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) Lead Coordinators
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 membership elects the Board of Lead Coordinators that comprises:
CWC Coordinator
The main task of the executive committee is to organize the creative writing portion of the ACCUTE conference every year at Congress. The executive committee will produce an annual call for papers (or solicit panel and/or individual proposals), develop a method for vetting those proposals (either inhouse or through solicited feedback from peer reviewers), and organize the schedule of those accepted presentations and any invited talks/readings. Over time, other tasks (including but not limited to advocacy, outreach, mentorship, and professional concerns) may be incorporated into the mandate of the executive committee.
