Writerly reading in the creative writing course

When New Criticism took its hits, so-called close reading fell out of favor, but writers continued to read closely to figure out how a text works and what decisions authors have made. Francine Prose and others have reclaimed careful attention to the text as reading like a writer. In Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom, Sandy Feinstein suggested specific ways that reading provides breadth and depth in a creative writing class. This new conversation checks in 10 years later on what we call writerly reading and explores the role of reading as a crucial part of creative writing pedagogy and practice. The authors here grapple with issues of pleasure, cultural context, and practical application and discuss ways that reading works in different genres and to different ends.