The case for trauma-informed creative writing teaching

ABSTRACT

This article argues for the critical need for trauma-informed teaching and learning strategies within creative writing programmes. Drawing on a range of clinical trauma studies, it makes an interdisciplinary case for trauma-informed training across the whole programme based on the prevalence of trauma and post-traumatic conditions in the broader and university communities and the specific operations of creative writing practice and pedagogy. This exploration includes examining three scenarios demonstrating the potential unwitting damage of non-trauma-informed teaching and the positive difference a trauma-informed approach to teaching and supervising student writing promises to make. Finally, the article aims to introduce the benefits of trauma-informed teaching within the creative writing context and lay a foundation for further developing a trauma-informed staff training framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma
• creative writing
• trauma-informed teaching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meera Atkinson

Meera Atkinson is a Sydney-based literary writer, interdisciplinary researcher, and educator. Her published works include the hybrid memoir Traumata (2018) and The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma (2017). She teaches creative writing and literature.