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books tagged “writing life”
books tagged “writing life”
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Becoming a Writerby Dorothea Thompson BrandeISBN 0874771641 (0-87477-164-1)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Becoming a Writer'Book summary:Even in 1934, Dorothea Brande knew that most writers didn't need another book on "technique" -- and this, before so many more would be published. No, she realized, as John Gardner notes in his foreword, "the root problems of the writer are personality problems," and thus her wise book is designed to simply help you get over yourself and start writing, with techniques ranging from a simple declaration to write every day at a fixed time -- no matter what -- to exercises that come close to inventing the TM and self-actualization movements that would follow a few decades later. [via]
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Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of the Writer's Lifeby Bret LottISBN 0345478177 (0-345-47817-7)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Lifeby Anne LamottISBN 0385480016 (0-385-48001-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life'Book summary:Think you've got a book inside of you? Anne Lamott isn't afraid to help you let it out. She'll help you find your passion and your voice, beginning from the first really crummy draft to the peculiar letdown of publication. Readers will be reminded of the energizing books of writer Natalie Goldberg and will be seduced by Lamott's witty take on the reality of a writer's life, which has little to do with literary parties and a lot to do with jealousy, writer's block and going for broke with each paragraph. Marvelously wise and best of all, great reading. [via]
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Career Opportunities In Writingby Allan Taylor, James Robert Parish, Brad SchreiberISBN 0816059896 (0-8160-5989-6)
Softcover, Facts on File
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The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fearby Ralph KeyesISBN 0805074678 (0-8050-7467-8)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear'Book summary:Katherine Anne Porter called courage the first essential for a writer. E.B. White said that he admired anyone who has the guts to write anything at all. In The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes assures us that anxiety is felt by writers at every level, especially when they dare to do their best. He describes the sequence of courage points through which all writers must pass, from the challenge of identifying a worthwhile project to the mixture of pride and panic they feel when examining a newly published book or article. Keyes also offers specifics on how to root out dread of public performance and of the judgment of family and friends, make the best use of writers workshops and conferences, and handle criticism of works in progress. Throughout, he includes the comments of many accomplished writers on how they transcended their own fears to produce great works. This invaluable book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to learn how to write well.[via]More editions of The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear:
- The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear: ISBN 0805031898 (0-8050-3189-8)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co - The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear: ISBN 080503188X (0-8050-3188-X)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co - The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear: ISBN 0805074678 (0-8050-7467-8)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
- The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear: ISBN 0805031898 (0-8050-3189-8)
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Deep Writing: 7 Priniciples That Bring Ideas to Lifeby Eric MaiselISBN 0874779472 (0-87477-947-2)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Deep Writing: 7 Priniciples That Bring Ideas to Life'Book summary:A nationally recognized psychotherapist and creativity consultant shows writers how to overcome psychological blocks in order to create with passion, power, and ease. [via]
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Finding What You Didn't Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Makingby John FoxISBN 0874778093 (0-87477-809-3)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Finding What You Didn't Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making'Book summary:Poetry discovers and speaks a truth ordinary language cannot express. And the passionate message in Finding What You Didn't Lose is that we're all poets--capable of giving voice to such truth.[via]
Poet-teacher John Fox reveals how imagery, sound, metaphor, rhythm, and other poetic elements can he us tell our inner story, heal psychological wounds, discover spiritual connection, and develop the rich creative imagination that lies within us all.
Transcending the traditional academic approach to poetry writing, Finding What You Didn't Lose deals with craft but, more importantly, guides readers to explore their deepest feelings and express their own unique insights through the incomparable language of poetry.
Through an intermingling of inventive exercises and illustrative poems--ranging from Nobel Prize winners to first-time poets--readers are inspired to add their own distinct voice to a world fellowship of poets. For those who already write poetry, and the many more who want to, this book is the key to finding what you never lose: your natural inclination to express who you are through the making of poems.More editions of Finding What You Didn't Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making:
Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice From a Publisherd Author to the Writerly Aspirantby John WarnerISBN 1582973482 (1-58297-348-2)
Hardcover, F & W Pubns Inc
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The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writersby Betsy LernerISBN 1573228575 (1-57322-857-5)
Softcover, Riverhead Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers'Book summary:One feels for Betsy Lerner's writers. Oh, sure, Lerner must be a fabulous agent. But too bad for them: In gaining her as an agent, they lost her as an editor. How rare and wonderful it must have been to have such an advocate, advisor, and, yes, admirer so firmly ensconced in publisher territory (at various times, Houghton Mifflin, Ballantine, Simon & Schuster, and Doubleday). In The Forest for the Trees, Lerner reflects on writing and publishing from an editor's point of view. There are so many books by writers and agents promising to disclose what editors really want; here, finally, is one straight from the source. Like all experienced editors, Lerner has seen writers at their best, and at their worst. "Like shrinks," she says, editors "have a privileged and exclusive view into a writer's psyche, from the ecstasy of acquisition to the agony of the remainder table."
To writers, particularly unpublished ones, editors can seem imposing figures determined to thwart their success. They won't take calls, they don't offer feedback--sometimes they don't respond to queries at all. Guess what: Editors don't lug home hundreds of pounds of manuscripts to read each year because they aren't looking for good writing. "An editor gets off," says Lerner, "on the thrill of discovering a new writer." Editors crave "succinct, well-written cover letters," inspiration that comes from within (as opposed to from the bestseller list), and "catchy, clearly targeted title[s]." They detest unsolicited phone calls, "query letters that sound as if they were penned by Crazy Eddie," and writers who offer to "write it however I want it" (it's "like saying I'll be straight or gay; you tell me, I have no preference"). Lerner is aware of how excruciating it is for a writer to wait for feedback on his or her work. But she also lets writers in on a little secret of her own. "I'm always anxious about the author's response," she confides. "Will he or she take to my editing?" --Jane Steinberg [via]
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Holy Places & Temples of Indiaby John HowleyISBN 0965385809 (0-9653858-0-9)
Softcover, Ten Speed Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Holy Places & Temples of India'Book summary:India has a vast array of cultures, religions and interests. But many people miss the real meaning and value of India-the spiritual side. This is not due to a lack of interest, but because it is difficult to find an easily understandable book on this subject. This book is different. It goes deeper into the heart of India-its spiritual side. What yogis and ascetics have been realizing for centuries. [via]
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If You Want to Writeby Brenda UelandISBN 0915308940 (0-915308-94-0)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'If You Want to Write'Book summary:This book so speaks to the contemporary writer that it is nearly impossible to believe that it was originally published in 1938. In If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland sets forth not just a philosophy about how to write or how to create, but also about how to live. Beginning writers will certainly be encouraged by Ueland's words, but even the most experienced have much to glean from Ueland's simple wisdom. "Everybody," writes Ueland in the opening chapter, "is talented, original, and has something important to say." Finding that something important involves embracing creative idleness ("the imagination needs moodling--long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering"), freeing "what we really think, from what we think we ought to think," and "thumb[ing] your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters." One must think, she says, "of telling a story, not of writing it." And when revising one's writing, she advises, "do not try to think of better words, more gripping words.... It is not yet deeply enough imagined." Finally, "whenever you find yourself writing a single word or phrase or page dutifully and with boredom, then leave it out.... If what you write bores you, it will bore other people." And just because If You Want to Write is passionate, sincere, and even spiritual, do not think it is not also witty. One footnote bluntly declaims, "No doubt my terms would horrify a psychologist but I do not care at all." Elsewhere Ueland titles a chapter "Why Women Who Do Too Much Housework Should Neglect It for Their Writing." Amen, sister! [via]
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If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spiritby Brenda UelandISBN 1555972608 (1-55597-260-8)
Softcover, Graywolf Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit'Book summary:This book so speaks to the contemporary writer that it is nearly impossible to believe that it was originally published in 1938. In If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland sets forth not just a philosophy about how to write or how to create, but also about how to live. Beginning writers will certainly be encouraged by Ueland's words, but even the most experienced have much to glean from Ueland's simple wisdom. "Everybody," writes Ueland in the opening chapter, "is talented, original, and has something important to say." Finding that something important involves embracing creative idleness ("the imagination needs moodling--long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering"), freeing "what we really think, from what we think we ought to think," and "thumb[ing] your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters." One must think, she says, "of telling a story, not of writing it." And when revising one's writing, she advises, "do not try to think of better words, more gripping words.... It is not yet deeply enough imagined." Finally, "whenever you find yourself writing a single word or phrase or page dutifully and with boredom, then leave it out.... If what you write bores you, it will bore other people." And just because If You Want to Write is passionate, sincere, and even spiritual, do not think it is not also witty. One footnote bluntly declaims, "No doubt my terms would horrify a psychologist but I do not care at all." Elsewhere Ueland titles a chapter "Why Women Who Do Too Much Housework Should Neglect It for Their Writing." Amen, sister! [via]
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Into Print: A Guide to the Writers LifeISBN 0913734489 (0-913734-48-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This BookBook summary:This valuable reference is the product of twenty-five years of editorial and publishing wisdom.
Culled from the pages of Poets & Writers magazine, the articles here cover practical topics of interest to both emerging and published writers, including: manuscript preparation; negotiating your own contracts and royalties; health-care options; where to find writers colonies and how to apply; how to publicize your own book; and what you should know about libel, permissions, and trademarks. Since 1970 Poets & Writers has been the central source of practical information for the literary community in the United States. [via]More editions of Into Print: A Guide to the Writers Life:
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Letters to a Young Poetby Rainer Maria Rilke, Joan M. Burnham, Franz Xaver Kappus, Kent NerburnISBN 1577311558 (1-57731-155-8)
Hardcover, New World Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters to a Young Poet'Book summary:It would take a deeply cynical heart not to fall in love with Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. At the end of this millennium, his slender book holds everything a student of the century could want: the unedited thoughts of (arguably) the most important European poet of the modern age. Rilke wrote these 10 sweepingly emotional letters in 1903, addressing a former student of one of his own teachers. The recipient was wise enough to omit his own inquiries from the finished product, which means that we get a marvelously undiluted dose of Rilkean aesthetics and exhortation.
The poet prefaced each letter with an evocative notation of the city in which he wrote, including Paris, Rome, and the outskirts of Pisa. Yet he spends most of the time encouraging the student in his own work, delivering a sublime, one-on-one equivalent of the modern writing workshop:
Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what recompense might come from outside.
Every page is stamped with Rilke's characteristic grace, and the book is free of the breathless effect that occasionally mars his poetry. His ideas on gender and the role of the artist are also surprisingly prescient. And even his retrograde comment on the "beauty of the virgin" (which the poet derives from the fact that she "has not yet achieved anything") is counterbalanced by his perception that "the sexes are more related than we think." Those looking for an alluring image of the solitary artist--and for an astonishing quotient of wisdom--will find both in Letters to a Young Poet. --Jennifer Buckendorff [via]More editions of Letters to a Young Poet:
- Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 0393310396 (0-393-31039-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 0394741048 (0-394-74104-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc - Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 0486422453 (0-486-42245-3)
Softcover, Dover Pubns - Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 0877739463 (0-87773-946-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc - Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 0931432944 (0-931432-94-4)
Hardcover, Pub Group West - Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 1577311558 (1-57731-155-8)
Hardcover, New World Library
- Letters to a Young Poet: ISBN 0393310396 (0-393-31039-6)
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Letters to a Young Poetby Stephen Mitchell, Rainer Maria RilkeISBN 0679642323 (0-679-64232-3)
Hardcover, Modern Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters to a Young Poet'Book summary:Letters written over a period of several years on the vocation of writing by a poet whose greatest work was still to come.
From the Paperback edition. [via]More editions of Letters to a Young Poet:
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Letters to a Young Poet/the Possibility of Beingby Rainer Maria RilkeISBN 1567315208 (1-56731-520-8)
Hardcover, Fine Communications
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters to a Young Poet/the Possibility of Being'Book summary:Letters To A Young Poet... The Possibility of Being. By Rainer Maria Rilke. Two complete works. [via]
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A Likely Story: The Writing Lifeby Robert KroetschISBN 0889951039 (0-88995-103-9)
Softcover, Red Deer Pr
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Living the Writer's Lifeby Eric MaiselISBN 0823088480 (0-8230-8848-0)
Softcover, Watson-Guptill Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Living the Writer's Life'Book summary:Repeated rejection. Writer's block. Isolation. Alcoholism. Day jobs. Criticism. Low self-esteem. Narcissism. Addictions. Writing poorly. Poverty. Arrogance. Depression. A writer's life tends to invite all of the above, and more. In Living the Writer's Life, therapist and writer Eric Maisel, who specializes in counseling writers, sets out to "help you handle the many obstacles and challenges that come with the writing life." Books about writing commonly broach these types of issues as inevitabilities that writers must learn to deal with. Maisel's book shows you how. Through the use of role playing, personal anecdotes (one contributor writes about the value of earning an M.F.A. later in life), multiple-choice questions, quizzes, topical comments from renowned writers, and other models, Maisel encourages his readers to avoid the pitfalls of the writer's life. This is a serious workbook that can be used by writers (and other creative types, with little adjustments here and there) individually, in pairs, or in groups. --Jane Steinberg [via]
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Living With a Writerby Dale Salwak, Paul Theroux, Nadine Gordimer, Malcolm Bradbury, Margaret Drabble, John Updike, John Bayley, Ann ThwaiteISBN 1403904766 (1-4039-0476-6)
Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Lifeby Madeleine L'Engle, Carole F. ChaseISBN 087788157X (0-87788-157-X)
Hardcover, WaterBrook Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life'Book summary:For Madeleine L'Engle, writing is as connected to her Christian faith as breathing is to air. Madeleine L'Engle {Herself} comprises hundreds of L'Engle's reflections on writing, most shorter than a page and many illustrating her equal devotions to writing and prayer. L'Engle believes in collaborating with the subconscious mind. She believes that what you need for a work will come to you. She believes not in writing for children, but in retaining a childlike mind. And she believes it is her job to serve her work (though she claims frequently that she has "never served a work as it ought to be served"). She listens to the book she is writing, L'Engle says, just as she tries to listen in prayer. "If the book tells me to do something completely unexpected, I heed it; the book is usually right." But don't think this means that the work will write itself, and don't wait around to be inspired. "Inspiration comes during work," says the author, "not before it." --Jane Steinberg [via]
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A Manual of Writer's Tricksby David L. CarrollISBN 1569246076 (1-56924-607-6)
Softcover, Marlowe & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Manual of Writer's Tricks'Book summary:The bane of the bookstore appearance, for many touring authors, is the post-reading Q&A. "What time of day do you write?" is a typical question. "Do you use a computer, or pencil and paper?" If only the audience members could figure out whether morning or afternoon is best, laptop or No. 2 lead, then they, too, could write a great American novel. If only they knew the tricks that published authors know.
So it's understandable that David L. Carroll called his book A Manual of Writer's Tricks. There are tricks here--what to do when you're stuck, how to write about dry subjects, how to find authentic period words, how to improve your opening (try cutting your first page altogether, Carroll advises, as it's often the victim of "stage fright"). Carroll's quotations by other writers spruce up his text smartly. There is probably plenty of information in this book that would be of use to the beginning writer. But it is all so haphazardly and superficially presented that one could hardly deem it, as the book's subtitle purports, "essential advice." And some of the recommendations, such as avoiding "frequent repetition of a character's name by varying names and descriptions," seem outright wrong. Even more, one wishes Carroll had taken his own advice and trimmed some of the excess verbiage off this already slim volume. It's hard to trust a writer who hasn't made sure that he himself has homed in on (not, horrors, as he writes here, "honed in on") all the right words. Jane Steinberg [via]
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The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craftby Kim StaffordISBN 0820324965 (0-8203-2496-5)
Softcover, Univ of Georgia Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft'Book summary:The Muses Among Us is an inviting, encouraging book for writers at any stage of their development. In a series of first-person letters, essays, manifestos, and notes to the reader, Kim Stafford shows what might happen at the creative boundary he calls "what we almost know." On the boundary's far side is our story, our poem, our song. On this side are the resonant hunches, griefs, secrets, and confusions from which our writing will emerge. Guiding us from such glimmerings through to a finished piece are a wealth of experiments, assignments, and tricks of the trade that Stafford has perfected over thirty years of classes, workshops, and other gatherings of writers.[via]Informing The Muses Among Us are Stafford's own convictions about writing--principles to which he returns again and again. We must, Stafford says, honor the fragments, utterances, and half-discovered truths voiced around us, for their speakers are the prophets to whom writers are scribes. Such filaments of wisdom, either by themselves or alloyed with others, give rise to our poems, stories, and essays. In addition, as Stafford writes, "all pleasure in writing begins with a sense of abundance--rich knowledge and boundless curiosity." By recommending ways for students to seek beyond the self for material, Stafford demystifies the process of writing and claims for it a Whitmanesque quality of participation and community.
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Nonconformity: Writing on Writingby Nelson AlgrenISBN 1888363622 (1-888363-62-2)
Softcover, Seven Stories Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nonconformity: Writing on Writing'Book summary:The struggle to write with deep emotion is the subject of this extraordinary book, the previously unpublished credo of one of America's greatest 20th-century writers.
"You don't write a novel out of sheer pity any more than you blow a safe out of a vague longing to be rich," writes Nelson Algren in his only longer work of nonfiction, adding: "A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery."
Nonconformity is about 20th-century America: "Never on the earth of man has he lived so tidily as here amidst such psychological disorder." And it is about the trouble writers ask for when they try to describe America: "Our myths are so many, our vision so dim, our self-deception so deep and our smugness so gross that scarcely any way now remains of reporting the American Century except from behind the billboards . . . [where there] are still . . . defeats in which everything is lost [and] victories that fall close enough to the heart to afford living hope."
In Nonconformity, Algren identifies the essential nature of the writer's relation to society, drawing examples from Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Twain, and Fitzgerald, as well as utility infielder Leo Durocher and legendary barkeep Martin Dooley. He shares his deepest beliefs about the state of literature and its role in society, along the way painting a chilling portrait of the early 1950s, Joe McCarthy's heyday, when many American writers were blacklisted and ruined for saying similar things to what Algren is saying here. [via]More editions of Nonconformity: Writing on Writing:
Oblivion: On Writers & Writingby Donald JusticeISBN 188526660X (1-885266-60-X)
Softcover, Story Line Pr
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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craftby Stephen KingISBN 1416549862 (1-4165-4986-2)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'On Writing'Book summary:Short and snappy as it is, Stephen King's On Writing really contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and a tough-love lesson for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrific stuff, a vivid description of how a writer grew out of a misbehaving kid. You're right there with the young author as he's tormented by poison ivy, gas-passing babysitters, uptight schoolmarms, and a laundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's a ripping yarn that casts a sharp light on his fiction. This was a child who dug Yvette Vickers from Attack of the Giant Leeches, not Sandra Dee. "I wanted monsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out of the ocean and ate surfers, and girls in black bras who looked like trailer trash." But massive reading on all literary levels was a craving just as crucial, and soon King was the published author of "I Was a Teen-Age Graverobber." As a young adult raising a family in a trailer, King started a story inspired by his stint as a janitor cleaning a high-school girls locker room. He crumpled it up, but his writer wife retrieved it from the trash, and using her advice about the girl milieu and his own memories of two reviled teenage classmates who died young, he came up with Carrie. King gives us lots of revelations about his life and work. The kidnapper character in Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in The Tommyknockers, and the haunting of the blocked writer in The Shining symbolized his cocaine and booze addiction (overcome thanks to his wife's intervention, which he describes). "There's one novel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing."
King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crash that nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all means to the craft. He gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph, and literary models. He shows what you can learn from H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Hart's War is a great story marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be the antidote.
King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo [via]
More editions of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft:
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: ISBN 0671024256 (0-671-02425-6)
Softcover, Pocket Books - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: ISBN 0743455967 (0-7434-5596-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: ISBN 0684853523 (0-684-85352-3)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: ISBN 0743204360 (0-7432-0436-0)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - On Writing: ISBN 1416549862 (1-4165-4986-2)
Softcover, Pocket Books
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: ISBN 0671024256 (0-671-02425-6)
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The Power of Personal Storytelling: Spinning Tales to Connect With Othersby Jack MaguireISBN 0874779308 (0-87477-930-8)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Power of Personal Storytelling: Spinning Tales to Connect With Others'Book summary:You're stuck in an endless, dull conversation. As the speaker drones on, your mind wanders, until you hear the words, "I remember once when I was.." Your ears perk up. You become engrossed. An anecdote unfolds, and suddenly, the speaker is alive and excited and you know just what he means. He has used the age-old technique of storytelling to powerfully get his point across, capturing your attention through a well-told narrative of personal experience that invited you to relate to his message on an intimate level. In The Power of Personal Storytelling, professional storyteller Jack Maguire explains how to mine your memories to communicate more effectively, enhance personal and professional relationships, and understand yourself better so that you can better understand others. Step by step, he illustrates how shaping and expressing true stories about our lives and those of the people we've known can: * connect us more vitally with others; * develop our creativity; * strengthen our humor, courage, and confidence; and * render our lives more memorable. Whether you're a teacher or a salesman, a minister or a parent, personal storytelling can help improve the key relationships in your life while investing your memories with more meaning.[via]More editions of The Power of Personal Storytelling: Spinning Tales to Connect With Others:
The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Lifeby Julia CameronISBN 1585420093 (1-58542-009-3)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life'Book summary:Writing, for Julia Cameron, is neither solely vocation nor avocation: it is a way of life. It comes first thing in the morning, while the horses are waiting to be fed; it happens at the kitchen counter, while the onions are sautéing; it takes place on "dates" at café tables shared with likeminded friends; it unfurls in the mind as the '65 pickup "bucks over the rutted dirt roads like a stiff-legged bronco." The more than 40 brief personal essays that make up The Right to Write are an unyielding affirmation of the writing life and a denigration of all that gets in the way: busy schedules, procrastination, insecurity, lack of writing space, a day job--you get the point. Cameron's commonsense advice is liberating to anyone who has felt hampered by making a big deal out of writing (this "tends to make writing difficult. Keeping writing casual tends to keep it possible"), by not having the time to write ("Get aggressive. Steal time"), or the like. If you find a spirit that compares writing to revelation, prayer, and Zen pursuits, that might just attribute misguided communication to Mercury retrograde simpatico, then you will find much to embrace here. And you will never, never again dream of waiting for that commitment-free sabbatical in the south of France to get your writing project under way. --Jane Steinberg [via]
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Room of Ones' Ownby Virginia WoolfISBN 1568493665 (1-56849-366-5)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Room of Ones' Own'Book summary:Surprisingly, this long essay about society and art and sexism is one of Woolf's most accessible works. Woolf, a major modernist writer and critic, takes us on an erudite yet conversational--and completely entertaining--walk around the history of women in writing, smoothly comparing the architecture of sentences by the likes of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, all the while lampooning the chauvinistic state of university education in the England of her day. When she concluded that to achieve their full greatness as writers women will need a solid income and a privacy, Woolf pretty much invented modern feminist criticism. [via]
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Room to Write: Daily Invitations to a Writer's Lifeby Bonni GoldbergISBN 0874778255 (0-87477-825-5)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Room to Write: Daily Invitations to a Writer's Life'Book summary:What makes someone a writer? A writer writes, expressing the world through synthesis of mind and magic, sensuality and spirit. With both humor and reverence, Room to Write playfully prevails on us to experience the world through a writer's eyes, and respond to the creative sparks that charge good writing. In two hundred daily essays, the author invites the reader--whether an experienced writer or someone just starting out--into the crucibles from which creative writing erupts: emotion, imagination, intellect, and soul. Once there, she urges the reader to grab a pen, grasp a keyboard, and seize the moment when perception fires revelation and language becomes art. Each page features an essay exploring an aspect of the writing process, an exercise to get the reader writing, and a quotation to tickle the mind and keep the writing going. Ultimately, readers learn about how they write, and how to trust their intuition. Room to Write is a collection of beguiling provocations, an irresistible invitation to all those who believe that writing, like any creative endeavor, is a way of life. [via]
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Secret Lives of Lawfully Wedded Wives: 27 Women Writers on Love, Infidelity, Sex Roles, Race, Kids, And Moreby Autumn StephensISBN 193072263X (1-930722-63-X)
Softcover, Inner Ocean Pub
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Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Lifeby Barnaby ConradISBN 1582973237 (1-58297-323-7)
Softcover, F & W Publications, Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life'Book summary:Snoopy sits atop his dog house, banging out stories on a manual typewriter. Usually they begin "It was a dark and stormy night..." Always they're rejected. In Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life - a wonderful gift for writers - a roundup of 30 famous writers and entertainers respond in short essays to their favorite Snoopy "at the typewriter" strip. Each essay focuses on how the strip presents an aspect of writing life - getting started, getting rejected, searching for new ideas, and more - everything that beginners and professional writers deal with on a daily basis. The essays are light and sometimes humorous, but all of them offer insight and inspiration for writers working at any level. The book presents a powerful lineup of contributors, including: Ray Bradbury; Julia Child; Sue Grafton; Elmore Leonard; And the Beagle himself! William F. Buckley, Jr.; Elizabeth George; Evan Hunter; Danielle Steel; Editors Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz (son of the late Charles Schulz) provide introductory chapters that address the writing life and how Snoopy's experience - his tenacity and resilience - can inspire us all. [via]
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Snoopy's Guide To The Writing Lifeby Monte Schultz, Barnaby Conrad, Monte SchulzISBN 1582971943 (1-58297-194-3)
Hardcover, F & W Pubns Inc
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Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Lifeby Terry BrooksISBN 0345465512 (0-345-46551-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Soul of Creativity: Insights into the Creative Processby Tona Pearce MyersISBN 1577310772 (1-57731-077-2)
Softcover, New World Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Soul of Creativity: Insights into the Creative Process'Book summary:Instead of trying to define and contain human creativity, this inspiring assortment of essays offers personal stories about what creativity means to each of these renowned teachers, artists, and spiritual leaders. Don Campbell shows how attentive listening has fostered his creativity. Sark tells of her home's "Magic Cottage" (which was once a tool shed) where she writes all her books while lying on a futon mattress. Michelle Cassou speaks to her dream of "erasing the fine line between creator and creation." And Christina Baldwin shares how examining and rewriting our personal stories can lead to healing and creative fulfillment. --Gail Hudson [via]
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The Sound Of Paper: Starting From Scratchby Julia CameronISBN 1585423548 (1-58542-354-8)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Sound Of Paper: Starting From Scratch'Book summary:In this landmark book on the creative process, the bestselling author of The Artist's Way reveals the intricate soul work artists must undertake in order to find inspiration.
In The Sound of Paper, Julia Cameron delves deep into the heart of the personal struggles that all artists face. What can we do when we face our keyboard or canvas with nothing but a cold emptiness? How can we begin to carve out our creation when our vision and drive are clouded by life's uncertainties? In other words, how can we begin the difficult work of being an artist?
Drawing upon her many years of personal experience as both an artist and a teacher, Julia Cameron guides readers to a place where they can find the strength and courage to create. Demonstrating how this involves a process of constant renewal, of starting from the beginning, she writes, "When we are building a life from scratch, we must dig a little. We must be like that hen scratching the soil: 'What goodness is hidden here, just below the surface?' we must ask."
With exercises designed to develop the power to infuse one's art with a deeply informed knowledge of the soul, this book is an essential artist's companion from one of the foremost authorities on the creative process. Julia Cameron's most illuminating book to date, The Sound of Paper provides readers with a spiritual path for creating the best work of their lives. [via]More editions of The Sound Of Paper: Starting From Scratch:
Thunder and Lightningby Natalie GoldbergISBN 0553374966 (0-553-37496-6)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Thunder and Lightning : Cracking Open the Writer's Craftby Natalie GoldbergISBN 0553095285 (0-553-09528-5)
Hardcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Thunder and Lightning : Cracking Open the Writer's Craft'Book summary:More musings from Natalie Goldberg on writing as a spiritual path, as "an authentic Zen way." Goldberg has some nice things to say about the importance of the process of writing. She recommends her students spend two years at writing "practice" before undertaking a specific project, so that they can "get in touch with their wild minds." The most inspired writing, she says, comes when one's conscious mind gets out of the way. Still, we are puzzled by Thunder and Lightning: is it really meant to show us how to turn "our flashes of inspiration ... into a polished piece of work," as the book jacket touts? It comes off more as a collection of Goldberg's ruminations on writing and reading. Goldberg tells us about her friend Julie's writing process. Another pal, Kate, talks about plot. We study Styron with Goldberg's workshop students and take a road trip through the South to try to figure out just how some of the poorest states in the union managed to produce so many great writers. There are some good stories here, and it's vaguely interesting to know what Nat likes to order when she does her café writing or lunches with her editors, but we end up desiring a little less wandering and a little more focus. --Jane Steinberg [via]
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The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heartby Julia CameronISBN 0874778794 (0-87477-879-4)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart'Book summary:In the Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart, Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, draws from her remarkable teaching experience to help readers reach out into ever-broadening creative horizons. As in The Artist's Way, she combines eloquent essays with playful and imaginative experiential exercises to make The Vein of Gold an extraordinary book of learning-through-doing. Inspiring essays on the creative process and more than one hundred engaging and energizing tasks involve the reader in "inner play," leading to authentic growth, renewal, and healing.[via]More editions of The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart:
Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writersby Susan ShaughnessyISBN 0062507583 (0-06-250758-3)
Softcover, Harper San Francisco
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Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Artby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0865474877 (0-86547-487-7)
Softcover, North Point Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art'Book summary:Walking on Water collects 12 brief meditations by Madeleine L'Engle on the nature of art and its relation to faith. L'Engle, the beloved author of A Wrinkle In Time among others, has written and spoken widely and wisely about the connection between religion and art. The gist of her understanding is as follows:
To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory. It is what makes me respond to the death of an apple tree, the birth of a puppy, northern lights shaking the sky, by writing stories.
She believes that "[b]asically there can be no categories such as 'religious' art and 'secular' art because all true art is incarnational, and therefore 'religious.'" And "incarnation," in L'Engle's view, means "God's revelation of himself through particularity." In this book there is some slippage between L'Engle's autobiographical and critical voices. As a result, she often claims Christian significance for works whose meaning is not intentionally Christian. She admits this freely:[B]ecause I am a struggling Christian, it's inevitable that I superimpose my awareness of all that happened in the life of Jesus upon what I'm reading, upon Buber, upon Plato, upon the Book of Daniel. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing. To be truly Christian means to see Christ everywhere, to know him as all in all.
-- Michael Joseph Gross [via]More editions of Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art:
- Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art: ISBN 087788918X (0-87788-918-X)
Hardcover, Waterbrook Pr - Walking on Water : Reflections on Faith and Art: ISBN 0877888965 (0-87788-896-5)
Softcover, WaterBrook Press - Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art: ISBN 0865474877 (0-86547-487-7)
Softcover, North Point Pr
- Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art: ISBN 087788918X (0-87788-918-X)
The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Lessby Peter BowermanISBN 0967059844 (0-9670598-4-4)
Softcover, Fanove Pub
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Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, And Who Does the Dishesby Karen Propp, Jean R. TrounstineISBN 1594630178 (1-59463-017-8)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, And Who Does the Dishes'Book summary:"Writing with astonishing honesty and refreshing clarity, the 24 authors in this revelatory collection offer readers the unusual pleasure of looking inside other people's marriages to see what we can find there, emerging with signposts and warnings, enlightenment and benediction." --Carolyn Parkhurst, author of DOGS OF BABEL
"This book charts the vicissitudes of marriage with an honesty that is rarely brought to a topic as private as this. To read it is to enlarge one's sense of what is possible in long term love. WHY I'M STILL MARRIED is hopeful, provocative, challenging, and always eloquent." --Lauren Slater, author of PROZAC DIARY
"Enduring marriages, it has been said, operate on rules known only to the partners. In this ground-breaking collection, 24 generous and honest women reveal secret truths about the ground rules of their most intimate interactions. You will be amazed at what you learn about your own experience." --Suzanne Braun Levine, author of INVENTING THE REST OF OUR LIVES: Women in Second Adulthood
"This risky, quirky, from-the-heart collection explores some of the reasons why so many of us, still, choose to live with the ever-evolving social structure known as marriage. WHY I'M STILL MARRIED should be required reading for anyone consideringor actively livingthe plunge." --A. Manette Ansay, author of MIDNIGHT CHAMPAGNE and VINEGAR HILL
"This book is a must-read. I loved it. And I have no doubt that every woman will find something of herself in these pages." --Marlo Thomas [via]
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Why We Write: Personal Statements and Photographic Portraits of 25 Top Screenwritersby Lorian Tamara ElbertISBN 1879505452 (1-879505-45-2)
Softcover, Silman-James Pr
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Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Lifeby Natalie GoldbergISBN 0553347756 (0-553-34775-6)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life'Book summary:Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life [Paperback] by Goldberg, Natalie [via]
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A Writer's Book of Days: A Spirited Companion and Lively Muse for the Writing Lifeby Judith ReevesISBN 1577311000 (1-57731-100-0)
Softcover, New World Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Writer's Book of Days: A Spirited Companion and Lively Muse for the Writing Life'Book summary:Musicians practice. Athletes practice. And so, too, argues Judy Reeves, should writers practice. Her Writer's Book of Days provides a "writing prompt" for each day of the year, and then some: "Write about a time someone said yes"; "Write about leaving"; "Something seemed different." The more you practice, says Reeves, the more you write. And writing from a prompt, she adds, is like having "someone provid[e] the music when you want to dance." The prompts are the backbone of this book, but its pages are fleshed out with advice, inspiration, quotations from writers, encouragement, and a profusion of literary tidbits. Write from the sense, Reeves recommends. Audition words. Take risks. And when all else fails, amuse yourself with these astonishing tidbits from literary lives: T.S. Eliot, we learn, preferred writing with a head cold; Flaubert kept his lover's slippers and mittens in his desk drawer; and Friedrich von Schiller liked to invoke his muse by sniffing rotten apples. --Jane Steinberg [via]
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The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwritersby Christopher VoglerISBN 0941188132 (0-941188-13-2)
Softcover, Ingram Pub Services
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters'Book summary:Christopher Vogler has served as a studio folklore specialist, and here comes up with a book that is, in one regard, much like the screenplays it seeks to strengthen: it's derived from other sources! An acknowledged distillation of, and meditation on, the work of Joseph Campbell, The Writer's Journey approaches the storyteller's craft as one of recounting the hero's mythic journey, replete with roadblocks and life lessons. But why the unspoken assent that movies hew to this structure, when we don't demand the same of plays or books? Could it be that the collective viewing of films is one of our last tribal rituals? [via]
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The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writersby Christopher VoglerISBN 0941188701 (0-941188-70-1)
Softcover, Ingram Pub Services
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The Writer's Life: Insights from the Right to Writeby Julia CameronISBN 1585421030 (1-58542-103-0)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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Writers And Personalityby Louis AuchinclossISBN 1570035806 (1-57003-580-6)
Hardcover, Univ of South Carolina Pr
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Writers on Writingby Jon WinokurISBN 0894714406 (0-89471-440-6)
Softcover, Running Pr Book Pub
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- Writers on Writing: ISBN 0894714414 (0-89471-441-4)
Hardcover, Running Press - Writers on Writing: ISBN 0894715224 (0-89471-522-4)
Hardcover, Running Press - Writers on Writing: ISBN 0894718770 (0-89471-877-0)
Hardcover, Running Pr Book Pub - Writers on Writing: ISBN 0894714406 (0-89471-440-6)
Softcover, Running Pr Book Pub
- Writers on Writing: ISBN 0894714414 (0-89471-441-4)
Writers on Writingby Neil JamesISBN 1875684271 (1-875684-27-1)
Hardcover, Halstead Press
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Writers on Writingby Robert Pack, Jay PariniISBN 0874515602 (0-87451-560-2)
Softcover, University Press of New England
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Writers on Writing: A Bread Loaf Anthologyby Robert Pack, Jay PariniISBN 0874515599 (0-87451-559-9)
Hardcover, Univ Pr of New England
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Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Timesby John DarntonISBN 0805070850 (0-8050-7085-0)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Times'Book summary:After 30 years as a journalist, John Darnton decided to try his hand at writing a novel. If he wrote 1,000 words a day, he discovered, he'd have a book in a matter of months. But wouldn't it be nice to learn a few tricks of the trade from other writers as well? Thus was born The New York Times's Monday-morning Writers on Writing series. In embarking on the series, says Darnton, he learned that the writers he most wanted to hear from were not necessarily the same ones who most wanted to hear from him. But there couldn't have been too many who turned him down. The 46 columns collected in Writers on Writing are by the likes of Saul Bellow, Mary Gordon, David Mamet, Annie Proulx, Carol Shields, and Paul West. Though many of them have not much more than the occupation "writer" in common, Darnton says that in one way he found them all to be alike: "They wanted to hear, right away, what you thought of their work."
Here, Richard Ford explains why he finds not writing to be a terrific thing. Alice Hoffman describes the effect illness (her own and that of others) has had on her work. Barbara Kingsolver grapples with writing an "unchaste" novel. Louise Erdrich explores the effect a second language, Ojibwe in her case, can have on one's involvement with the first. And Russell Banks learns the hard way that "when you meet a witness to your distant past, your memory tends to improve." The most hilarious piece is Carolyn Chute's "How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call?" In it, she describes one day, in which "X-rated stuff happens," the cuckoo clock goes off incessantly, dirty dishes beckon, political cohorts come calling, a dog has a couple of seizures, laundry needs doing, and guests constantly arrive. Once Chute finally does get down to writing, the "n" breaks off the daisy wheel. But at least the phone doesn't ring. "Its bell is broken. It never rings. Thank heavens." --Jane Steinberg [via]
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Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Timesby New York Times Staff, John DarntonISBN 0805067418 (0-8050-6741-8)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Times'Book summary:After 30 years as a journalist, John Darnton decided to try his hand at writing a novel. If he wrote 1,000 words a day, he discovered, he'd have a book in a matter of months. But wouldn't it be nice to learn a few tricks of the trade from other writers as well? Thus was born The New York Times's Monday-morning Writers on Writing series. In embarking on the series, says Darnton, he learned that the writers he most wanted to hear from were not necessarily the same ones who most wanted to hear from him. But there couldn't have been too many who turned him down. The 46 columns collected in Writers on Writing are by the likes of Saul Bellow, Mary Gordon, David Mamet, Annie Proulx, Carol Shields, and Paul West. Though many of them have not much more than the occupation "writer" in common, Darnton says that in one way he found them all to be alike: "They wanted to hear, right away, what you thought of their work."
Here, Richard Ford explains why he finds not writing to be a terrific thing. Alice Hoffman describes the effect illness (her own and that of others) has had on her work. Barbara Kingsolver grapples with writing an "unchaste" novel. Louise Erdrich explores the effect a second language, Ojibwe in her case, can have on one's involvement with the first. And Russell Banks learns the hard way that "when you meet a witness to your distant past, your memory tends to improve." The most hilarious piece is Carolyn Chute's "How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call?" In it, she describes one day, in which "X-rated stuff happens," the cuckoo clock goes off incessantly, dirty dishes beckon, political cohorts come calling, a dog has a couple of seizures, laundry needs doing, and guests constantly arrive. Once Chute finally does get down to writing, the "n" breaks off the daisy wheel. But at least the phone doesn't ring. "Its bell is broken. It never rings. Thank heavens." --Jane Steinberg [via]
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Writers on Writing Vol. II: More Collected Essays from the New York Timesby New York Times Staff, Jane SmileyISBN 0805073612 (0-8050-7361-2)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writers on Writing Vol. II: More Collected Essays from the New York Times'Book summary:Todays most celebrated writers explore the literary life in a second collection of inspiring and eye-opening essays[via]
In a second volume of original essays drawn from the long-running New York Times column, Writers on Writing brings together another group of contemporary literatures finest voices to muse on the challenges and gifts of language and creativity.
The pieces ranges from taciturn, hilarious advice for aspiring writers to thoughtful, soul-wrenching reflections on writing in the midst of national tragedy. William Kennedy talks about the intersecting lives of real and imagined Albany politics; Susan Isaacs reveals her nostalgia for a long-retired protaganist; and Elmore Leonard offers pithy rules for letting the writing, and not the writer, take charge. Writers on Writing offers an uncommon and revealing view of the writers world.
Contributors include Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Geraldine Brooks, Frank Conroy, Chitra Divakaruni, Allegra Goodman, Kathryn Harrison, Mary Karr, Patrick McGrath, Arthur Miller, P. J. ORourke, Anna Quinlan, Amy Tan, and Edmund White.More editions of Writers on Writing Vol. II: More Collected Essays from the New York Times:
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Writing Down the Bonesby Natalie GoldbergISBN 1590302613 (1-59030-261-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writing Down the Bones'Book summary:Wherein we discover that many of the "rules" for good writing and good sex are the same: Keep your hand moving, lose control and don't think. Goldberg brings a touch of both Zen and well... *eroticism* to her writing practice, the latter in exercises and anecdotes designed to ease you into your body, your whole spirit, while you create, the former in being where you are, working with what you have, and writing from the moment. --Ali Perry-Gallagher [via]
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Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Withinby Natalie GoldbergISBN 1590303164 (1-59030-316-4)
Softcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within'Book summary:Wherein we discover that many of the "rules" for good writing and good sex are the same: Keep your hand moving, lose control and don't think. Goldberg brings a touch of both Zen and well... *eroticism* to her writing practice, the latter in exercises and anecdotes designed to ease you into your body, your whole spirit, while you create, the former in being where you are, working with what you have, and writing from the moment. --Ali Perry-Gallagher [via]
More editions of Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within:
- Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within: ISBN 1570624240 (1-57062-424-0)
Softcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated - Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within: ISBN 1570622582 (1-57062-258-2)
Hardcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated - Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within: ISBN 0877733759 (0-87773-375-9)
Softcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated - Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within: ISBN 1590303164 (1-59030-316-4)
Softcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated
- Writing down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within: ISBN 1570624240 (1-57062-424-0)
Writing for the Soul: Instruction And Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Lifeby Jerry B. JenkinsISBN 1582974179 (1-58297-417-9)
Hardcover, F & W Pubns Inc
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Writing from the Heart: Tapping the Power of Your Inner Voiceby Nancy Slonim AronieISBN 0786882875 (0-7868-8287-5)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
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The Writing Lifeby Annie DillardISBN 0060919884 (0-06-091988-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Writing Life'Book summary:Annie Dillard has spent a lot of time in remote, bare-bones shelters doing something she claims to hate: writing. Slender though it is, The Writing Life richly conveys the torturous, tortuous, and in rare moments, transcendent existence of the writer. Even for Dillard, whose prose is so mellifluous as to seem effortless, the act of writing can seem a Sisyphean task: "When you write," she says, "you lay out a line of words.... Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow or this time next year." Amid moving accounts of her own writing (and life) experiences, Dillard also manages to impart wisdom to other writers, wisdom having to do with passion and commitment and taking the work seriously. "One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place.... Something more will arise for later, something better." And, if that is not enough, "Assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients," she says. "That is, after all, the case.... What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?"
This all makes The Writing Life seem a dense, tough read, but that is not the case at all. Dillard is, after all, human, just like the rest of us. During one particularly frantic moment, four cups of coffee and not much writing down, Dillard comes to a realization: "Many fine people were out there living, people whose consciences permitted them to sleep at night despite their not having written a decent sentence that day, or ever." --Jane Steinberg [via]
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The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work A Collection from the Washington Post Book Worldby Marie AranaISBN 1586481495 (1-58648-149-5)
Softcover, Public Affairs
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work A Collection from the Washington Post Book World'Book summary:Featuring a gathering of more than fifty of contemporary literature's finest voices, this volume will enchant, move, and inspire readers with its tales of The Writing Life. In it, authors divulge professional secrets: how they first discovered they were writers, how they work, how they deal with the myriad frustrations and delights a writer's life affords. Culled from ten years of the distinguished Washington Post column of the same name, The Writing Life highlights an eclectic group of luminaries who have wildly varied stories to tell, but who share this singularly beguiling career. Here are their pleasures as well as their peeves; revelations of their deepest fears; dramas of triumphs and failures; insights into the demands and rewards.[via]
Each piece is accompanied by a brief and vivid biography of the writer by Washington Post Book World editor Marie Arana who also provides an introduction to the collection. The result is a rare view from the inside: a close examination of writers' concerns about the creative process and the place of literature in America. For anyone interested in the making of fiction and nonfiction, here is a fascinating vantage on the writer's world--an indispensable guide to the craft.More editions of The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work A Collection from the Washington Post Book World:
Writing Out the Stormby Jessica Page MorrellISBN 1888054263 (1-888054-26-3)
Softcover, Collectors Pr
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Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Lifeby Bonnie FriedmanISBN 0060922001 (0-06-092200-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life'More editions of Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life:
Spanish
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Cartas a Un Joven Poeta/ Letters for a Young Poetby Rainer M¬ RilkeISBN 842063445X (84-206-3445-X)
Softcover, Alianza Editorial Sa
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cartas a Un Joven Poeta/ Letters for a Young Poet'Book summary:Estas CARTAS A UN JOVEN POETA, publicadas mas de veinte anos despues de la muerte de su autor, fueron dirigidas por RAINER MARIA RILKEde su concepcion del mundo, desde su vision de la vocacion y de la inspiracion literarias hasta sus meditaciones sobre la soledad inherente a la tarea del creador. [via]
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Una Habitacion Propiaby Virginia WoolfISBN 843221521X (84-322-1521-X)
Softcover, Planeta Pub Corp
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