The following list is a selection of recently published books, arranged alphabetically, about writers and writing.
Catching Life by the Throat: Poems From Eight Great Poets (Norton, April 2008) edited by Josephine Hart. An anthology of essays by canonical poets such as W. H. Auden, Emily Dickinson, Philip Larkin, and Sylvia Plath about how to read poetry and why we should. Each essay is accompanied by a selection of the poet's work.
Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation (Norton, September 2008) by Janis Bell. A reference book that focuses on the most common errors and includes examples and quizzes.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Illustrated Edition (Gotham Books, October 2008) by Lynne Truss. A new edition of the popular guide to grammar with drawings by New Yorker cartoonist Pat Byrnes and an introduction by Frank McCourt.
Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life (Borealis Books, September 2008) edited by Patricia Hampl and Elaine Tyler May. An anthology of essays by writers such as Fenton Johnson, Helen Epstein, and Andre Aciman about navigating the intersection between memory and history.
Thinking About Memoir (Sterling, 2008) by Abigail Thomas. A meditation on the art of crafting the story of one's life.
The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life (University of Nebraska, September 2008) by Floyd Skloot. This fourth memoir by the author who was stricken in his early forties with a brain-ravaging virus explores why and how he became a writer.