(Author-Date): Reference List Piirto, Jane. 1998. “Themes in the Live

EBSCOhost 6/7/21, 1259 PM EBSCO Publishing Citation Format: Chicago 17th Edition (Author-Date): NOTE: Review the instructions at http://support.ebsco.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/help/? int=ehost&lang=&feature_id=ChiAD and make any necessary corrections before using. Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Always consult your library resources for the exact formatting and punctuation guidelines. Reference List Piirto, Jane. 1998. “Themes in the Lives of Successful Contemporary U.S. Women Creative Writers.” Roeper Review 21 (1): 60–70. doi:10.1080/02783199809553933.  Section: Domain Specific Application THEMES IN THE LIVES OF SUCCESSFUL CONTEMPORARY U.S. WOMEN CREATIVE WRITERS The present study looked at the lifespan development of 80 women who are contemporary U.S. creative writers. 'Themes from surveys, autobiographical and biographical essays, published interviews, and reference books were analyzed. Themes in the women writers' lives were characterized by Developmental Events: (1) unconventional families and family traumas; (2) nurturing of talents by both male and female teachers and mentors; (3) extensive early reading and writing sometimes resulting in early publication; (4) viewing words as special-keeping journals, writing to make sense of things, using writing as communication and auto-therapy; (5) residence in New York City at some point, especially among the most prominent; (6) attendance at prestigious colleges, majoring in English literature; (7) continued high achievement, many publications, many writing awards; Professional situations: (8) being in an occupation different from their parents; (9) conflict combining motherhood and careers in writing; (10) history of divorce; and Personality/personal attributes: (11) certain core personality attributes; (12) incidence of depression and/or self-destructive acts; (13) feeling of being an outsider, of marginalization and a resulting need to have their group's story told (e.g. minorities, lesbians, regional writers, writers from lower socioeconomic class, writers of different immigration groups); (14) possession of tacit knowledge; (15) a personal and ritualized creative process often with spiritual overtones; and (16) http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/ehost/…2540sessionmgr4008%26bdata%3dJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%253d%253d Page 1 of 53 EBSCOhost 6/7/21, 1259 PM societal expectations of femininity incongruent with their essential personalities. Creative writers are defined as those who write poetry, fiction, plays, song lyrics, and creative nonfiction essays and books as differentiated from writers who write scholarly pieces, or journalists who write for newspapers and magazines, or write nonfiction books. Creative writers make up what they write. They use the imagination. Previous research has shown that creative writers were often early readers (Piirto, 1978) using early reading and writing to escape unhappy childhood experiences (Piirto, 1992) often experienced as childhood trauma and depression(Jamison, 1993; Piirto & Battison, 1994). They also have high conceptual intelligence and high verbal intelligence (Barron, 1968, 1994) and are independent, nonconforming, and not interested in joining groups (Barron, 1968,1969). They value self-expression and are productive (Barron, 1968, 1972; Simonton, 1994), often to the point of being driven, yet they are able to take rejection, and like to work alone for long periods of time (Goertzel & Goertzel, 1962; Miller, 1987; Piirto, 1992. In addition, they often have difficulty with alcohol or substances (Goertzel, Goertzel, and Goertzel, 1978; Simpson, 1982). They often have advanced senses of humor (Plimpton, 1995) and they prefer writing as their mode of expression of emotions and feelings (Berg, 1983). Method The research question was: What are the themes in the lives of successful contemporary female creative writers? The subjects were 80 female creative writers, ages 35 to 65. They were classified as successful based on their listing or eligibility for listing in the 1993-1994 Directory of American Poets and Writers. To qualify, a writer must have 12 points of accumulated credit, with the following as means of qualification: one published poem'counts as one point; a novel counts as 12 points, a book of published poetry counts as 12 points, and an established literary award counts as 4 points. In 1993-1994 there were 4,113 poets, 1,806 fiction writers, and 1,041 combination poets and fiction writers listed in the Directory of American Poets and Writers. Poets and Writers The author conducted this study from the participant observer stance using the analytic induction method of constant comparison (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). She is within the age range of women writers studied and is also listed in the 1993-1994 Directory, of American Poets and Writers. On the one hand, her membership in this group of women writers is likely to provide greater insight than from a researcher who is not a long-time creative writer. On the other hand, as a participant observer, the author does not stand apart from the data, but immerses herself in it. As a result, problems of bias may arise to objectively sort through the data and arrive at a theory. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/ehost/…2540sessionmgr4008%26bdata%3dJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%253d%253d Page 2 of 53 EBSCOhost 6/7/21, 1259 PM In analytic induction, the researcher scans the data for units of phenomena and for connections among these units, "developing working typologies and hypotheses on an examination of initial cases, and then modifying them and refining them on the basis of subsequent cases" (LeCompte & Preissle, 254). Constant comparison is an inductive strategy that looks at data, beginning with the analysis of first observations, and then undergoing "continuous refinement throughout the data collection and analysis process, and continuously feeds back into the process of category coding: (p. 256). This method helps in generating social theory (glaser & Strauss, 1967), and is usually constructive rather than enumerative. Previous Sample Selection and Procedure A preliminary study was done with an initial group of 28 (Piirto & Battison, 1994). Battison was not a participant observer writer. The specific criteria for the selection of the first 28 women writers were: the women writers qualified for listing in Directory of Poets and Writers; there was significant print material available on them -autobiographical and biographical essays and published interviews; they were between the ages of 30 and 65 at that time; and they represented a reasonable cross section of geographical and ethnic backgrounds in the U.S. Surveys were sent to the women writers which contained follow-up questions that explored themes in their lives as indicated from an analysis of their essays. The survey had a low rate of return (55%), and the answers seemed hurried. Instead of renewing survey efforts with this group of busy women, the researchers undertook a content analysis of each woman's work and the articles that were written about them. Nine patters or themes of artistic development emerged from this analysis. Present Sample Selection and Procedure A year after the preliminary study, the author added 52 more contemporary women writers to the database of the initial 28 to make a total of 80, using the identical selection material. Biographical, autobiographical, and interview material of all 80 women were read over many times until no new themes emerged. Materials were read and reread and then coded, often with difficulty as the thoughts and opinions of these subjects were categorized and classified. Data were triangulated through multiple sources of information including encyclopedias, directories, published interviews, published autobiographical and the initial questionnaires. At minimum, two sources were consulted about each writer, and at least one of their creative publications (novels, stories, poems, etc) were read. The emergent themes were rechecked with 15 of the writers to confirm the conclusions drawn. Additionally, IPAR researcher and psychologist/writer, Frank Barron, responded to the themes and their validity. Themes In the present, second study of 80 women writers, 16 themes common to female creative writers emerged from the survey questionnaires, essays, published interviews, and reference books. The http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/ehost/…2540sessionmgr4008%26bdata%3dJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%253d%253d Page 3 of 53 EBSCOhost 6/7/21, 1259 PM themes were organized into three categories: Developmental Events; Professional Situations; and Personality/Personal Attributes. Each category contained from 3 to 7 themes (See Table 1). Table 2 summarizes basic data for each writer that realted to these 16 themes. Results Developmental Events 1. Unconventional Families and Family Traumas Family life was not an idyllic, carefree time in these women's lives. Life-changing events were often shapers of the women writers' choice of writing as a career. They often came from unconventional, artistically oriented families which often used storytelling to communicate, with books and reading as a presence. The families were often laissez-faire in the approach to discipline, though some had parents who were authoritarian.

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