Best Books for Writers

In Behind the Book, Chris Mackenzie Jones, marketing and communications director at the Loft Literary Center, examines the complete writing and publishing timelines of debut books by authors of various genres, including Brian Benson, Edan Lepucki, Courtney Maum, Eric Smith, and Monona Wali. From generating ideas and writing process, to revision and polishing, to publication and its aftermath, this book assists writers in navigating the many potential paths and strategies for successfully publishing a first book.

“Writing has been the primary way I have tried to make sense of my losses, including deaths.” In The Art of Death, Edwidge Danticat shifts from a memoiristic account of dealing with her mother’s death, to examining how other authors, poets, and philosophers have used literature to make sense of death, loss, mourning, and finding peace. Writers can find inspiration in Danticat’s insights on the value that integrating themes of sorrow and renewal can bring to a work of literature and its creator.

The author of a dozen books of poetry as well as three books about poetry, including Poetry as Survival (University of Georgia Press, 2002), Orr delivers an innovative and accessible guide based on the notion of turning “worlds into words,” using close readings of poems such as Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays.” The primer also provides a dozen writing exercises and a glossary of terms that is useful for new and emerging poets alike.

Poetry: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology combines elements of an introductory textbook, encyclopedia, and anthology into one comprehensive volume on the craft of poetry. Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko provide in-depth discussions of thirty-eight components of poetry, in alphabetical order from ambiguity to work, that they consider “the building materials and tools every poet relies on when making a poem.” The anthology section covers twenty poetic modes (list poems, love poems, and protest poems to name a few), each illustrated with acclaimed contemporary poetry by poets including Natalie Diaz, Terrance Hayes, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Danez Smith, and Ocean Vuong.

In The Writer’s Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction, Michael Noll presents as single excerpted page from forty different contemporary novels and short stories in order to examine and point out specific writing techniques. These insightful discussions and analyses are followed by practical writing prompts and exercises, such as how to “write pretty” or how to “move through time space,” that will motivate writers to approach their craft with refreshed perspective.

“When we have a problem, we look for advice—what do others do? Not so we can replicate their strategies, but so we can listen, consider, begin to make wordless decisions deep in the cerebral mass. It is the conversation that is useful, rather than the single instruction,” writes Susan Grimm in her introduction to Ordering the Storm. The book is comprised of essays by eleven poets, including Maggie Anderson, Wanda Coleman, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, and Bonnie Jacobson, reflecting on the process of assembling a collection of poetry. The essays offer a range of perspectives and approaches to the task of arranging poems while providing a sense of community with each voice and insight.

In From Language to Creative Writing, Philip Seargeant and Bill Greenwell combine language studies and the practice of creative writing to create an informative and useful guide for writers interested in manipulating the structures of the English language for the purpose of crafting poetry and prose. Chapters cover topics such as “Speech and conversation,” “Context, time and point of view,” and “‘Literary’ language,” and include exemplary passages as well as writing activities and exercises.

The new edition of The Reader Over Your Shoulder, a restoration of the complete original 1943 handbook written in response to the tumult of World War II, discusses major stylistic elements, peculiarities, and uses and abuses of English prose. Poet and novelist Robert Graves and historian Alan Hodge provide forty-one basic principles of writing focused on producing clarity and grace of expression, and a thorough section of correctives for common errors using examples from texts by leading authors of their era (Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw).

“A brilliant writer is someone who is devoted to expressing their creativity through the written word. Devotion is the key.” In twelve chapters, each one corresponding to a different month, poet, author, and teacher Albert Flynn DeSilver guides writers through a yearlong transformation and awakening of one’s creative process. Focusing on strengthening storytelling skills through the integration of life and art, the book includes numerous reading, writing, and meditative exercises, and explores topics such as poetic language, imagery, humor, the five senses, and revision.

Why Poetry is Matthew Zapruder’s exploration—and defense—of the value of poetry. Zapruder claims no special training is required to enjoy poetry, and suggests that “a poem is like a person. The more you know someone, the more you realize there is always something more to know and understand.” Through this lens, he considers examples by poets ranging from Matsuo Bashō to Adrienne Rich to John Ashbery, and grounds his analysis in stories from his own life as a poet, teacher, and editor at Wave Books.

Ann Charters’s anthology collects eighty short stories, including new fiction and neglected classics by authors such as Sherman Alexie, Anton Chekhov, Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Louise Erdrich, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Denis Johnson, Clarice Lispector, Marjane Satrapi, and Alice Walker. A distinctive innovation of the anthologies is the “Commentaries” section, which in this ninth edition consists of in-depth essays and discussions by the authors themselves, providing insight into the stories, historical and biographical contexts, and the craft of fiction.

“At every point, writing deepens our exploration of unknown terrain, new cultures and languages, and connections with people.” Writing Abroad explores the ways in which journeys and travel experiences can be a rich and compelling source of insights about people and cultures both familiar and unknown. Chapters such as “Encountering Another Language in Your Own Voice,” “Portraits and Profiles,” and “Travel Writing in the Age of the Internet” demonstrate the power of using memories, observations, and engagement with other cultures for storytelling, and each section is filled with inspiring writing, revision, and fieldwork exercises.