Liminal interventions in the regional creative writing classroom

Abstract

The vast region of Gippsland in south-eastern Victoria is home to approximately 270,000 people, with many experiencing complex and entrenched disadvantage. Most of my students are first in family, and very few aspire to a career in writing, or even consider themselves creative; however, they are, on the whole, hungry for knowledge, bright, and engaged. Many have responded with startling creativity and enthusiasm to specific exercises designed to foster writing practice and reading as a writer, and most have flourished in a structured workshop environment that affirms workshop method and process as a learned skill. Drawing on personal reflection, anecdote, case study and research, including regional teaching and learning scholarship, Sally Kift’s ‘Transition Pedagogy’, Janelle Adsit’s ‘Threshold Concepts’ and Victor Turner’s ‘Liminal’, this paper reflects on some of the strategies employed in Federation University Australia’s first-year introductory creative writing course to conquer resistance to the notion of being creative, facilitate creative writing practice, and foster a culture of creative writing production.