Information, Medium & Society: Twenty-second International Conference on Publishing Studies

Abstract

In creative writing doctoral degrees, candidates must produce a creative artefact, a publishable written work, alongside an exegesis, a dissertation that explicates their research’s original contribution to knowledge. These degree programs cultivate application of this original knowledge within the creative artefact and can result in avant-garde works. However, there is tension between the concepts of ‘original knowledge’ and ‘publishable’. The manifestation of original knowledge, that is, the experimentation and innovation that hallmark creative writing artefacts, may be deemed unpublishable, or at least unpalatable, from a commercial trade publishing perspective. Yet, after attaining their degree, the secondary goal of doctoral candidates is to publish their creative artefact. How then do they navigate this tension? The requirements to re-write academic research dissertations for the general public are well established, but this question has not been considered in a creative research context. Three case studies are presented that examine the transition of creative artifacts as they travel from research to commercial publishing systems: a narrative history creative artefact called ‘Thia’ written by Jay Ludowyke and published by Hachette as Carpathia: The Extraordinary Story of the Ship that Rescued the Survivors of the Titanic; the award-winning historical fiction creative artefact ‘Garrison Town’ written by Melanie Myers and published by Queensland University Press as Meet me at Lennon’s; and a young adult creative artefact ‘Silencing the Voices’ written by Sara Hutchinson with themes that have resisted publication. Together, these cases unveil the dynamics shaping the dissemination of narrative innovative within academic and commercial spheres.