Mikhail Bakhtin's understanding of the medieval carnival--a time when life is turned upside down, social hierarchies are lifted, and the lines between performer and participant are blurred--provides a useful framework for understanding both liberatory and potentially threatening aspects of writing workshops in elementary schools. An experimental writing workshop in the third grade consisted of three parts: (1) an open meeting, lasting 5 to 10 minutes, during which students were instructed in a traditional manner (students increasingly protested this part of the routine); (2) free writing time lasting 30 minutes, during which students were free to write what they wished as they moved about the room to be with other students; and (3) sharing time lasting 10 minutes, during which students could read their texts in front of the class. Like participants in a carnival, children experienced a blurring of performer and spectator roles in the workshop--there were no active producing authors separated from passive consuming readers. Instead, children moved in and out of the roles of writer and audience. In addition to transformed social relations, writing workshops encourage participants to take up a playful, familiar relation to the world. However, there is reason for concern about the way that children treat each other in a carnival atmosphere. An important criticism that Stallybrass and White (1986) level at Bakhtin's work on carnival--namely, that it embraces an uncritical populism--also sticks to the writing workshop advocates. (Contains 44 references and 14 notes.) (TB)