Radical changes in digital technology represent a challenge to the marketplace-resistant discipline of creative writing. Prior to any research being conducted on this issue, one needs to obtain a solid understanding of the issues of those working, studying and teaching in the field. This literature review works within specific parameters to examine the relationship of creative writing in higher education to the marketplace as described in the current scholarship in the field. Although there have been no other studies on this subject, a significant body of research exists on the pedagogy and practices of the creative writer and creative writing in higher education. This examination considers stakeholders’ views, experiences, teaching goals and marketplace theories, along with some empirical investigations. The review draws from Australian, UK and US experiences and practices.

In spite of calls for more digital engagement and the fact that students are arriving on campus with digitally connected skills, creative writing classrooms are generally 'low tech and quaintly humanistic'. We don't appear to be incorporating the socially networked student experiences in the quaint creative writing classroom. One of the barriers to more engagement may be one of our hard-won 'markers of professional difference', that is, the things that distinguish us from other classes. This particular marker is that we are not market-driven. By examining this issue (but not eliminating the marker), we might determine if we can and should open the class up to more engagement. In this paper, the terms 'social media' and 'social media marketplace' are explored in order to consider changes to the marketplace and some ways to engage with the digital world that honor our traditions and benefit our classrooms by enhancing educational experiences without excessive cost or training.

Pedagogy, while recent creative writing scholarship examines the purpose and effectiveness of teaching models and methods, it is yet to examine the impact of digital technology on the discipline. The editors seek to remedy this gap.

Nigel Krauth's interest in digital narrative was apparent from the first issue of TEXT in its inclusion of his article, 'Writing in Small Chunks?: Electronic Media and the Novelist' (1997). Following on that, also in TEXT, Krauth (2000) rethought creative writing's place in the academy, and, with Ross Watkins (2016), the writing of the scholarly article. He has now published Creative Writing and the Radical.Krauth's concerns in this text are a spindle of threads. He names the contemporary as the time for a new kind of writing (1). His book is written for the writer, from the writer's point of view (3, 20). He gives an historical account of radical movements, and radical writing and publishing practices (3). For Krauth, 'the most important thing we can teach creative writing students is an understanding of the value of the exegetical -of the need for writers to examine, analyze and articulate their writing process in the context of the discourse provided by what other writers and critical thinkers are doing and saying' (205). This historical coverage of Creative Writing and the Radical is comprehensive, and stimulating, and includes the Dada and Surrealist movements, to Eastgate's early hypertext publications and more. Krauth covers radical uses of language (such as Gertrude Stein's oeuvre), composition practices (such as collage, cut-ups, automatic writing, and constraints), publishing formats (such as the flipback® book and the app novel), and multiple media.