Writing Guides
"Superb writing advice... hilarious, helpful and provocative." -- "New York Times Book Review."
"A warm, generous and hilarious guide through the writer's world and its treacherous swamps." -- "Los Angeles Times."
"A gift to all of us mortals who write or ever wanted to write... sidesplittingly funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind -- a reveille to get off our duffs and start writing "now," while we still can." -- "Seattle Times."
In her New York Times bestseller Between You & Me, Mary Norris delighted readers with her irreverent tales of pencils and punctuation in The New Yorker's celebrated copy department. In Greek to Me, she delivers another wise and funny paean to the art of self-expression, this time filtered through her greatest passion: all things Greek.
Greek to Me is a charming account of Norris's lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, goes searching for the fabled Baths of Aphrodite, and reveals the surprising ways Greek helped form English. Filled with Norris's memorable encounters with Greek words, Greek gods, Greek wine--and more than a few Greek men--Greek to Me is the Comma Queen's fresh take on Greece and the exotic yet strangely familiar language that so deeply influences our own.
Organized into ten sections with each devoted to a poetic concept, The Practicing Poet begins with "Discovering New Material," "Finding the Best Words," "Making Music," "Working with Sentences and Line Breaks," "Crafting Surprise," and "Achieving Tone." The concepts become progressively more sophisticated, moving on to "Dealing with Feelings," "Transforming Your Poems," and "Rethinking and Revising." The final section, "Publishing Your Book," covers manuscript organization, book promotion, and presentation of a good public reading.
The book includes thirty brief craft essays, each followed by a model poem and analysis of the poem's craft, then a prompt based on the poem. Ten recyclable bonus prompts are also included. Ten Top Tips lists are each loaded with poetry wisdom from an accomplished poet
The Practicing Poet pushes poets beyond the basics and encourages the continued reading, learning, and writing of poetry. It is suitable as a textbook in the classroom, a guidebook in a workshop, or an at-home tutorial for the practicing poet working independently.
The craft essays, poems, and top tips lists include the work of 113 contemporary poets.
In So You Want to Publish a Book?, Anne Trubek, founder of Belt Publishing, demystifies the publishing process.
This insightful guide offers concrete, witty advice and information to authors, prospective authors, and those curious about the inner workings of the industry. Learn the differences between "Big Five" and independent presses, and how advances and royalties really work. Discover the surprising methods that actually move books off the shelves. Develop the lingo to make editors swoon, and challenge yourself to find the errors intentionally embedded in the text!
"Why do I write? consists of a number of letters exchanged by three novelists, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene and V.S. Pritchett. The revolutionary changes of the last thirty years or more have profoundly affected the lives of and the work of everyone and have, especially, called for an increasing contribution of life and spirit to the modern Caesars. The object of these letters is to discover what the artist, or more precisely the writer, ought to contribute; when he ought to refuse; what his relation to other people is. Has the writer special duties; ought he to have privileges; what is his social function; ought he to be bound to churches, parties, groups of any kind, and if so, how is he bound? Has society or the State any obligations to him? In a changing world these questions are continually debated, but it has seemed to the writers of this book that the discussion has inevitably drifted farther and father away from the individual instance into vague generalities, or the injunctions of propaganda. By the informal, personal, intimate approach of the personal letter, this book is an attempt to disentangle its subject from party views, to lift it out of the blueprint, to explore and not to lay down the law." (Quote from inside front jacket blurb)
London: Percival Marshall, 1948. Scarce first edition. Dust jacket in protective cover; top of spine has a 1.5" tear; rear cover soiled; edges worn; red and white striped design on paper boards; 1.5" tear at top edge near spine; binding tight; text clean. G/G-
