Books on Craft
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A Poetry Handbook
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"Mary Oliver would probably never admit to anything so grandiose as an effort to connect the conscious mind and the heart (that's what she says poetry can do), but that is exactly what she accomplishes in this stunning little handbook."--Los Angeles Times From the beloved and acclaimed poet, an ultimate guide to writing and understanding poetry. With passion and wit, Mary Oliver skillfully imparts expertise from her long, celebrated career as a disguised poet. She walks readers through exactly how a poem is built, from meter and rhyme, to form and diction, to sound and sense, drawing on poems by Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others. This handbook is an invaluable glimpse into Oliver's prolific mind--a must-have for all poetry-lovers.
Call Number: PE1505 .O35 1994ISBN: 9780156724005Publication Date: 1994-08-15 -
On Poetry and Craft
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"One of the virtues of good poetry is the fact that it irritates the mediocre." Theodore Roethke was one of the most famous and outspoken poets and poetry teachers this country has ever known. In this volume of selected prose, Roethke articulates his commitments to imaginative possibilities, offers tender advice to young writers, and zings darts at stuffed shirts, lightweights and fools. "Art is our defense against hysteria and death." With the assistance of Roethke's widow, this volume has been edited to include the finest selections from out of print collections of prose and journal entries. Focused on the making and teaching of poetry,On Poetry and Craft will be prized in the classroom-and outrageous Roethke quotes will once again pepper our conversations. "You must believe a poem is a holy thing, a good poem, that is." Theodore Roethke was of an illustrious generation of poets which included Sexton, Plath, Lowell, Berryman, and like them he received nearly every major award in poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize and twice the National Book Award. In spite of his fame, he remained a legendary teacher, known for the care and attention he gave to his students, poets such as James Wright, Carolyn Kizer, Tess Gallagher, and Richard Hugo. Roethke died on August 1, 1963, while swimming in a friend's pool. "But before I'm reduced to an absolute pulp by my own ambivalence, I must say goodbye. The old lion perisheth. Nymphs, I wish you the swoops of many fish. May your search for the abiding be forever furious." On Poetry and Craft I am overwhelmed by the beautiful disorder of poetry, the eternal virginity of words. The poem, even a short time after being written, seems no miracle; unwritten, it seems something beyond the capacity of the gods. We can't escape what we are, and I'm afraid many of my notions about verse (I haven't too many) have been conditioned by the fact that for nearly 25 years I've been trying to teach the young something about the nature of verse by writing it--and that with very little formal knowledge of the subject or previous instruction. So it's going to be lik
Call Number: PS3535 .O39 A6 2001ISBN: 9781619320925Publication Date: 2013-07-01 -
The Triggering Town by "Richard Hugo's free-swinging, go-for-it remarks on poetry and the teaching of poetry are exactly what are needed in classrooms and in the world."-James Dickey
Call Number: PN1042 .H8ISBN: 0393088391Publication Date: 1979-03-01 -
Letters to a Letters to a Young Poet
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These have been called the most famous and beloved letters of the past century. Rainer Maria Rilke himself said that much of his creative expression went into his correspondence, and here he touches upon a wide range of subjects that will interest writers, artists,and thinkers. This luminous translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's classic offers brilliant inspiration to all people who seek to know and express their inner truth. Letters to a Young Poet is a classic that should be required reading for anyone who dreams of expressing themselves creatively.
Call Number: PT2635 .I65 Z488 2000 EBISBN: 1577313267Publication Date: 2010-10-04 -
The Book of Forms
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Since 1968 Lewis Turco's Book of Forms has been a staple in the libraries of writers, teachers, poets, and others who care about the craft of poetry. The 160-page first edition was followed in 1986 by the 292-page New Book of Forms, reprinted six times and one of UPNE's Top Ten Best Sellers. Now Turco has expanded and updated his classic once again, adding many new forms, including the ghazal, rubliw, double dactyl, various Japanese forms other than the haiku and tanka, Clerihew, amphigory, backwoods boast, and quaternion. Twenty percent larger than before, it now includes six in-depth prosodic essays and an entirely new discussion of the rules of scansion, never before formulated in such a simple system and not available in any other handbook. The Elements of Poetry section has been reorganized in three genres: Dramatic Poetry, Lyric Poetry, and Narrative Poetry. Many new poems from all of English and American literature have been added or substituted in order to provide clear examples of all terms and forms to be found in the book. In short, no handbook ever published in the English language is as complete and helpful as the third edition of The Book of Forms.
Call Number: PN1042 .T78 2000ISBN: 1584650222Publication Date: 2000-01-01
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The Making of a Story
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The Making of a Story is a fresh and inspiring guide to the basics of creative writing--both fiction and creative nonfiction. Its hands-on, completely accessible approach walks writers through each stage of the creative process, from the initial triggering idea to the revision of the final manuscript. It is unique in combing the three main aspects of creative writing instruction: process (finding inspiration, getting ideas on the page), craft (specific techniques like characterization), and anthology (learning by reading masters of the form). Succinct, clear definitions of basic terms of fiction are accompanied by examples, including excerpts from masterpieces of short fiction and essays as well as contemporary novels. A special highlight is Alice LaPlante's systematic debunking of many of the so-called rules of creative writing. This book is perfect for writers working alone as well as for creative writing classes, both introductory and advanced.
Call Number: PE1408 .L31887 2007ISBN: 9780393061642Publication Date: 2007-08-17 -
Steering the Craft
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Ursula K. Le Guin generously shares the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime's work.
Call Number: PN212.L44 1998ISBN: 9780933377462Publication Date: 1998-04-01 -
The Writing Life
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The bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An American Childhood and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek provides a delightful and informative look into her experiences and struggles with her craft.
Call Number: PS3554.I398 Z478 1989ISBN: 9780060161569Publication Date: 1989-09-01 -
Writers on Writing
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Today's most celebrated writers explore literature and the literary life in an inspirational collection of original essays. By turns poignant, practical, and hilarious, Writers on Writing brings together more than forty of contemporary literature's finest voices. Drawn from the distinguished New York Times column of the same name, it features essays by an extraordinary group of prizewinning and bestselling contributors. The pieces range from reflections on the daily craft of writing to the intersection of art's and life's consequential moments. Authors discuss what impels them to write: creating a sense of control in a turbulent universe; bearing witness to events that would otherwise be lost in history or within the writer's soul; recapturing a fragment of time. Others praise mentors and lessons, whether from the classroom, daily circumstances, or the pages of a favorite writer. For anyone interested in the art and rewards of writing, Writers on Writing offers an uncommon and revealing view of a writer's world. Contributors include Russell Banks, Saul Bellow, E. L. Doctorow, Louise Erdrich, Richard Ford, Carl Hiaasen, Jamaica Kincaid, Barbara Kingsolver, Sue Miller, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Marge Piercy, Annie Proulx, Carol Shields, Jane Smiley, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and Elie Wiesel.
Call Number: PN137 .W734 2001ISBN: 0805067418Publication Date: 2001-05-01 -
The Elements of Style Illustrated
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"So friendly, so classic, so delightful . . . Kalman has taken 'the little book' and made it even more elegant and uplifting." --Los Angeles Times The only style manual to ever appear on a bestseller list now refreshed by one of our most beloved illustrators Every English writer knows Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. The book's mantra, make every word tell, is still on point. This much-loved classic, now in its fourth edition, will forever be the go-to guide when in need of a hint to make a turn of phrase clearer or a reminder on how to enliven prose with the active voice. The only style manual to ever appear on bestseller lists has explained to millions of readers the basic principals of plain English, and Maira Kalman's fifty-seven exquisite illustrations give the revered work a jolt of new energy, making the learning experience more colorful and clear.
Call Number: PE1408 .S772 2005ISBN: 9780143112723Publication Date: 2007-08-28
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On Writing Well
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On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you both fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished practitioner. How to Write a Memoir tells you how to write the story of your life. Everyone has a story - whether you're a professional writer or just want to validate your personal and family reminiscences, William Zinsser explains how to do it, and do it well.
Call Number: PE1429 .Z5 1994ISBN: 9780062715876Publication Date: 1994-06-01 -
Forever Fat
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Dubbed--some would say drubbed--the "godfather behind creative nonfiction" by "Vanity Fair," Lee Gutkind takes the opportunity of these essays, and the rich material of his own life, to define, defend, and further expand the genre he has done so much to shape. The result is an explosive and hilarious memoir of Gutkind's colorful life as a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, an over-aged insecure father, and a literary whipping boy. In "Forever Fat" Gutkind battles his weight, his ex-wives, his father, his rabbi, his psychiatrist, and his critics in a lifelong cross-country, cross-cultural search for stability and identity. And from Gutkind's battles, the reader emerges a winner, treated to a sometimes poignant, sometimes harrowing, sometimes uproarious, and always engrossing story of the simultaneous awakening of a man and his mission, and of the constant struggle, in literature and in life, to sort out memory and imagination. Here, enacted in technicolor terms, is the universal, symbolic truth that no matter how far you travel, over how many years, you will never completely shed the weighty baggage of adolescence. Yet, as Gutkind proves again and again, he has learned to describe his burden with an ever-lightening brilliance.
Call Number: PS3557 .U88 Z464 2003 EBISBN: 9780585471280Publication Date: 2003-01-01 -
Writing Creative Nonfiction
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Drawing upon published examples, Cheney offers a wealth of inspiration and advice to both aspiring and experienced writers. You'll find instruction on how to write gripping opening sentences, use dialogue to bring your characters to life, and incorporate research to add depth and breadth to your work. Other chapters cover structure, point of view, and ethical considerations of using diction, irony, and humor while staying within the bounds of journalistic professionalism.
Call Number: PN3377.5 .R45 C46 2001 EBISBN: 9781580085946Publication Date: 2001-01-01 -
The Situation and the Story
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A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author of Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth. How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the truth-speaker who will tell the story a personal narrative needs to tell? That is the question The Situation and the Story asks--and answers. Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras. This book, which grew out of fifteen years teaching in MFA programs, is itself a model of the lucid inteligence that has made Gornick one of our most admired writers of ninfiction. In it, she teaches us to write by teaching us how to read: how to recognize truth when we hear it in the writing of others and in our own.
Call Number: PR756 .A9 G67 2002ISBN: 0374528586Publication Date: 2002-10-11 -
The Next American Essay
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InThe Next American Essay, John D'Agata takes a literary tour of lyric essays written by the masters of the craft. Beginning with 1975 and John McPhee's ingenious piece, "The Search for Marvin Gardens," D'Agata selects an example of creative nonfiction for each subsequent year. These essays are unrestrained, elusive, explosive, mysterious--a personal lingual playground. They encompass and illuminate culture, myth, history, romance, and sex. Each essay is a world of its own, a world so distinctive it resists definition. Contributors include: Sherman Alexie David Antin Jenny Boully Anne Carson Guy Davenport Lydia Davis Joan Didion Annie Dillard Thalia Field Albert Goldbarth Susan Griffin Theresa Hak Kung Cha Jamaica Kincaid Wayne Koestenbaum Barry Lopez John McPhee Carole Maso Harry Mathews Susan Mitchell Fabio Morabito Mary Ruefle David Shields Dennis Silk Susan Sontag Alexander Theroux George W. S. Trow David Foster Wallace Eliot Weinberger Joe Wenderoth James Wright
Call Number: PS688 .N49 2003ISBN: 1555973752Publication Date: 2003-02-01 -
The Paticipatory Journalism of Michael Herr, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion
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A study that analyzes the rhetoric of selected texts by the New Journalists in order to highlight their use of self-consciously persuasive styles not only to report on but to critique contemporary political scene. It also analyzes Herr's Dispatches, Mailer's The Armies of the Night, and Didion's Salvador and Miami.
Call Number: PS366 .R44 .M86 2012ISBN: 9780773425996Publication Date: 2012-07-15
Resources
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
CLMP: Literary Press and Magazine Directory
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry
Creative Writers Opportunities List [CRWROPPS]
Duotrope
Literary Magazines and Journals Database| Poets & Writers
List of Small Presses from Publishers & Writers
Small Press Distribution
VIDA Count
Writer Beware
