Introduction to Creative Writing

“Martin Heidegger stated that, “Teaching is even more difficult than learning,” and “Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is just this—to let learn.” This requires and encourages the student to then undergo the process of learning rather than just the blind adoption of shared information. Learning is an ongoing interrogation of input and the state of our knowledge is constantly updating. This is genuine teaching according to Heidegger and “there is never a place in it for the authority of the know-it-all or the authoritative sway of the official.” Therefore, learning is the outcome or sublation (aufheben), in the Hegelian sense of the word, of both preserving and negating knowledge.”
-from Exul animarum by Nicholas Smith

My Creative Writing Philosophy:
Creative writing is a lot like art: we all have it in us, but it requires a special farming and cultivating to make it thrive. When I reflect on my first creative writing course, I remember being insecure about my skill level, worried that my stories weren’t good enough, and having a very narrow vision of the popular genres. I still thought poetry had to rhyme. I remember being exposed to new writing that was different from anything I had been taught in high school: Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Kay Ryan, Jon Krakauer, Henry James– I was in awe of these writers that were not Shakespeare or Harper Lee. Suddenly, the world of writing opened up for me. I was empowered to seek more writing that inspired me. I was ready to start taking creative risks in my own writing.  

As a creative writing teacher, my biggest priority is empowering my students by polishing their creative instincts through thoughtful writing exercises and critique of literary artifacts. Leading with a pedagogy of kindness, I create a safe environment for my students to thoughtfully explore their creative writing thoughts and instincts. This kindness is enabled by creating a classroom where individual student identities are pertinent, celebrated, and protected and no student feels inadequate due to their previous education or experience.

In my classroom, we celebrate failure. Particularly, large risks and explorations that may not always work! We normalize ‘mistakes’ and ‘failures’ and celebrate them as opportunities to learn, pivot, explore, and enhance our work.

Our classroom is a safe place full of collaboration and friendship. We have a common bond, which is risk-taking in language. No work is shared without consent, and we never give feedback that fuels insecurity, hatred, racism, bigotry, sexism, or any other unfavorable language or themes. These safe collaborations increase and improve our learning outcomes as our horizons are expanded through collaborative learning.

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242 Student Feedback:
“She is literally the best professor I have had in college. It felt like she truly cared about my mental health but also while teaching me new things about English. I also normally hate English but because she was the professor, I actually engaged in the course ad learned things I wouldn’t have learned from other professors.”

“Holly is incredibly personable, charismatic, and relatable. There was never a time that I felt like she was trying too hard or being too harsh on her students. She has an extraordinary teaching style, she even went so far as to make her syllabus and grading rubric fun. She never bored me, she always made the class feel relaxed even while she was teaching us, which I think helped us stay engaged.”

“She is very personable and welcoming to all of the students in her class. She gave in-depth teachings about the different forms of creative writing and came up with fun activities and assignments for the class that made me actually look forward to completing them. She was fluent in the course content and was very good at passing along the information in a way that made sense to everyone.”

“It allowed me to channel my own creativity, and the classroom always felt like a safe space. I also learned more about poetry and learned that I actually really enjoy poetry (which I never expected).”