The Creative Writing Collective (CWC) Caucus was adopted at the Annual General Meeting on 1 June, 2021.
Creative Writing has become an increasingly integral and flourishing aspect of English Literary Studies in Canada. The Creative Writing Collective (CWC) of ACCUTE exists to represent the needs and varied interests of the growing, diverse body of Creative Writing faculty and students in Canada. We are a volunteer association of persons committed to developing new forums for thinking through, enhancing, and celebrating Creative Writing’s role in universities and colleges as well as in other teaching and learning contexts, and, indeed, in the wider world. We recognize the integral importance of social justice to Creative Writing, which involves a commitment to equity, diversity, access, and participation. We are committed to decolonization, and to intercultural and intergenerational knowledge sharing, mentorship, and healing, and to inciting the radical potential of an open imagination. The CWC will create a community and collective space to share ideas, respect knowledges, innovate and collaborate with creative writing practitioners and performers—whether in the classroom, on the page, on the stage, on the screen, or in both local and global locations where literary and creative practices can be sustained.
The CWC is comprised of representatives from English, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, and Fine Arts departments across Canada as well as unaffiliated Creative Writers with more tenuous relations to universities and colleges. The CWC elects a Board of Lead Coordinators from its members at its annual meeting during Congress.
CWC Membership/ Departmental Representatives
What does a Campus Representative Do?
Campus representatives exist to open and maintain lines of communication between Creative Writing faculty and students in departments across Canada, as well as between those faculty and students, and the national association, ACCUTE, that represents their interests at the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS), which runs the annual Congress and the Aid to Scholarly Publications program, and at the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which manages various national funding programs for students and faculty. This is done in two ways. First, campus representatives represent the CWC and ACCUTE to their department. This involves forwarding occasional emails, informing department colleagues about the association and its current mandates, and soliciting new members among the faculty and student body. Second, campus representatives are responsible for representing their departments to the CWC and, by extension, to ACCUTE. Perhaps the most important form that this representation takes involves the administration of the CWC’s annual events, typically held at Congress each year. Other activities might include literary readings, webinars, meetings, or contributions to the ACCUTE newsletter, The Angle.
How does someone become a Campus Representative?
Campus reps to the CWC are elected by their own departmental Creative Writing program, if they exist, or by appointment by the CWC Executive, if they do not. Contact a member of your department’s Creative Writing program for information. If your department does not have a process for electing campus representatives, please contact the CWC and we will be happy to help you set something up. Questions can be forwarded to info.accute@gmail.com.
Campus reps to the CWC, and unaffiliated members, must be members of ACCUTE. For services rendered to their department, many reps have been able to get their ACCUTE fees refunded by their department.
Annual CWC Events
One of the most important of the CWC activities is the administration of annual events at the annual ACCUTE conference each year, typically held at Congress. These events include:
a) an annual general meeting of the CWC representatives;
b) an annual meeting of the CWC campus representatives; and
c) Creative Writing themed panels, performances, readings, book launches, roundtables, and workshops.
Creative Writing Collective (CWC) Executive Committee
The membership of the Creative Writing Collective (CWC) of ACCUTE is comprised of affiliated and unaffiliated Creative Writing faculty and students from English departments across Canada.
The current Executive Committee for 2025-2026 are:
CWC COORDINATOR: Glenn Clifton: glenn.clifton@sheridancollege.ca
CWC PAST-COORDINATOR: Adam Dickinson
CWC VICE-COORDINATOR: Thom Vernon: tvernon@tru.ca
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE: Rahul Gautham Veliyil Edwin (rav383@mail.usask.ca)
CONTRACT FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE: Sarah Jensen: sarah.jensen@utoronto.ca
SECRETARY: Samantha Annie Bernstein: sbernst@yorku.ca
CREATIVE WRITING AWARD COORDINATOR: Maria Cichosz: maria.cichosz@utoronto.ca
Contact us
If you have questions or want to suggest Webinars, workshops, or other activities during the academic year, please contact CWC coordinator Glenn Clifton at: glenn.clifton@sheridancollege.ca
If you want to propose a panel, roundtable, or other event at the annual ACCUTE conference, please watch out for the annual ACCUTE CFP, circulated in the Fall.
To join our listserv, please visit: https://framalistes.org/sympa/subscribe/cwc
