Best Books for Writers

“The interviewers I fear most are the ones who’ve read what the publisher’s PR people say about your book, along with some handy pull quotes,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin in the introduction to this series of conversations on the craft of writing with David Naimon, host of the literary radio show and podcast Between the Covers. “Every now and then I meet one who realizes that what I really like to do is talk shop.” In these delightful discussions on poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, Le Guin provides advice and guidance for any kind of writer across genres. The book demonstrates not only the range of Le Guin’s prowess and body of work—which includes poems, translations, essays, speeches, and novels—but the expertise of Naimon’s precise interviewing skills. “The good interview is like a good badminton rally,” Le Guin writes. “You know right away that the two of you can keep that birdie in the air, and all you have to do is watch it fly.” 

On the heels of his acclaimed novel Appleseed, published in July 2021 by Custom House and named one of Summer’s Hottest Books by USA Today, comes Matt Bell’s inspiring yet pragmatic guide to writing a novel. Drawing examples from writers such as Garth Greenwell, Rachel Kushner, Matthew Salesses, and Jeff VanderMeer, Bell approaches the writing (and rewriting) process in three sections—First Draft: Forward Progress, Generative Revision; Second Draft: Rewrite, Don’t Revise; and Third Draft: Refuse to Be Done—leading readers toward a layered approach to polishing by way of a checklist of tasks that can be applied to a manuscript one at a time. Along the way Bell avoids a one-size-fits-all approach and encourages writers to either dismiss or, better yet, subvert any of his strategies: “This book is here to serve you and your book,” he writes with characteristic pragmatism. “Only what’s useful to you applies.” 

The Route as Briefed is an eclectic collection of prose by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet James Tate featuring essays, interviews, journal entries, and even a recipe. Topics range from poetic influences to MFA programs, and from the role of humor in poetry to the nature of regional writing. An installment of the University of Michigan Press’s Poets on Poetry series, the book features Tate’s signature humorous writing style and is sure to entertain readers as well as offer instruction and introspection on the difficulties and joys of the writing life. This is an underrated writing craft classic by a beloved poet and teacher for any reader or writer looking for insight and inspiration. 

“There is no technology more democratic than language. And so, let us sing,” writes Reginald Dwayne Betts in the foreword to this PEN America writing handbook edited by Caits Meissner, which features over fifty justice-involved contributors offering inspiration and resources for crafting a literary life in prison. With essays by influential writers including Ellen Bass, Mitchell S. Jackson, Piper Kerman, T Kira Mahealani Madden, and Patrick O’Neil, this comprehensive resource begins by breaking down various genres of creative writing, then follows with the intricacies of crafting a writer’s life in prison and building a writing community, using a mix of personal experiences and expertise to contextualize the difficulty of launching one’s work into the world beyond the walls of a prison. Offering pragmatic advice and helpful writing exercises, The Sentences That Create Us is not only an urgent handbook for incarcerated writers and their allies, but a craft book that will instruct and challenge any writer. 

“Can creative writing be taught?” asks Francine Prose in the first sentence of Reading Like a Writer as she reflects on the people who have helped her become a better writer. The author, critic, and professor of literature guides readers through the tools of great writers—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, ZZ Packer—and breaks down elements of the craft into chapters such as “Words,” “Sentences,” “Dialogue,” “Gesture,” and “Details.” Mixing personal anecdotes with extensive passages from literature’s most celebrated works, Prose reminds readers to pay attention to words, the foundation of all creative writing. “Like most—maybe all—writers, I learned to write by writing, and by example, by reading books,” says Prose. 

Thirty years after her first book, The Artist ’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (TarcherPerigree, 1992), changed the way countless writers thought about creativity, Julia Cameron turns her attention to the concept of creative prayer. Starting with a secular appeal to experiment with open-mindedness, Cameron tells the story of how prayer led her forward at a time of personal crisis and helped her develop the creative tools she shared in The Artist’s Way, particularly Morning Pages, Artist Dates, and Walks. In her new book she shares a mindful collection of prayer practices that can open a writer’s “creative soul,” regardless of personal beliefs or religious practices. Through prayers of petition, gratitude, creativity, and others, writers are invited to step more fully into their creative practice. Billed as a “six-week program,” Seeking Wisdom should appeal to any fan of Cameron’s earlier nonfiction. 

“Wherever these poets are writing from, they—and we—are together in this ‘sudden strangeness,’ possibly the most dramatic period most of us have ever known,” writes editor Alice Quinn in the introduction of Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic, a timely anthology of poems, many of which were written in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The collection includes the work of over one hundred renowned and emerging poets such as Jericho Brown, Ama Codjoe, Fanny Howe, Ada Limón, Vijay Seshadri, and Jenny Xie. From fierce truths to dark humor, readers can share in the experience of being delighted and illuminated through this essential, urgent poetry anthology that addresses the fear, grief, and hope felt in these times. As Quinn writes: “These poems reflect how our poets are reckoning with this unforeseen calamity and reaching out to connect with us, their readers, to share the illumination of life that beckons to all in dark times.”  

“By observing, we see more. By describing what we can see, we understand more, we feel more. We discover something we didn’t know before,” writes Ellen Bass in “Craft Talk: From Detail to Discovery,” which introduces the first section of this comprehensive craft book edited by Diane Lockward, a follow-up to The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics and The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop. Each of the thirteen sections in the book is devoted to a specific poetic strategy—such as descriptive detail, diction, imagery—and begins with a craft talk by a renowned poet followed by prompts and sample poems as well as poetic analyses that address practical ways to work on skills. Featuring poems by Traci Brimhall, Ada Limón, Matthew Olzmann, and Frank X Walker, among others, The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft is a combination of anthology and guide—ideal for any poet seeking to produce dynamic work. 

“We try to adapt, to learn, to accommodate, sometimes resisting, other times submitting to, whatever confronts us. But writers go further: they take this largely shapeless bewilderment and pour it into a mold of their own devising. Writing is all resistance,” writes Zadie Smith in “Peonies,” the first essay in Intimations: Six Essays, a collection released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with reflections on creativity and isolation. In these brief, intimate, and thought-provoking essays, Smith explores ideas and questions sparked by an unprecedented moment, such as the relationship between time and work, and the misery and suffering endured by each individual: “The writer learns how not to write. The actor not to act. The painter how never to see her studio and so on.” Less than one hundred pages, this slim volume can be carried around by any reader or writer seeking their daily dose of clarity and inspiration.

“This book is not about poetic freedom in the sense of claiming freedom for poetry, freeing poetry from internal or state censorship,” writes Carmen Bugan in the introduction of Poetry and the Language of Oppression: Essays on Politics and Poetics. “Rather, the following chapters are about the nature of poetry as a form of salvation—from political oppression.” Through five probing chapters with titles such as “Sounding the Deeps of Nature,” “The ‘Lyric I,’” and “Writing in Turbulent Times,” Bugan incorporates pieces from her life and writing as well as the work of other writers, including Meena Alexander, Jorge Luis Borges, and Wole Soyinka, to consider how poetry acts as a healing language in times of public duress. In this powerful and personal book, Bugan brings up questions about literary testimony and the meaning of freedom in current times, while confronting the power of language. “We are born into language and words shape how we understand the world and our place in it,” she writes.  

“Reading an anthology of world poetry gives one a chance to overhear similarities, of what Anna Akhmatova once called ‘correspondences in the air,’” writes Ilya Kaminsky in the introduction to The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry. “That is, moments when authors of different geographical and historical circumstances, languages, and traditions, seem to address each other in their works.” Edited by Kaminsky and Susan Harris, editorial director of Words Without Borders, this book collects the work of international writers such as Muhammad al-Maghut, Constantine P. Cavafy, Rubén Darío, Mitsuharu Kaneko, Adélia Prado, and Marina Tsvetaeva, some of whom had not previously had their work translated into English. Reading this extensive selection of poems offers an understanding of the history of the written word, blurring the borders of the world through the sensibilities of language. 

“The memoir is not the story of what you know, it’s the story of how you learned it,” writes Laura Kalpakian in Memory Into Memoir. “As a genre, the memoir is narrow enough to focus on a single summer in the life of the writer, and broad enough to encompass experience before that writer was born.” In this step-by-step guide, the award-winning novelist and memoirist walks experienced and new writers alike through the challenges of writing a memoir, offering practical advice, unique prompts, and thorough discussions that highlight how the genre differs from others. With chapter titles such as “The Past Meets the Page,” “Developing Character,” and “Revising the Memoir,” Kalpakian encourages writers to trust their instincts and embrace “not just the way things happened, but the way the writer thinks they happened.”