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Becoming Writers draws on phenomenological and lifespan approaches to writing research, reframing writing as a lived process shaped by social contexts, evolving technologies, and a writer’s own sense of self and agency. It moves beyond familiar binaries and offers a more holistic account of what it means to become a writer today.

Bringing together scholars from across the fields of writing studies and rhetoric/composition to consider the ways “writing” is changing in the twenty-first century, this collection tracks how and why people talk about the various forms of writing they do. Contributors address how younger generations understand the role and place of writing in their lives, particularly amid increasing and dramatic economic, social, and political change, as well as the ever-evolving role of writing in what it means to be human.

Becoming Writers builds on the Wayfinding Project (https://thewayfindingproject.com), a multiyear study of writing development focused on college graduates. Rather than focusing solely on the classroom, Becoming Writers investigates how writing functions in people’s professional, civic, personal, and digital lives. By centering lived experiences across domains, it provides a model of the empirical depth and different methodological approaches being used by scholars interested in writing development across the lifespan.

Lit to Lit examines the traditional split between the study of literature and composition and rhetoric programs, asking writing studies scholars to think critically and creatively about the role literature can play in the teaching of writing and the field’s conceptions of its own relation to writing. Grounded in diverse experiences and practices, contributors offer provocative but thoughtful analyses of how composition and literature can be brought together in the study and teaching of writing.

Complex forms of writing should not be the sole territory of one subfield or discipline but rather should benefit from multiple perspectives generated by those with keen and abiding interests in writing writ large. Many in the field of composition and rhetoric also have an active engagement in the literary arts, particularly the flowering of literature from diverse cultural experiences in the last decades. What new teaching and learning approaches could emerge from a synthesis of theoretical, literary, rhetorical, poetic, and compositional methods? This question becomes even more compelling when considering how English departments often house programs in journalism and creative writing, allowing robust opportunities for multiple ways of thinking about and studying complex texts.

Lit to Lit makes visible the generative overlap between subfields already present in the broad field of English, pointing to new ways forward that value each area’s separate endeavors while highlighting the possibilities for what could be built together.

Expanding the scope of religious rhetoric  

Over the past twenty-five years, the intersection of rhetoric and religion has become one of the most dynamic areas of inquiry in rhetoric and writing studies. One of few volumes to include multiple traditions in one conversation, Rhetoric and Religion in the Twenty-First Century engages with religious discourses and issues that continue to shape public life in the United States.  

This collection of essays centralizes the study of religious persuasion and pluralism, considers religion’s place in U.S. society, and expands the study of rhetoric and religion in generative ways. The volume showcases a wide range of religious traditions and challenges the very concepts of rhetoric and religion. The book’s eight essays explore African American, Buddhist, Christian, Indigenous, Islamic, and Jewish rhetoric and discuss the intersection of religion with feminism, race, and queer rhetoric—along with offering reflections on how to approach religious traditions through research and teaching. In addition, the volume includes seven short interludes in which some of the field’s most accomplished scholars recount their experiences exploring religious rhetorics and invite readers to engage these exigent lines of inquiry.  

By featuring these diverse religious perspectives, Rhetoric and Religion in the Twenty-First Century complicates the field’s emphasis on Western, Hellenistic, and Christian ideologies. The collection also offers teachers of writing and rhetoric a range of valuable approaches for preparing today’s students for public citizenship in our religiously diverse global context.