Best Books for Writers

“When I write a book I surrender not to the liberal travels of my restless thoughts but to the design of the work itself,” writes Natalie Goldberg in the follow-up to her books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind. Goldberg leads writers through the steps of the creative process that come after inspiration—directing energy and focus to transform raw material into completed work for publication—and provides helpful anecdotes and insights about editing, advice about essential craft elements, and reminds us to celebrate the act of writing. “Writing a book is my one chance to experience freedom, to cut loose by succumbing to the discipline of form.”

This practical textbook provides an inspiring jumpstart to delving into the craft of writing poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama, with sections on each of the four genres including discussions and analyses of key literary elements, inventive writing exercises, and short anthologies of exemplary contemporary work, ranging from traditional to experimental. The revised edition also includes a section on hybrid writing, as well as updated advice on how to get published. 

This collection of essays about writing and navigating the literary world by writers of color—including Sherrie Fernandez Williams, Marline Gonzalez, Ching-In Chen, Sagirah Shahid, Wesley Brown, and Hei Kyong Kim—offers wisdom, insight, support, and advice on how to carve out a more expansive space for diverse voices. The essays are paired with inspiring and generative writing exercises, and the book is divided into sections focusing on themes such as literary gatekeeping, the tyranny of grammar, identities, personal narratives, rejection, and healing. 

“The book has been almost entirely written and assembled by a man in his late seventies. If that man, me, can be trusted to assess his powers, then he goes on record here saying, ‘In some ways, I’m a wiser, more knowledgeable, and even abler writer than I was ten, twenty, or fifty years ago.’” Part of the Writers on Writing series from the University of Michigan Press, Richard Stern’s culminating nonfiction collection of “orderly miscellany” includes essays, reviews, criticism, and reflections on literature, writers and writing, and twentieth-century culture. Inspiration will be found in the expansiveness of Stern’s keen observations which demonstrate how the power of seeing with a writer’s eye can provide startling perspectives on life and art. 

This comprehensive creative writing guide serves as a practical workbook, introducing the broad concerns of creative process and providing a thorough review of elements specific to poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The chapters are full of helpful insights, methods, tips, and exercises on topics such as character, setting, point of view, structure, voice, imagery, and theme. The second part is an anthology of the exemplary writing referenced in the workbook by authors including Raymond Carver, Joan Didion, Patricia Highsmith, Richard Hugo, Jamaica Kincaid, Katherine Mansfield, Hilary Mantel, Flannery O’Connor, and Wole Soyinka. 

“Try to improve your writing one piece at a time—work on your characterization, for instance, or dialogue, or plotting, until you have made some progress; then turn to another aspect and work on that.” This is the third edition of this comprehensive and popular guidebook by Damon Knight, acclaimed science fiction author, editor, critic, and founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In a clear and straightforward style and format, the book covers the essential elements of a writer’s life and work, including how to get ideas, when to begin a story, and advice on work habits. 

“I hope this book will bring you not only answers, but also new questions about your relationship with art,” writes art critic Jerry Saltz in this handbook filled with full-color artwork, prompts, exercises, and advice for being an artist working in any medium. From ideas to consider before even getting started, to tackling issues such as first steps, imagination and storytelling, self-doubt, creative process, and work habits, Saltz provides writers with a new way of seeing their work. “The process of making art is fluid and mercurial. It involves epiphanies large and small, turn-ons and turn-offs, symbols and structures in a constant state of change.” 

“One benefit of understanding the science of storytelling is that it illuminates the ‘whys’ behind the ‘rules’ we’re commonly given. Such knowledge should be empowering. Knowing why the rules are the rules means we know how to break them intelligently and successfully.” In The Science of Storytelling, each chapter focuses on a different element of storytelling, from creating an imagined world to the protagonist’s complexities and emotional conflicts, to larger questions of meaning, plot, and conclusions. Journalist and novelist Will Storr incorporates psychology and neuroscience research and uses examples from different types of literature—from Harry Potter to Alice Walker to King Lear—to provide writers with a new perspective of the mechanics of storytelling. 

“The cultural, or form-giving, work of poetry is to counter the oblivion of darkness,” writes Susan Stewart in Poetry and the Fate of the Senses, which examines how poetry, from ancient and classical traditions to contemporary postmodernism, has been a medium for expressing and sharing sensory experiences. Stewart analyzes the work of writers—including Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Carson, Samuel Coleridge, Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, Hesiod, Ovid, and Derek Walcott—and draws in a number of philosophers to argue for the power of a form that illuminates and makes palpable the contours of other lives and transforms the distances between individuals. 

The third edition of Tell It Slant is an updated comprehensive guide to the craft of creative nonfiction for writers seeking to expand perspective, find and refine a distinctive voice, and construct compelling narratives. Chapters focus on topics such as inspiration, identity, writing the body, innovative and hybrid forms, and community. Included are personal anecdotes, professional tips, a series of related prompts, and an anthology of twelve diverse and acclaimed examples of the genre to emphasize the importance of reading as a writer. 

“To be a good writer you must do two very different things—write like a writer and think like one.” This handbook is a guide through over eighty writing exercises that provide insights on craft and process from Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter, who have more than twenty-five years of experience teaching creative writing between them. The exercises cover elements of storytelling—beginnings, characterization, point of view, dialogue, plot, and revision—with each entry including a straightforward description of the exercise, the objective, and student examples that will inspire both beginning and experienced writers. 

Madison Smartt Bell provides thorough and insightful analyses of twelve short stories—by former students and established writers including Percival Everett, Ernest J. Gaines, Mary Gaitskill, and William T. Vollmann—to demonstrate and model different techniques for crafting narrative to create powerful storytelling. For each story, Bell dissects basic elements such as plot, character, tone, point of view, and dialogue, and then offers endnotes on language, subject matter, and style for a complete take that will help writers develop their own voice.