Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Nonfiction - by James B. Stewart, 1998
James B. Stewart proposes a more creative type of nonfiction that tells a compelling story, and his ideas have become the basics for many journalists today. Stewart’s ideas about nonfiction stem directly from his experience as a writer and editor of The Wall Street Journal’s lengthy page-1 feature stories, which explore subjects, as Stewart says, “in depth, with style, and often … with wit.” “Good writing,” Stewart says, “is rooted not in knowledge, but in curiosity.” Curiosity too, says Stewart, “is what make readers read the stories that result.” Using examples from his own writing (for the Journal, The New Yorker, and SmartMoney, and also from his books Blood Sport and Den of Thieves), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Stewart shows how to turn your curiosity into ideas, story proposals, and then the stories themselves. Each part of the writing process from cultivating sources, gathering information, writing the lead and the transition, structuring your piece, and then concluding it, is discussed with authority and demonstrated masterfully. Stewart also includes chapters on how to use (but not overuse) description, dialogue, anecdotes, humor, and pathos to strengthen your work.
Posted by beanybabe at 3:34 AM PST
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Poetic Rhythm: An Introduction - by Derek Attridge, 1996
Poetic Rhythm builds on the knowledge and experience of the rhythms of the spoken word, nursery rhymes, song and rap, moving from basic questions about the rhythms of spoken English to the elaborate achievements of past and present poets. Terminology is straightforward and there are frequent practical exercises. Poetic Rhythm will help readers of English poetry experience and enjoy its power, subtlety and diversity, and will serve as an invaluable tool for those who write or discuss poetry in English. Note: This is about English poetic rhythm (!). In our opinion it’s the best book on the market for this topic.
Posted by beanybabe at 10:52 PM PST
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Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku - by William J. Higginson, 1992
It seems that some of the better poetry handbooks were written about a decade or more ago, and this book is no exception. What makes this haiku book stand out above the rest is its representations of haiku poets who wrote in English, Spanish, French, German, and five other languages on an equal footing with Japanese poets. Not only are the four great Japanese masters of the haiku represented (Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki) but also several major Western authors not commonly known to have written haiku. In addition, you get a history of haiku, lesson plans for both elementary and secondary school use, and lists of haiku publishers and magazines (in several languages). The Handbook concludes with a full reference section of haiku-related terms, bibliography, and a comprehensive season-word list to aid in understanding and appreciating Japanese haiku.
Posted by beanybabe at 10:34 PM PST
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Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse - by Mary Oliver, 1998
“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.”
Mary Oliver has written more than ten volumes of poetry and prose and is one of America’s best-selling and most honored poets, a winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. A longtime resident of Provincetown, Massachusetts, she is now on the faculty of Bennington College in Vermont.
Posted by beanybabe at 10:19 PM PST
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In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet’s Portable Workshop - by Steve Kowit, 1995
Every poet - as well as any writer - has their own method of getting that bird in the hand, rather than beating around the bush. This is another one of Linda’s favorite books for chewing through miscellaneous crap to get to the essentials. Kowit employs more than 100 poems and excerpts to illustrate his discussions on everything from metaphor to meter to metaphysics. If you work your way through this book you’ll feel as though you’ve sat in on a terrific creative-writing seminar, minus the criticism (both constructive and destructive) of fellow students. If you go by the book, you’ll have written at least 69 poems by the last page.
Posted by beanybabe at 10:16 PM PST
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