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Let the Crazy Child Write! grew out of hundreds of creative writing workshops that Clive Matson has led during his career as poet and writer. Here he guides readers — as individuals or in groups — through twelve seminars designed to overcome inhibitions, locate hidden originality, and find a true creative writing voice. Let the Crazy Child Write! links the playful energy of the creative unconscious — essential to strong writing — to a solid, in-depth course of writing basics: Image Detail, Slow Motion, Hook, Persona Writing, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Narrative Presence, Good Clichés, Character, Surrealism, and Resolution. It is a comprehensive, hands-on — and fun — working seminar that will help both novices and professionals improve their writing abilities and unleash their creativity.
Price: $19.95
Pages: 288
Publisher: New World Library
Imprint: New World Library
Publication Date:
18 November 2025
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9781955831512
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Writing / General, Creative writing & creative writing guides, Journaling / writing therapy
“Clive Matson, a master teacher, set me on the path to writing freely, to writing with exuberance and joy.”
— Isabelle Maynard, author of China Dreams
“Clive encourages the discovery of what so impassions us to write in the first place, what he calls the voice of ‘the Crazy Child’ — the intuitive, the raw, the bloody.”
— Laura Glen Louis, author of “Fur” from The Best American Short Stories 1994
“I’ve seen every kind of writer come from Clive’s workshops very much improved and with a newfound confidence. He cherishes the primary impulse to create in everyone. He leads his merry band of writers to a place of vibrant self-realization; his humor and enthusiasm are as infectious as his wisdom.”
— Joe Quirk, author of The Ultimate Rush
— Isabelle Maynard, author of China Dreams
“Clive encourages the discovery of what so impassions us to write in the first place, what he calls the voice of ‘the Crazy Child’ — the intuitive, the raw, the bloody.”
— Laura Glen Louis, author of “Fur” from The Best American Short Stories 1994
“I’ve seen every kind of writer come from Clive’s workshops very much improved and with a newfound confidence. He cherishes the primary impulse to create in everyone. He leads his merry band of writers to a place of vibrant self-realization; his humor and enthusiasm are as infectious as his wisdom.”
— Joe Quirk, author of The Ultimate Rush
Clive Matson began his writing career among the Beat Generation in New York City in the 1960s, mentored by Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, John Wieners, and Diane di Prima. He received his MFA from Columbia University in 1989. Clive has published nine volumes of poetry, numerous articles in literary journals, and the writing textbook Let the Crazy Child Write! He participated in the European Beat Studies Network Conference in Paris, 2017, where he gave the premier performance of his newest work, Hello, Paradise. Paradise, Goodbye. He was the recipient of the Pen Oakland “Josephine Miles National Literary Award” in 2004 and the East Bay Express “Best Writing Teacher” award in 2006. In 2012 the City of Berkeley honored Clive with their “Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry.”