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From the newly published to the invaluable classic, our list of essential books for creative writers.
Syllabus: Notes From an Accidental Professor provides an inside look into Lynda Barry’s funny, smart, and thoughtful lesson plans for writing and creative thinking. Filled with colorful illustrations and hand lettering, Barry’s notes, tips, and exercises are a source of inspiration and encouragement to expand and explore one’s writing practice and process, and to make the most of the imagination that goes into all aspects of brainstorming.
In Finishing School, Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton identify and discuss the most common emotions (self-doubt, shame, arrogance) that keep writers from completing their work, and then share techniques on how to tackle the straightforward process of committing to a project from start to finish. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the importance of setting and scheduling manageable goals, and being held accountable by others while offering helpful tips and insights gained from their own writing success stories.
Michelle Boisseau, Hadara Bar-Nadav, and Robert Wallace share their knowledge and love of poetry in this eighth edition of Writing Poems, which introduces an array of poetic traditions and teaches the essentials to guide aspiring poets to develop their craft. An examination of classical and contemporary poems, as well as powerful writing exercises are included to inspire readers to put pen to paper.
“If you want to finish this novel of yours within a year, you have to get to work! There’s not a moment to lose. There’s no time to wait for inspiration.” In This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley leads readers through an active approach to writing a complete novel starting with how to establish a consistent writing routine, and the basics of story beginnings and research, through the final stages of revision and editing. Writers will be invigorated by Mosley’s engaging and straightforward insights in chapters such as “The Omniscient Narrator,” “Intuition Versus Structure,” and “The Devil and the Details.”
The essays and interviews compiled in this 1985 collection edited by Steven E. Colburn, which is part of the Poets on Poetry series by the University of Michigan Press, span Anne Sexton’s life as a writer, poet, and teacher. In both her prose reflections and in conversation, readers and writers will find inspiration in Sexton’s entertaining stories that trace her development from being a student of Robert Lowell at Boston University, to publishing her 1960 debut collection, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, and concluding with her own reflections on teaching poetry.
In The Art of Time in Memoir, part of The Art of series, critic, editor, and memoirist Sven Birkerts explores the human impulse to write about the self. Birkerts examines how memoirists such as Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, and Mary Karr create coherent narratives and how their works demonstrate “circumstance becoming meaningful when seen from a certain remove.”
Filled with colorful drawings, diagrams, and maps, Jeff VanderMeer’s illustrated guide provides a comprehensive approach to elements of craft integral to every type of storytelling. Writers of all levels, genres, and subject matter will find inspiration in the writing exercises and prompts, as well as essays by authors such as Lauren Beukes, Rikki Ducornet, Karen Joy Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Charles Yu.
“How do we know what our real material is? Why should we write from personal experience, anyway, rather than invent?” In Writing What You Know, Meg Files guides readers and writers through her responses to these questions while providing engaging exercises that explore the challenges and rewards of digging into one’s own pains and passions in order to create and shape the most captivating stories.
In this volume, Stephen Burt selects sixty poems as a small representation of the wide scope of contemporary American poetry, ranging from John Ashbery’s “Paradoxes and Oxymorons” published in 1981, to Ross Gay’s “Weeping” published in 2015. Each poem is accompanied by an essay that details the poem’s technique, sensibility, and context to help readers approach and enjoy the work with a new perspective.
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life is a collection of Amy Tan’s essays, interviews, and musings tracing her journey to become a novelist. Throughout over thirty essays, including “My Love Affair with Vladimir Nabokov,” “The Ghosts of My Imagination,” and “Five Writing Tips,” Tan shares inspiring and humorous insights about the connections between life and art, underscores the transformative power of storytelling, and explores the importance of empathy in the life of a writer.
The author of three novels and two story collections, who also writes the Green Arrow and Teen Titans series for DC Comics, Benjamin Percy delivers a collection of fifteen urgent and entertaining essays on the craft of fiction—many of which originally appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine. Percy looks to sources including Jaws, Blood Meridian, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to discover how contemporary writers engage such issues as plot, suspense, momentum, character, setting, and dialogue.
The forty-three essays in this book feature writers focusing on fellow writers—reflecting on their contemporaries, as well as influential and inspirational authors from previous eras. First published in Vanity Fair between 1983 and 2016, the collection includes pieces such as Elizabeth Bishop on Marianne Moore, Martin Amis on Saul Bellow, Jacqueline Woodson on James Baldwin, Meg Wolitzer on Judy Blume, Nadine Gordimer on Wole Soyinka, and Christopher Hitchens on Stieg Larsson.
“People love Jane Austen’s work for so many reasons—the comedy, her sparkling dialogue, the unforgettable characters, the accuracy of her observations...how she captures what it is to be in love, lonely, bullied, wrong, disappointed, to be part of a family...” In The Jane Austen Writers’ Club, Rebecca Smith reveals insights into these craft elements and storytelling techniques gleaned from Austen’s novels. The book includes many exemplary passages, practical exercises, as well as writing advice Austen offered to her aspiring novelist nieces and nephew.
“Looking closely at a hero's mortal parts has always been a risky enterprise. We want our great writers pure of heart.” In The Flexible Lyric, poet and professor Ellen Bryant Voigt compiles nine craft essays examining the art of lyric poetry, beginning with a discussion on the creative process and Voigt's fascination with Flannery O'Connor and Elizabeth Bishop. Each essay that follows examines different aspects of lyric poems, from tone to image to voice and beyond. Through close reading of an array of poets like Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Denise Levertov, Shakespeare, and others, Voigt shows us the nuance and attention it takes to write a fantastic lyric poem.
“The shapes of fiction inspire by presenting ways to embody your experiences, memories, and imaginings.” In this comprehensive volume, Jerome Stern breaks down and reconstructs the component parts that come together to shape a work of fiction. Stern focuses on straightforward insights, exercises, techniques, and a list of don'ts that will help writers of all levels of experience enliven their work with new tension, immediacy, and momentum.
Measures of Astonishment is a collection of essays by thirteen of Canada’s most notable poets, first presented in lectures from 2002 to 2015 as part of the League of Canadian Poets’ Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series. Poets including Margaret Atwood, Anne Carson, Robert Currie, and Gregory Scofield offer their unique and distinctive perspectives on poetry, sharing insights about its craft and exploring its far-reaching meanings.
“This is what I believe in, what I trust will ultimately distinguish those who want to write and publish from those who do write and publish: work....I believe that the act of writing is itself the muse.” In Naming the World, author and professor Bret Anthony Johnston has compiled a collection of craft advice from a wide range of his favorite writers and teachers of writing, including Dorothy Allison, Dan Chaon, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Robbins, and Vu Tran. Each chapter acts as a short master class filled with insights and experienced perspectives, as well as varied and illuminating exercises and prompts designed to inspire writers seeking to improve their narrative writing skills.
“We must grow to become enough for ourselves, to fill our own vacancies. We must slay our own demons on our own terms.... You have to be kind to yourself so that you can keep on making your art....” In Life Without Envy, writers and creative thinkers of all types and levels of experience will learn how to slay their creative demons. DeAngelis’s helpful tips, inspiring anecdotes, and practical exercises demonstrate how to overcome feelings of negativity and competition, find support in community, and build a healthy, happy mindset as an artist.
In this spirited guide to navigating the writing life, Alice Mattison—author of six novels, four story collections, and a collection of poems—urges writers to let playfulness and spontaneity “breathe life” into their work (letting the kite move with the wind) while being mindful of practical considerations such as finding trusted readers and setting appropriate goals for publication (holding the string). Mattison, who teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars, walks readers through the stages of writing, from early inspiration to first draft to revision, all the while making clear that writing well is not nurtured by rules and instructions but rather a combination of spontaneity, clear judgment, and positive attitude.
“The term working artist should not refer to the amount of money made at the practice. It is more aptly a description of the person who shows up and does the work—day in, day out, year in, year out.” In seven chapters covering essential topics such as day jobs, finances, time management, and creating a support network, JoAnneh Nagler guides readers through the practical elements that enable an artist to show up and do the work in a healthy and sustainable way.
“The wild part of our nature urges us to explore and create something new that will elevate our existence and possibly the existences of others, but this drive must run the gauntlet of the wiring that perceives our creative impulses to be dangerous.” In twenty chapters, Deb Norton examines common roadblocks to this creative drive—from confronting shyness, distractions, and perfectionism, to finding one’s own unique voice. Norton provides over three dozen practical exercises and prompts to help writers overcome their inner critics and channel their energy toward new levels of productivity.
“Writing is a meditation; writing is as close as some of us can come to prayer; writing is a way of being, righteously, in the world. And this is something that everyone ought to know.” In Why Write?, teacher, scholar, and author Mark Edmundson presents a case for the power and importance of writing to transform lives. Along the way, Edmundson shares inspirational wisdom, advice, and personal anecdotes to help readers and writers find the approach to unlock writing for themselves.
In The Butterfly Hours, Patty Dann guides readers through ten writing lessons by sharing lively anecdotes collected from her personal experiences as a novelist and memoirist, and from over twenty-five years of teaching writing classes. Each chapter focuses on a different lesson—such as “Write Out of Love or Anger,” “Steal From Yourself,” and “Read Your Work Aloud”—and is filled with one-word writing prompts that will inspire writers to explore their own memories for new storytelling ideas.
“I don't know what interests me. Non-dullness, I suppose. Proper poetry is dead poetry even if it looks good.” On Writing, edited by Abel Debritto, presents an entertaining array of previously unpublished letters—written by Bukowski to his friends, editors, and publishers between 1945 and 1993—that circle around the topic of writing and publishing. Readers will enjoy Bukowski’s trademark humor, insight, and self-deprecation in the correspondences, which are interspersed with lively drawings and photographs of the writer at work.
“Humans are wired for story. We hunt for and respond to certain specific things in every story we hear, watch, or read—and they’re the exact same specific things, regardless of the genre.” Story Genius illuminates how the most successful stories engage the brain’s biological responses and sense-making instincts. With step-by-step instructions, Cron demonstrates that by connecting every element of the story to the protagonist’s internal struggle, writers can create a blueprint for an effective novel from start to finish.
