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From the newly published to the invaluable classic, our list of essential books for creative writers.
“The shapes of fiction inspire by presenting ways to embody your experiences, memories, and imaginings.” In this comprehensive volume, Jerome Stern breaks down and reconstructs the component parts that come together to shape a work of fiction. Stern focuses on straightforward insights, exercises, techniques, and a list of don'ts that will help writers of all levels of experience enliven their work with new tension, immediacy, and momentum.
Measures of Astonishment is a collection of essays by thirteen of Canada’s most notable poets, first presented in lectures from 2002 to 2015 as part of the League of Canadian Poets’ Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series. Poets including Margaret Atwood, Anne Carson, Robert Currie, and Gregory Scofield offer their unique and distinctive perspectives on poetry, sharing insights about its craft and exploring its far-reaching meanings.
“This is what I believe in, what I trust will ultimately distinguish those who want to write and publish from those who do write and publish: work....I believe that the act of writing is itself the muse.” In Naming the World, author and professor Bret Anthony Johnston has compiled a collection of craft advice from a wide range of his favorite writers and teachers of writing, including Dorothy Allison, Dan Chaon, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Robbins, and Vu Tran. Each chapter acts as a short master class filled with insights and experienced perspectives, as well as varied and illuminating exercises and prompts designed to inspire writers seeking to improve their narrative writing skills.
“We must grow to become enough for ourselves, to fill our own vacancies. We must slay our own demons on our own terms.... You have to be kind to yourself so that you can keep on making your art....” In Life Without Envy, writers and creative thinkers of all types and levels of experience will learn how to slay their creative demons. DeAngelis’s helpful tips, inspiring anecdotes, and practical exercises demonstrate how to overcome feelings of negativity and competition, find support in community, and build a healthy, happy mindset as an artist.
In this spirited guide to navigating the writing life, Alice Mattison—author of six novels, four story collections, and a collection of poems—urges writers to let playfulness and spontaneity “breathe life” into their work (letting the kite move with the wind) while being mindful of practical considerations such as finding trusted readers and setting appropriate goals for publication (holding the string). Mattison, who teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars, walks readers through the stages of writing, from early inspiration to first draft to revision, all the while making clear that writing well is not nurtured by rules and instructions but rather a combination of spontaneity, clear judgment, and positive attitude.
“The term working artist should not refer to the amount of money made at the practice. It is more aptly a description of the person who shows up and does the work—day in, day out, year in, year out.” In seven chapters covering essential topics such as day jobs, finances, time management, and creating a support network, JoAnneh Nagler guides readers through the practical elements that enable an artist to show up and do the work in a healthy and sustainable way.
“The wild part of our nature urges us to explore and create something new that will elevate our existence and possibly the existences of others, but this drive must run the gauntlet of the wiring that perceives our creative impulses to be dangerous.” In twenty chapters, Deb Norton examines common roadblocks to this creative drive—from confronting shyness, distractions, and perfectionism, to finding one’s own unique voice. Norton provides over three dozen practical exercises and prompts to help writers overcome their inner critics and channel their energy toward new levels of productivity.
“Writing is a meditation; writing is as close as some of us can come to prayer; writing is a way of being, righteously, in the world. And this is something that everyone ought to know.” In Why Write?, teacher, scholar, and author Mark Edmundson presents a case for the power and importance of writing to transform lives. Along the way, Edmundson shares inspirational wisdom, advice, and personal anecdotes to help readers and writers find the approach to unlock writing for themselves.
In The Butterfly Hours, Patty Dann guides readers through ten writing lessons by sharing lively anecdotes collected from her personal experiences as a novelist and memoirist, and from over twenty-five years of teaching writing classes. Each chapter focuses on a different lesson—such as “Write Out of Love or Anger,” “Steal From Yourself,” and “Read Your Work Aloud”—and is filled with one-word writing prompts that will inspire writers to explore their own memories for new storytelling ideas.
“I don't know what interests me. Non-dullness, I suppose. Proper poetry is dead poetry even if it looks good.” On Writing, edited by Abel Debritto, presents an entertaining array of previously unpublished letters—written by Bukowski to his friends, editors, and publishers between 1945 and 1993—that circle around the topic of writing and publishing. Readers will enjoy Bukowski’s trademark humor, insight, and self-deprecation in the correspondences, which are interspersed with lively drawings and photographs of the writer at work.
“Humans are wired for story. We hunt for and respond to certain specific things in every story we hear, watch, or read—and they’re the exact same specific things, regardless of the genre.” Story Genius illuminates how the most successful stories engage the brain’s biological responses and sense-making instincts. With step-by-step instructions, Cron demonstrates that by connecting every element of the story to the protagonist’s internal struggle, writers can create a blueprint for an effective novel from start to finish.
“This book will help you energize your writing, boost your verbal fitness and strip unnecessary padding from your prose.” In The Writer’s Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose, Helen Sword helps writers at all stages apply this vigorous regimen to their own work to create cleaner, clearer writing at the sentence level. Part of the Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing series, this book includes five chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of the sentence—verbs, nouns, prepositions, adjectives and adverbs, and “waste words”—and includes exercises to put Sword’s guiding principles into practice.
“There is a sort of writer’s magic. There is a procedure which many an author has come about by happy accident or has worked out for himself which can, in part, be taught.” This 1981 reissue of Dorothea Brande’s classic 1934 guide, which includes a foreword by John Gardner, lays bare her magic to reveal many of the essential elements of writing, and offers instruction on tapping into inspiration, creativity, and productivity. Brande shares practical advice and exercises to develop writing habits, strengthen the revision process, and cultivate a unique voice and style.
In this slim volume adapted from lectures presented at the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis University and the British Museum, James Wood demonstrates that fiction is exemplary of George Eliot's claim that "Art is the nearest thing to life." Throughout four concise chapters, Wood explores the value and relevance of fiction—and its readers, writers, and critics—by drawing connections to his own life. Additionally, there are examples from works by writers including Walter Benjamin, John Berger, Aleksandar Hemon, Rachel Kushner, Marilynne Robinson, and Eudora Welty.
“Always be careful to bring your reader along on your journey. Writing is indeed a solo act, but the result is meant to be shared.” In this comprehensive guide, Dinty W. Moore leads readers through the elements of the personal essay, including how to move past “journaling” and write for an audience, and offers advice on developing routines and publication strategies as well as over a hundred writing prompts for writers at all stages of their craft.
"There is no ready and easy way to take the measure of a lyric: it must be seen in itself and as part of an individual oeuvre and as part of a literary tradition..." In this volume of over twenty-five essays and reviews, critic Helen Vendler explores a diverse range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American, English, and Irish poets, including Elizabeth Bishop, Lucie Brock-Broido, Mark Ford, Seamus Heaney, and Langston Hughes. Readers will appreciate Vendler's in-depth analyses of specific elements in each poet's work as well as her examination of how these poets are situated within the larger framework of a culture's literary tradition.
This collection of essays includes highlights from ten years of the Washington Post's Writing Life column, each paired with an author biography by Marie Arana, former editor in chief of the Post's Book World section. Writers such as Julia Alvarez, John Banville, Jimmy Carter, Michael Chabon, Anita Desai, Joyce Carol Oates, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Carl Sagan reflect on their experiences—from how they got started, to reflections looking back on a lifetime of writing—and share valuable advice, insightful concerns, and a wide range of creative habits.
Whether it's War and Peace, Wolf Hall, or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, historical narrative has long offered literary treasures for readers—in addition to important lessons for creative writers. Drawing on the work of Gabriel García Márquez, David McCullough, Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy, and many others, acclaimed author Christopher Bram (Gods and Monsters, The Notorious Dr. August) examines various strategies of incorporating and dramatizing historical detail in both fiction and nonfiction. Bram's close reading of both successful and flawed passages from classic literature illustrates how authors working in different genres treat major subjects such as slavery and the Civil War, offering valuable insights that writers can draw on for their own historical narratives.
In this anthology, twenty contemporary short story writers introduce their favorite Paris Review short stories and authors. The book includes pairings such as Joy Williams's "Dimmer" introduced by Daniel Alarcón, Jane Bowles's "Emmy Moore's Journal" introduced by Lydia Davis, Jorge Luis Borges's "Funes, the Memorious" introduced by Aleksandar Hemon, and Donald Barthelme's "Seven Garlic Tales" introduced by Ben Marcus. Each introduction explores the form and craft, and the ways in which the writers have been influenced and inspired by the author they celebrate.
In How to Write Like Tolstoy, Richard Cohen has assembled a compendium of techniques, obsessions, quotes, and exemplary passages by acclaimed prose writers including Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Jonathan Franzen, David Markson, Gabriel García Márquez, and Francine Prose. Each of the twelve chapters focuses on a different element of craft, such as beginnings, point of view, dialogue, writing about sex, and revision, resulting in a book that illuminates for readers the range of perspectives in the writing of great literature.
Thirty-six years after Bill Henderson's The Art of Literary Publishing: Editors on Their Craft (Pushcart Press, 1980) shared the insights of some of the most successful editors of the last century, such as Maxwell Perkins, John Farrar, James Laughlin, and Theodore Solotaroff, this new anthology showcases an even wider range of perspectives on the current state of literary publishing, attempting to answer some of the questions raised by Henderson's classic volume. From industry veterans to digital mavericks, including agents, editors, authors, and reviewers such as Erin Belieu, Sven Birkerts, Jessa Crispin, Gerald Howard, Richard Nash, Chris Parris-Lamb, and Daniel Slager, the voices collected in Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century offer a discussion of the role of books, bookselling, and literary publishing for the future.
In this book, novelist Colm Tóibín's close readings chisel down Elizabeth Bishop’s almost monolithic masterpieces to their personal cores. Moreover, readers will see, poem to poem, how much Bishop’s gift for restraint and observation have impacted Tóibín’s writing. The result is not only a valuable study of a master poet, but a testament to how one writer can become a compass, and an engine, for another.
"Instead of reacting to the block, I encourage you to stop and look at it. Listen to it. Touch it. Find out what its gifts are, what it's offering you." Laraine Herring presents a new perspective of writer's block, sharing strategies for transforming the feeling of being stuck into an opportunity to challenge oneself. Herring encourages writers to take a closer look at the writing process, channel creative energy through meditation and breathing exercises, and provides innovative writing techniques and prompts.
As the first Kapnick Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, James Salter delivered these three lectures just months before his passing: "The Art of Fiction," "Writing Novels," and "Life into Art." Now compiled in this book, readers will be inspired and heartened by Salter's candid thoughts on the inevitable rejection, criticism, and struggle with best practices that accompany the writer's life. Salter also shares the books and authors that informed him throughout the years, and his personal beliefs in the value of the written word.
"I have since come to believe that wabi-sabi is related to many of the more emphatic anti-aesthetics that invariably spring from the young, modern, creative soul: beat, punk, grunge, or whatever it's called next." In this book, artist and writer Leonard Koren introduces the concept of the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi: the beauty of incomplete, imperfect, impermanent things. Readers and writers interested in a new perspective on artistic practice will find inspiration in Koren's application of wabi-sabi to contemporary, Western approaches to the creative process, and the focus on transcending conventional ways of observation.
