Call for Book Chapters

Trauma and Mental Health in the Writing Workshop:A Theoretical and Practical Toolkit for Teachers

Edited by Jennifer Case

Under Contract with Bloomsbury Academic

College students today are experiencing high rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidal ideation, all of which impact their ability to succeed in school and connect with their peers. Although this is a campus-wide concern, rates of mental distress are especially prevalent in the creative writing classroom, where students often explore grief, illness, family conflicts, social injustice, abuse, violence, and/or mental health—and often from a place of unhealed trauma. Without proper training, faculty can become overwhelmed by student mental health needs and struggle to know how to respond to student work.

By bringing together key scholars in trauma-informed and creative writing pedagogy, this edited collection will offer one of the first toolboxes of its kind for creative writing instructors, professors, teachers, and coaches. It will explore the role and responsibilities of the creative writing instructor when working with students writing about trauma, interrogate the still-often-held belief that writing for healing is different from and less valuable than writing for publication, make a case for better trauma-informed training for creative writing instructors, offer practical tips from clinicians and professors to tend common behaviours caused by trauma, and explore how to avoid compassion fatigue and burnout in professors. By addressing a diverse array of classroom settings—from traditional, full-class workshops to community groups to one-on-one mentoring sessions—this book aims to serve creative writing faculty and mentors throughout their teaching careers.

Contributors are already in place to write chapters on the general need for trauma-informed pedagogy; intersections between trauma-informed pedagogy and narrative medicine; trauma-informed pedagogy through the lenses of race, gender, and sexuality; classroom practices to enhance nervous system regulation; addressing trauma in non-academic community workshops; tending trauma when coaching or mentoring 1-on-1; and trauma-informed creative writing strategies that integrate theatre & performance.

In addition, we are actively seeking proposals for chapters on each of the following topics:

• The role of the creative writing instructor/teacher (exploring what is in and outside of our scope of practice).
• How to address common craft issues related to trauma.
• Working with student anxiety.
• Working with student dissociation (including students with Dissociate Identity Disorders).
• Individual crisis intervention.
• Whole-class crisis intervention.
• Tending trauma in the online, asynchronous classroom.
• Tending trauma in secondary school creative writing workshops.
• The need for self-care/how to mitigate vicarious trauma.
• Integrating mindfulness and other contemplative practices.

To submit a proposal, please email your chapter title, a 300-500-word abstract that outlines your chapter, and a short bio highlighting your qualifications to Jennifer Case at jcase@uca.edu.

Completed chapters will be 3,000-4,000 words, including figures, tables, and references.

Timeline:

1. Proposal submission deadline: March 1st, 2026

2. Notification of acceptance: April 1st, 2026

3. Full draft of chapter due: August 30th, 2026

4. Editorial feedback returned: December 15th, 2026

5. Final chapter submission: March 15th, 2027

7. Projected publication date: Fall 2028

Inquiries and submissions:

Jennifer Case

Associate Professor of Creative Writing

University of Central Arkansas

jcase@uca.edu