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From the newly published to the invaluable classic, our list of essential books for creative writers.
The country’s most prominent journalists and nonfiction authors gather each year at Harvard’s Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Telling True Stories presents their best advice on everything from finding a good topic, to structuring narrative stories, to writing and selling your first book.
Advice and instruction from writers such as Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Sims, Hallie Ephron, N. M. Kelby, Heather Sellers, and Donald Maass, with a foreword by James Scott Bell.
"Poetry is not a means to an end," Addonizio maintains, "but a continuing engagement with being alive." Her generous guide is for beginners and experienced poets, for groups and in the classroom—indeed for anyone eager to glimpse the angel of poetry.
Anyone undertaking the project of writing a memoir knows that the events, memories, and emotions of the past often resist the orderly structure of a book. Inventing the Truth offers wisdom from nine notable memoirists about their process (Ian Frazier searched through generations of family papers to understand his parents' lives), the hurdles they faced (Annie Dillard tackles the central dilemma of memoir: what to put in and what to leave out), and the unexpected joys of bringing their pasts to the page.
In Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster delves into the seven elements essential to a novel: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm.
"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance," wrote Alexander Pope. "The dance," in the case of Oliver's brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet's ear and a poet's grace of expression, Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work, and enables readers, as only she can, to "enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem's narrative and its ideas."
Seasoned writer Jeff Gerke offers advice and insights regarding how to create a strong opening for a novel, and provides specific tasks that help writers avoid leaving readers disoriented, frustrated, or bored.
Author Beth Kephart explores the many personal and professional challenges of writing memoir. From remaining faithful to the searing language of truth, to navigating the thin line between remembering and imagining, the author offers practical advice for memoirists who seek wisdom regarding the craft as well as their legal rights.
This informative and instructive guide examines the three major incarnations of nonfiction: essays, memoirs, and narratives. By offering insightful analysis and expert advice, this entertaining and practical guide to writing nonfiction is ideal for both seasoned and beginner writers.
Writer, agent, and publishing industry veteran Donald Maass offers ideas and techniques that instill fire and passion into manuscripts that lack the ability to grab readers and take them on a journey.
In this insightful resource for writers, author Robert D. Richardson explores the acclaimed poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s literary accomplishments, creative processes, and writing advice.
The author provides three hundred sixty-six inspirational and practical tips—one for each day of the year—that explore how to integrate writing into one’s everyday life and how to stay creatively focused on the craft of writing.
In this guide to self-editing, professional editors Renni Browne and Dave King share their combined expertise by offering practical techniques and advice for polishing prose and turning manuscripts into published works of fiction.
Author Constance Hale describes how to create clear, concise, and dynamic writing by focusing on the essential aspects of grammar such as adjectives, nouns, and implementing stylistic techniques that leverage sentence structure, voice, and rhythm.
Author Theo Pauline Nestor offers practical writing advice extrapolated from long years of hard work and colorful life experiences in this book that relates her personal journey into the writing profession.
In this resource for poets, Lockward offers practical advice and insights about establishing sound, voice, and syntax in poetry while also providing writing prompts and other poems as inspiration.
The author explores the creative process and imagination. He writes that “failure is the engine of creativity” and provides ways for authors to keep their writing fresh and open to new possibilities.
In this anthology Falconer, Martinelli, and Mesa compile essays written by leading poets who explore effective ways of writing and revising poetry.
The author discusses techniques for incorporating writing into one’s hectic, everyday life including how to set up specific writing goals, schedule deadlines, and implement strategies to minimize distractions.
Numerous authors—from Chris Abani and Shahriar Mandanipour to Sigrid Nunez and Xu Xiaobin— discuss works of literature that inspired them as writers.
The author provides insight on how to create works of fiction with powerful stories and focuses on how to devise a Universal Plot, plot lines and subplots, compelling scenes, and character transformation.
Stone explores practical, day-to-day techniques and psychological exercises designed to enable and encourage writers to write more effectively and prolifically.
Herring, author of Writing Begins with the Breath, discusses exercises designed to foster greater spontaneity and freedom in one’s writing.
Renowned contemporary authors—including Rick Moody, Etgar Keret, Colum McCann, and Annie Proulx— select and write about a specific word that is meaningful to them. Their essays reveal to the reader the author’s inner-thoughts and quirky musings.
In this resource for writers, Silverman focuses on honing one’s personal story and voice in order to write a truthful, captivating memoir. Silverman also explores effective ways of marketing and publishing one’s “confessional,” as well.
