In the following semester I set up an experimental creative writing workshop in our English department, which has since become a regular fi xture among the courses offered. This led to teacher training seminars on the use of creative writing in English as a Foreign Language classrooms and to workshops for students in Switzerland and abroad. As of 2000 I attended a number of writers’ and teachers’ conferences in Britain and the US, which not only proved a very useful platform
for picking up tricks of the trade but also made me aware of issues such as the relationship between dealing with sometimes painful experiences and writing about them.
