Chapter 23 - A brief introduction to the Beat Generation
Get taught how to write by William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg!
“First Thought, Best Thought.” — Allen Ginsberg
“You are a genius all of the time.” — Jack Kerouac
“Language is a virus.” — William Burroughs
A friend asked me for some links to stuff to do with the beats to help her with a creative writing lesson plan. I got a little carried away, so thought I’d share them here too.
Classroom resources / exercises we’ve used in the past include:
Though in both cases you checked and edited slightly for language used. So definitely do that again before using them.
THE ABOVE TWO PIECES ARE ALL YOU NEED to teach students about the beats and get them hooked in a creative writing workshop.
That said, here’s some more links and background information on the beats.
The three who count are Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs. All have colourful language, sexual content etc and I’d especially steer clear of Burroughs’ work, f…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Chapter 23 by James Garside to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.