Abstract
In this creative practice showcase, three writing professors at DePaul University in Chicago discuss Big Shoulders Books (BSB), an innovative, social-justice-oriented publishing initiative that is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2023. In the past decade, BSB has produced seven full-length books by and about Chicagoans whose voices might not otherwise be amplified, with a total distribution of more than 100,000 copies worldwide. All BSB books—which include volumes on gang violence, gun proliferation, teenage love, young people at war and Chicago during the COVID crisis—are distributed free of charge, with a target audience of nontraditional readers, including students from underfunded schools, at-risk young people in summer programs and juvenile offenders at various prisons. Founding editors Chris Green, Michele Morano and Miles Harvey highlight a unique curriculum that has given hundreds of DePaul students hands-on training in book publishing through regularly offered courses in topics such as book editing, book production and book publicity. All BSB projects are the result of a unique collaboration between DePaul faculty members, creative-writing students and members of the Chicago community—an example of “a new breed of college courses” that promise to “shape the future of teaching and learning,” as the Princeton University researchers Ken Bain and Marsha Marshall Bain recently explained in The Chronicle of Higher Education. These so-called “super courses” help turn students from passive learners to active participants by emphasizing collaboration and community engagement, while focusing “on big, fascinating, important, and often beautiful questions and problems that spark intrinsic interest.”
Presenters
Miles HarveyProfessor of English and Director of the DePaul Publishing Institute, English, DePaul University, Illinois, United States Chris Green
Distinguished Writer in Residence, English, DePaul University, Illinois, United States Michele Morano
Professor, English Department, DePaul University, Illinois, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2023 Special Focus—-New Aesthetic Expressions: The Social Role of Art
KEYWORDS
Publishing, Creative-Writing Pedagogy, Creative-Writing Curriculum, Social Justice, Collaboration, Hands-on Learning
