Exploring the writing process and its relationship to self, this guide synthesizes critical and creative theories of writing for both writers and readers. Each chapter links a range of theoretical approaches to one practical aspect of writing, using illustrations from fiction, poetry and literary non-fiction, and suggesting practical exercises for pursuing the topic further. The book will enable students to develop literary, critical and psychodynamic understandings of the creative process and to explore a range of key topics.

CELIA HUNT is Lecturer in Continuing Education (Creative Writing) at the University of Sussex, UK. She is the author of Therapeutic Dimensions of Autobiography in Creative Writing (Jessica Kingsley, London, 2000). She was awarded a national teaching fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in 2004. FIONA SAMPSON is AHRB Research Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She is the author of four collections of poetry and several books on writing in health care. She is editor of Orient Express, a journal of contemporary writing from Enlargement Europe.