Best Books for Writers

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.

“It is impossible for me to write about the imagination; it is like asking a fish to describe the sea,” claims poet Mary Ruefle on the first page of this chapbook-length essay. Through her unique blend of anecdotes and meditations upon subjects ranging from John Keats to Jesus to the Ukrainian art of Easter egg dyeing, Ruefle manages to demonstrate that the act of writing is much more than the solitary task it can sometimes feel like—it is a collaboration between yourself and the world. “The imagination is not what you play with, the imagination plays with you.”

In this collection of essays, Tom Sleigh investigates the ways private life, selfhood, and aesthetics are served by poetry written in the first person, and uses multiple forms to explore identity and the limits of subjectivity. Sleigh discusses his own writing, as well as work by poets including Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Bradstreet, Seamus Heaney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Tomas Tranströmer, and Derek Walcott to inspire new ways to think about poetic craft.

This compilation of essays is a revealing and thorough exploration of the variety of functions held by editors who hold indispensable roles in the process of preparing a manuscript for publication. In What Editors Do, over twenty-five editors from small presses to large publishing houses share advice, insights into the inner workings of the publishing industry, and perspectives on editing as both an art and a craft. All readers and writers passionate about literature and the creative process will find valuable inspiration in this informative resource.

“A life can change in a paragraph, in a turn of a phrase, in a single well-used word.” Light the Dark is a collection of essays exploring inspiration from over forty acclaimed authors, including Sherman Alexie, Junot Díaz, Angela Flournoy, William Gibson, Khaled Hosseini, Yiyun Li, Walter Mosley, Eileen Myles, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Marilynne Robinson. Each writer begins by sharing a favorite passage from literature that has transformed his or her writing life, and then delves into the various ways a powerful encounter with art can shape the creative process and be integrated into one’s own work.

A follow-up to Diane Lockward’s 2013 book, The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop, this second volume guides poets seeking to transform their practice through practical steps such as revising the creative process; selecting and refining diction, syntax, and sound; and completing final revisions. Each of the ten sections thoroughly explores and discusses craft tips provided by an experienced poet (Ellen Bass, Ada Limon, Dean Young, and others) and includes illuminating sample poems and related writing prompts.

The author of more than thirty books of nonfiction as well as more than a hundred pieces of journalism published in the New Yorker over the past fifty years offers a collection of essays on the writer’s craft in which he shares memories and tips of the trade gleaned throughout his distinguished career as a writer and an instructor at Princeton University. McPhee uses excerpts of his work to provide lessons on crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape well-written nonfiction pieces.

In this book from the Now Write! series, Sherry Ellis compiles over eighty writing prompts focused on nonfiction writing that will inspire readers and writers to embark on a new theme or direction, or help refine and craft elements of current works in progress. The collection includes ideas and exercises by acclaimed nonfiction authors including Reza Aslan, Jenny Boully, Paul Lisicky, Carole Maso, Dinty W. Moore, Rene Steinke, Gay Talese, and Xu Xi.