The Affective Turn in writing studies, the author argues, has actually gone through two phases, or three, if one counts the expressionist work on “finding one’s true voice” that he dubs Phase Zero. Phase One runs from Alice Glarden Brand through Sue McLeod, and contains mostly empirical studies of affect in the classroom; Phase Two begins with Lynn Worsham’s “Going Postal” and contains mostly theoretical studies of viral ecologies of affect.

This book offers a signal contribution to Phase Two, re-theorising affective ecologies as “somatic exchanges” and exploring their operation—and how to enhance their operation—in the writer-reader relationship, the classroom, and writing programmes.