Views from the Edges: Teaching Literary Journalism at the Margins of Journalism and Creative Writing

Literary journalism pedagogy mostly occurs at the disciplinary borders of either journalism or creative writing. These are markedly different academic contexts, with divergent methods and normative imperatives. This results in a challenging learning experience for students from each discipline for different—and revealing—reasons. This study investigates how literary journalism is taught in Australian and New Zealand universities, first by cataloging courses within both journalism and creative writing programs, then drawing on qualitative interviews with six former students and six academics teaching literary journalism. The findings suggest the teaching of literary journalism is likely to be more widespread (in terms of course numbers) but also more marginal (in terms how courses are positioned within programs) than the existing literature suggests. The findings also suggest there are distinctions in how literary journalism is taught and learned across the disciplines of journalism and creative writing. Challenges experienced by students and educators in their respective disciplines throw two key features of literary journalism into sharp relief: the importance of acknowledging authorial subjectivity, without becoming overly self-absorbed, and the crucial role of immersive, “slow” research with human subjects.