Edinburgh Napier University

  The peer review workshop has been called ‘the signature pedagogy’ of creative writing as an academic discipline. This presentation offers an alternative to that model. David Bishop reveals how the Edinburgh Napier University MA, a genre fiction-focused creative writing programme, developed a new pedagogical methodology inspired by masterclasses at conservatoires and other practice-based institutions. This approach favours editorial feedback, one-to-one mentoring, and in-class coaching to help students become more critically self-reflective and self-sufficient as writers. He discusses how this prepares students for building collaborative professional relationships with editors and agents, and for their lives after the programme.