authors who teach creative writing

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Language » Writing Books

The best books on creative writing, recommended by andrew cowan.

The professor of creative writing at UEA says Joseph Conrad got it right when he said that the sitting down is all. He chooses five books to help aspiring writers.

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

On Becoming a Novelist by John C. Gardner

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett

1 Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

2 on becoming a novelist by john c. gardner, 3 on writing: a memoir of the craft by stephen king, 4 the forest for the trees by betsy lerner, 5 worstward ho by samuel beckett.

How would you describe creative writing?

Creative writing is an academic discipline. I draw a distinction between writing , which is what writers do, and creative writing. I think most people in the UK who teach creative writing have come to it via writing – they are bona fide writers who publish poems and novels and play scripts and the like, and they have found some way of supporting that vocation through having a career in academia. So in teaching aspirant writers how to write they are drawing upon their own experience of working in that medium. They are drawing upon their knowledge of what the problems are and how those problems might be tackled. It’s a practice-based form of learning and teaching.

But because it is in academia there is all this paraphernalia that has to go with it. So you get credits for attending classes. You have to do supporting modules; you have to be assessed. If you are doing an undergraduate degree you have to follow a particular curriculum and only about a quarter of that will be creative writing and the rest will be in the canon of English literature . If you are doing a PhD you have to support whatever the creative element is with a critical element. So there are these ways in which academia disciplines writing and I think of that as Creative Writing with a capital C and a capital W. All of us who teach creative writing are doing it, in a sense, to support our writing, but it is also often at the expense of our writing. We give up quite a lot of time and mental energy and also, I think, imaginative and creative energy to teach.

Your first choice is Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer , which for someone writing in 1934 sounds pretty forward thinking.

Because creative writing has now taken off and has become this very widespread academic discipline it is beginning to acquire its own canon of key works and key texts. This is one of the oldest of them. It’s a book that almost anyone who teaches creative writing will have read. They will probably have read it because some fundamentals are explained and I think the most important one is Brande’s sense of the creative writer being comprised of two people. One of them is the artist and the other is the critic.

Actually, Malcolm Bradbury who taught me at UEA, wrote the foreword to my edition of Becoming a Writer , and he talks about how Dorothea Brande was writing this book ‘in Freudian times’ – the 1930s in the States. And she does have this very Freudian idea of the writer as comprised of a child artist on the one hand, who is associated with spontaneity, unconscious processes, while on the other side there is the adult critic making very careful discriminations.

And did she think the adult critic hindered the child artist?

No. Her point is that the two have to work in harmony and in some way the writer has to achieve an effective balance between the two, which is often taken to mean that you allow the artist child free rein in the morning. So you just pour stuff on to the page in the morning when you are closest to the condition of sleep. The dream state for the writer is the one that is closest to the unconscious. And then in the afternoon you come back to your morning’s work with your critical head on and you consciously and objectively edit it. Lots of how-to-write books encourage writers to do it that way. It is also possible that you can just pour stuff on to the page for days on end as long as you come back to it eventually with a critical eye.

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Good! Your next book, John Gardner’s On Becoming a Novelist , is described as comfort food for the aspiring novelist.

This is another one of the classics. He was quite a successful novelist in the States, but possibly an even more successful teacher of creative writing. The short story writer and poet Raymond Carver, for instance, was one of his students. And he died young in a motorcycle accident when he was 49. There are two classic works by him. One is this book, On Becoming a Novelist , and the other is The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers . They were both put together from his teaching notes after he died.

On Becoming a Novelist  is the more succinct and, I think, is the better of the two. He talks about automatic writing and the idea, just like Dorothea Brande, of the artist being comprised of two people. But his key idea is the notion of the vivid and continuous dream. He suggests that when we read a novel we submit to the logic of that novel in the same way as we might submit to the logic of a dream – we sink into it, and clearly the events that occur could not exist outside the imagination.

What makes student writing in particular go wrong is when it draws attention to itself, either through bad writing or over-elaborate writing. He suggests that these faults in the aspirant writer alert the reader to the fact that they are reading a fiction and it is a bit like giving someone who is dreaming a nudge. It jolts them out of the dream. So he proposes that the student writer should try to create a dream state in the reader that is vivid and appeals to all the senses and is continuous. What you mustn’t do is alert the reader to the fact that they are reading a fiction.

It is a very good piece of advice for writers starting out but it is ultimately very limiting. It rules out all the great works of modernism and post-modernism, anything which is linguistically experimental. It rules out anything which draws attention to the words as words on a page. It’s a piece of advice which really applies to the writing of realist fiction, but is a very good place from which to begin.

And then people can move on.

I never would have expected the master of terror Stephen King to write a book about writing. But your next choice, On Writing , is more of an autobiography .

Yes. It is a surprise to a lot of people that this book is so widely read on university campuses and so widely recommended by teachers of writing. Students love it. It’s bracing: there’s no nonsense. He says somewhere in the foreword or preface that it is a short book because most books are filled with bullshit and he is determined not to offer bullshit but to tell it like it is.

It is autobiographical. It describes his struggle to emerge from his addictions – to alcohol and drugs – and he talks about how he managed to pull himself and his family out of poverty and the dead end into which he had taken them. He comes from a very disadvantaged background and through sheer hard work and determination he becomes this worldwide bestselling author. This is partly because of his idea of the creative muse. Most people think of this as some sprite or fairy that is usually feminine and flutters about your head offering inspiration. His idea of the muse is ‘a basement guy’, as he calls him, who is grumpy and turns up smoking a cigar. You have to be down in the basement every day clocking in to do your shift if you want to meet the basement guy.

Stephen King has this attitude that if you are going to be a writer you need to keep going and accept that quite a lot of what you produce is going to be rubbish and then you are going to revise it and keep working at it.

Do you agree with him?

He sounds inspirational. Your next book, Betsy Lerner’s The Forest for the Trees , looks at things from the editor’s point of view.

Yes, she was an editor at several major American publishing houses, such as Simon & Schuster. She went on to become an agent, and also did an MFA in poetry before that, so she came through the US creative writing process and understands where many writers are coming from.

The book is divided into two halves. In the second half she describes the process that goes from the completion of the author’s manuscript to submitting it to agents and editors. She explains what goes on at the agent’s offices and the publisher’s offices. She talks about the drawing up of contracts, negotiating advances and royalties. So she takes the manuscript from the author’s hands, all the way through the publishing process to its appearance in bookshops. She describes that from an insider’s point of view, which is hugely interesting.

But the reason I like this book is for the first half of it, which is very different. Here she offers six chapters, each of which is a character sketch of a different type of author. She has met each of them and so although she doesn’t mention names you feel she is revealing something to you about authors whose books you may have read. She describes six classic personality types. She has the ambivalent writer, the natural, the wicked child, the self-promoter, the neurotic and a chapter called ‘Touching Fire’, which is about the addictive and the mentally unstable.

Your final choice is Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett .

This is a tiny book – it is only about 40 pages and it has got these massive white margins and really large type. I haven’t counted, but I would guess it is only about two to three thousand words and it is dressed up as a novella when it is really only a short story. On the first page there is this riff: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’

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When I read this I thought I had discovered a slogan for the classroom that I could share with my students. I want to encourage them to make mistakes and not to be perfectionists, not to feel that everything they do has to be of publishable standard. The whole point of doing a course, especially a creative writing MA and attending workshops, is that you can treat the course as a sandpit. You go in there, you try things out which otherwise you wouldn’t try, and then you submit it to the scrutiny of your classmates and you get feedback. Inevitably there will be things that don’t work and your classmates will help you to identify those so that you can take it away and redraft it – you can try again. And inevitably you are going to fail again because any artistic endeavour is doomed to failure because the achievement can never match the ambition. That’s why artists keep producing their art and writers keep writing, because the thing you did last just didn’t quite satisfy you, just wasn’t quite right. And you keep going and trying to improve on that.

But why, when so much of it is about failing – failing to get published, failing to be satisfied, failing to be inspired – do writers carry on?

I have a really good quote from Joseph Conrad in which he says the sitting down is all. He spends eight hours at his desk, trying to write, failing to write, foaming at the mouth, and in the end wanting to hit his head on the wall but refraining from that for fear of alarming his wife!

It’s a familiar situation; lots of writers will have been there. For me it is a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is something I have to keep returning to. I have to keep going back to the sentences, trying to get them right. Trying to line them up correctly. I can’t let them go. It is endlessly frustrating because they are never quite right.

You have published four books. Are you happy with them?

Reasonably happy. Once they are done and gone I can relax and feel a little bit proud of them. But at the time I just experience agonies. It takes me ages. It takes me four or five years to finish a novel partly because I always find distractions – like working in academia – something that will keep me away from the writing, which is equally as unrewarding as it is rewarding!

September 27, 2012

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

Andrew Cowan

Andrew Cowan is Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Creative Writing programme at UEA. His first novel, Pig , won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Betty Trask Award, the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize, the Author’s Club First Novel Award and a Scottish Council Book Award. He is also the author of the novels Common Ground , Crustaceans ,  What I Know  and  Worthless Men . His own creative writing guidebook is  The  Art  of  Writing  Fiction .

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• 8 Creative Writing Tips from Famous Authors and How to Incorporate Them Into Your Own Work

You should also read…

• A Guide to Britain’s Most Famous Writers Through History
• 9 Famous Opening Lines of Novels – and Why We Love Them

And many writers simply love giving interviews where they throw out pithy and quotable lines about the nature of their genius. Think of Ernest Hemingway’s “There is nothing to writing. All you do is just sit at a typewriter and bleed.” It would look great on a mug or a t-shirt. But does this actually give you any insight into how to become a better or more successful writer? Probably not, unless you want to study its construction when working on your epigrams. Still more writers provide advice that works beautifully for their own particular style of writing (such as Kurt Vonnegut’s stern words against semicolons, or Stephen King’s against adverbs) but may not be as generally applicable as they think it is. As a result, we’ve compiled this list of 8 popular and pithy quotes from famous writers – and looked at what you can actually learn from them for use in your own writing.

1. “I took a master class with Billy Wilder once and he said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree and the second act you set the tree on fire and then in the third you get him down.” – Gary Kurtz, producer of Star Wars Episode IV and V.

Has a more elegant summary of the three-act structure ever been produced? These are the principles at the heart of most storytelling, whether it’s around a campfire or on a cinema screen. You get your protagonist into trouble – then the trouble gets worse – then it gets resolved. Note that this structure doesn’t demand a happy ending. Your character could depart the tree in as unpleasant a manner as you like; what this structure requires is plot progression followed by resolution, as well as tying you into a storyline that, at heart, can be summarised in a couple of sentences. Even if you’re writing a madly complicated epic fantasy series, it can be a good maxim to come back to. Which event constitutes putting the character up a tree? Are you just letting him hang around there, or are you keeping the tension going by setting the tree on fire? Do you just leave him up there getting toasty, or have you been sure to take him down?

2. “Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” – Mark Twain, author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Authors being critical of particular words or even types of word (we return to Stephen King and his adverbs) is a commonplace of writing advice. Often, they simply represent the writing fashion of their own time; Stephen King’s crisp, clear writing style (“She was a grown up now, and she discovered that being a grown up was not quite what she had suspected it would be when she was a child”) would sound as wrong in the 18th century as the more adverb-laden style of two or three hundred years ago does now. Mark Twain’s advice still stands over a hundred years later – writing littered with the word ‘very’ is seldom any good – even though this is perhaps not a trap into which that many novelists fall, and few editors would systematically delete the word ‘damn’ any more either. The best message to take from this is to keep an eye on words you overuse, particularly if they are as weak as ‘very’, and delete them whenever they appear.

3. “If you have other things in your life – family, friends, good productive day work – these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.” – David Brin, Hugo-award winning author

An important message that many writers forget, this quotation from David Brin reminds us that locking yourself away in a garret isn’t a great move unless you want to write the twenty-first century’s Great Garret Novel. It reminds us that the greatest source of inspiration isn’t usually spending time navel-gazing, but going out and interacting with the world, and then seeing how easily an overheard conversation slides into your novel and becomes a plot point, or spotting a woman at the bus stop who looks exactly like the villain you couldn’t quite picture. This doesn’t just apply to realist fiction; David Brin is a science fiction author, and still takes inspiration from everyday human interactions and brings that into his work.

4. “My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.” – Anton Chekhov, playwright and author

This is the kind of zippy quote that Waterstone’s like to put on their bags, but what exactly does it mean and what can we learn from it? The former half of that question is probably best left to Chekhov scholars. The latter half is easier; this advice is excellent and straightforward if we simply ignore Chekhov’s justification. The beginning and end are less at risk of being full of lies than full of waffle. It’s best to resist the temptation to open like a medieval saga with a multi-chapter genealogy and family history of all of your characters, and similarly to resist the temptation, like Tolkien didn’t in The Return of the King, to come to a logical ending to your story and then end it three more times. But if you can’t resist that temptation in your first draft, get it all out of your system and then simply delete those sections from draft 2 onwards.

5. “First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!” – Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451

Like many other creative writing tips, this can feel a little bit like magical thinking. See also: “I let my characters decide the plot” or even “I had this bit all worked out, but then my characters decided to do something different” – as if the story you were writing was some kind of hyperactive game of the Sims, rather than something born from and guided entirely by your own imagination. If you are a more practically-minded writer, this might seem entirely baffling. (If it makes complete, instinctive sense to you, you might wish to skip ahead to the next point). Don’t read this advice and proceed to treat the process of writing as a particularly lonely roleplaying game. Remember instead that when you have lovingly crafted a character who is so realistic that they could practically walk off the page, if their planned actions conflict with their character, then you need to change one or the other, rather than shoehorning a character into actions that they clearly would not perform.

6. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

This comment is an impressive demonstration of what not to do. Adams’ first bestseller – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – ends very abruptly because he had missed so many deadlines that his publisher simply told him to finish the page he was on and sent a courier to collect the book as it was. Subsequent deadlines have a remarkable theme – the Doctor Who producer who locked Adams in his study and gave him coffee and whiskey for two days until it was finished; the girlfriend who locked Adams in her house until he finished The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ; and the editor who locked him in a hotel suite for three weeks until he wrote So Long and Thanks for All the Fish . It appears that, having found a solution to making Adams write to a deadline, his collaborators stuck to it, whether or not that meant committing the crime of false imprisonment. There are two messages for aspiring writers here. One is that you should make an attempt to control your procrastination before it reaches such legendary heights. The other, I suppose, is that if you find an odd technique that helps you write, you should go ahead and make the most of it – at least other people will get a good anecdote out of it.

7. “I can’t write five words but that I change seven.” – Dorothy Parker, poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Dorothy Parker was a writer now best known for a huge number of highly quoted phrases, such as, “the two most beautiful words in the English language are ‘cheque enclosed.’” The sharp, concise elegance of her writing is – as this quotation suggests – the result of a colossal amount of editing. Parker phrases this as if it were an unfortunate condition, but it’s a very rare writer who gets everything right first time. (To skip back to point 6, the book that Douglas Adams edited the most – Last Chance to See – was also the one of which he was the most proud). There are arguments to be had about when editing is appropriate. Should you write a first draft in full before you go back to tweak anything, or should you edit as you go along? This will depend on temperament and ability to cope with imperfections. What is crucial is that by the time you’re ready to submit anything for publication, at least seven words have been changed for every five you initially wrote.

8. “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison, Nobel prize-winning novelist

This is good advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction alike. In nonfiction the barrier to entry is higher (for instance, if you desperately want to read a first-person account of the writing of epic poetry in Anglo-Saxon times, you’ll be waiting a while) but in fiction the ground is open to everyone. If you’re fed up with whatever the prevailing literary trend is (whether that’s dystopian young adult fiction or yummy-mummy novels), you can be the change you wish to see in the world. Don’t be sanctimonious about writing the novel that you think the world needs – that’s a sure-fire way to lose friends – but it can be deeply motivational to remember that there is a space in the world where your novel should be. Aside from anything else, filling a gap in the market makes excellent business sense. Do you have any creative writing tips that you think should be more widely known? Share them in the comments!

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The Classes 25 Famous Writers Teach

They're not always what you'd expect.

Plenty of writers teach. Even famous ones. This is a known fact of the universe. After all, academy jobs are notoriously cushy; what you give up in writing time you get back in the form of a steady salary, summers off, and the nebulous reward of eager minds to mold. As for how exactly they might be molded, well, that’s up to the writer in question.

Last week, I started looking through college catalogs to see what interesting literature courses I might read along with this fall, and in the process I stumbled across more than a few descriptions for classes taught by famous writers—and some of them surprised me. Who knew, for instance, that Jonathan Lethem loved animals enough to build a course around them? Or that in addition to writing workshops, Jim Shepard likes to teach horror movies at Williams? On the other hand, I’m not at all surprised to find that Claudia Rankine teaches classes that seek to unpack the nature of whiteness, but I’m thrilled to have come across her meticulous reading list for last year’s course.

Below, I’ve collected course descriptions for classes taught by 25 well-known writers at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Most of these are from the current school year, but a few have been culled from recent semesters. Though plenty of writers teach straight workshops (whether poetry, fiction, or non-fiction), I’ve omitted those here, since we all pretty much know what a workshop consists of. Instead, I’ve picked out the more interesting options, whether themed workshops or literature classes, which give a little more insight into the writer’s interests, academic or otherwise. It’s enough to make any reader envious of the youth today—and to that end, if you’re lucky enough to be at one of these schools right now, I suggest that you don’t miss taking one of these classes with a literary legend.

Lorrie Moore:

Special Topics in Creative Writing : “What’s So Funny?: An Investigation” (Engl. 3891.01), Vanderbilt University, Spring 2017

Course Description : A look at literary texts from Shakespeare to Toni Cade Bambara to discover how literary humor is used in writing. What are the mechanics of making it occur? What are its various attributes and categories and sub-species? What are the underlying theories in practice? This is not a lecture course but an intensive reading and discussion course—class presentations and quizzes required but only a little writing.

Jonathan Lethem:

Topics in Contemporary Fiction : Animals (ENGL055B PO), Pomona College; Spring 2015

Course Description : Readings in stories, novels, and essays in which the subject of the lives of animals invites consideration of topics of empathy, suffering and the body, in contemporary writing and thought generally. We’ll also take more than a sidelong glance at the function and uses of literary strategies of allegory, parable and fable. Letter grade only.

Impossible Novels : The Man Without Qualities (ENGL055A PO), Pomona College; Spring 2016

Course Description : In the poet Randall Jarrell’s definition, “a novel is a prose narrative of a certain length with something wrong with it.” The Austrian Modernist Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities , an unfinished novel of 1700 pages in its most comprehensive edition, is an exemplary case of the above. Musil is often classed with Proust and Joyce in the 20th Century pantheon; he’s also rarely read. In this seminar we’ll tackle this vast book directly and by using a number of historical and critical sources, as well as Musil’s diaries, to surround and inform it with useful context. The result will be a reading expedition to an unknown shore. Letter grade only.

Viet Thanh Nguyen:

Writing Narrative (ENGL 302), USC, Fall 2016

Course Description : This course takes as its premise that art and politics can co-exist. e writers that we will read grapple with what it means to be an “other” and how to write about it. Frequently this involves dealing with the history that has produced one’s otherness; with the task of translation that often falls on the other; with the burden of representing the marginalized community from which one comes; with crossing borders of all kinds — linguistic, sexual, geographical, generic. All the writers we will read are hard to classify, because they rebel against classi cation itself, which seeks to pin the other down into a manageable category (race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, etc.). As writers, students will have the chance to experiment with narrative, to disregard generic boundaries, to take on di cult subjects, to be critical in their creative writing, or to be creative in their critical writing. e form of what will be written is secondary to the story that needs narration.

Introduction to Literary and Cultural Criticism and Theory (ENGL 501), USC, Fall 2015

Course Description : As the title indicates, this course is an introduction. It requires no advance knowledge of literary and cultural criticism and theory. We will read excerpts from the N orton Anthology of Theory and Criticism on the major theorists and philosophers who have shaped contemporary criticism (in no particular order: Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, and others). In addition, given that half of the seminar will be composed of creative writers and the other half of literary critics (although perhaps some may cross the line and do both), we will also look at some figures who do both creative and critical work, such as Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Claudia Rankine, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Trinh T. Minh-ha, in an effort to see how criticism can inform creative work, and vice versa. Figuring out what terms like structuralism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, and others, do in literary and cultural theory will also be on the agenda. Be prepared to lead the seminar in discussion, to participate in the conversation both in seminar and online, and to write a research paper or an essay.

Junot Díaz:

Apocalyptic Storytelling (CMS.848), MIT, Fall 2017

Course Description : Focuses on the critical making of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories across various narrative media. Considers the long history of Western apocalypticism as well as the uses and abuses of apocalypticism across time. Examines a wide variety of influential texts in order to enhance students’ creative and theoretical repertoires. Students create their own apocalyptic stories and present on selected texts. Investigates conventions such as plague, zombies, nuclear destruction, robot uprising, alien invasion, environmental collapse, and supernatural calamities. Considers questions of race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, trauma, memory, witness, and genocide. Intended for students with prior creative writing experience. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

Critical Worldbuilding (CMS.307), MIT, Fall 2017

Course Description : Studies the design and analysis of invented (or constructed) worlds for narrative media, such as television, films, comics, and literary texts. Provides the practical, historical and critical tools with which to understand the function and structure of imagined worlds. Examines world-building strategies in the various media and genres in order to develop a critical and creative repertoire. Participants create their own invented worlds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 13.

Alexander Chee:

Imaginary Countries (ENGL 87.04), Dartmouth College, Fall 2017

Course Description : This course introduces the techniques used in speculative fiction—literary novels and stories using either science fiction, magical realism, or myth, or a mix of these, so the author can reinvent a country’s history, the country itself—even the world. We will read for technique, and discuss the effects these fictions achieve with their structures and the narrative and aesthetic strategies deployed. Students will write and workshop two stories. Readings may include: Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Andrew Sean Greer’s “Darkness”, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Chris Adrian’s “Every Night For A Thousand Years”, Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, Yiyun Li’s “Immortality”, Jan Morris’ Hav, Toni Morrison’s Sula, and Carmen Machado’s “The Husband Stitch.”

Jeffery Renard Allen:

Shadow Narration (ENG8510), University of Virginia; Fall 2017

Course Description : In this course we will look at experimentation in prose narrative over the last one hundred years or so, using Marcel Proust’s 1913 novel Swann’s Way as a frame for this examination. Given that this is a course primarily designed for writers, we will engage in close readings of a number of exemplary texts as way to think through an understanding of certain key narrative concerns and techniques that define modernist and postmodernist prose. Texts include book-length works of fiction and nonfiction by Mavis Gallant, Ishmael Reed, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, Clarice Lispector, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Ondaatje, Edouard Leve, John Edgar Wideman, and Marlene van Niekerk. As we will see, shadow narration represents an extensive tradition of experimentation that stretches back to the origins of both spoken and written narrative. At the same time, it represents a range of narrative gestures and strategies that allow for the layering of subtext. Indeed, one might best think of subtext as shadow narration, as the totality of meaning and implication that accompanies the narrative as written on the page.

The Fantastic (ENLP4550), University of Virginia, Fall 2017

Course Description : The course will look at the fantastic as a narrative in fiction and film. We will read some representative texts, both classic and contemporary, and from here and abroad. Assignments will include short response pieces to the assigned readings and films, as well as creative exercises based on the readings and screenings. Texts will include short stories, novels, graphic novels, and films by Helen Oyeyemi, Stephen Graham Jones, Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, Julio Cortazar, Silvina Ocampo, David Cronenberg, Anais Nin, Larry Cohen, Juan Rulfo, Leonara Carrington, Hideo Nakata, J.G. Ballard, Anais Nin, Rene’ Depestre, Philip K. Dick, Souleymane Cisse, and Colson Whitehead. Genres will include the undead (zombies, vampires, and ghosts), shapeshifters, speculative fiction, surrealism, expressionism, magical realism, and Afro-Futurism, among others. From time to time over the course of the semester, we will draw a few critical texts to inform our discussion, including Tzevtan Todorov’s important study The Supernatural .

Lisa Russ Spaar:

The Poetics of Ecstasy (ENG8520), University of Virginia; Fall 2017

Course Description : The Greek word  ekstasis  signifies displacement, trance—literally, “standing elsewhere.” In this seminar class, serious makers and readers of poems will explore the poetics of fervor—erotic, visionary, psychosomatic, negative, religious, mystical.  When the precincts of poetry and rapture intersect, what transpires? What is possible? What is at stake and why does it matter? We will read widely and deeply across cultures and time, including work by Dickinson, Whitman, Carson, Hopkins, Sappho, Keats, Juan de la Cruz, Rilke, Mirabai, Rumi, Ginsberg, Rimbaud, Teare, Young, and other ancient, modern, and contemporary writers who have explored the experience of being beside one’s self in the transport of ecstasy.  Key critical texts include readings from Anne Carson’s  Eros the Bittersweet , Michel de Certeau’s  The Mystic Fable , Georges Bataille’s  Erotism:    Death and Sensuality , and Roland Barthes’s  A Lover’s Discourse.

Forms: Poetry, Memoir, & Nonfiction (ENG 650-3), Syracuse University, Fall 2017

Course Description : We’ll read and discuss eleven memoirs, plus excerpts of a few others. Work for the semester will consist of reading and being engaged with the books. Assignments will include: small creative projects and in-class writing sprinkled through the semester; a presentation on one of the writers; and a final paper, memoir, or 10 poems. Readings may include (a) poems by Roger Fanning, Louise Gluck, Robert Hass, Terrance Hayes, Seamus Heaney, Yusef Komunyaaka, William Matthews, Heather McHugh, Pablo Neruda, Craig Raine, Charles Simic, and Dean Young; (b) fiction by George Saunders; (c) essays by James Wood, and (d) a memoir by Elif Batuman.

Kaitlyn Greenidge:

Forms: Ghost Stories (ENG 650-9), Syracuse University, Fall 2017

Course Description : In this class, we will explore the use of ghosts and ghost stories in literature. We will begin by establishing the elements in classic ghost stories of the nineteenth century and move on to modern interpretations in contemporary fiction. We will also explore ghosts in folklore. During this class, we will explore the symbolism of ghosts in literature and attempt to uncover why this genre of storytelling remains popular. Students will be required to write creative and/or critical response papers, make oral presentations, and produce either a final 10-page ghost story of their own or a critical essay, subject to the instructor’s approval.

Justin Torres:

Adaptation, Inspiration, and Reinvention: Queer Lit and Film (English 118C), UCLA, Fall 2017

Course Description : This course will ask what are the costs, and what are the compensations, of adaptation both in art and in life? We will look at a wide range of literary works with queer themes and their cinematic adaptations: Billy Budd / Beau Travail, The Color Purple, The Haunting of Hill House, and Kiss of the Spider Woman are just some examples. How have filmmakers like Almodovar, Campion, Jarman, and Fassbinder, approached literary adaptation? What, if anything, is queer about adaptation?

Anne Fadiman:

Writing About Oneself (ENGL 455), Yale University, Spring 2018

Course Description : This is a reading and writing class—part lecture, part seminar, part workshop—in which students explore a series of themes (including love, loss, family, and identity) both by writing about their own lives and by reading British and American memoirs, autobiographies, letters, and personal essays.

First-person writing is a peculiar blend of candor, catharsis, narcissism, and indiscretion. The purpose of this class is to harness these elements with sufficient rigor and imagination that self-portraiture becomes interesting to others as well as to oneself. Each week, we will read two works on a particular theme, one “old” (ranging from four decades to more than two centuries ago) and one “new” (mostly from the last two decades) —a coupling designed to erode the traditional academic boundaries between eras and between “ought” and “want” reading. (For instance, when we consider the theme of love, we will read excerpts from H. G. Wells’s On Loves and the Lover-Shadow and Joyce Maynard’s At Home in the World , and write personal essays on an aspect of love, not necessarily romantic.) Readings will include works by James Baldwin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joan Didion, Lucy Grealy, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary McCarthy, James Thurber, and Virginia Woolf, among others. Our connections to the readings will be reinforced by several author visits. By writing a thousand-word first-person essay every other week, students will face the same problems the authors in our syllabus have faced, though they may come up with very different solutions. Students will critique each other’s work in class and by e-mail. Each student will have at least five individual conferences with me, most of them an hour long, in which we’ll edit your work together.

Claudia Rankine:

Constructions of Whiteness (ENGL 233), Yale University, Spring 2018

Course Description : An interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of whiteness. Discussion of whiteness as a culturally constructed and economic incorporated entity, which touches upon and assigns value to nearly every aspect of American life and culture.

Class and Gender (ENGL 504), USC, Fall 2016

Course Description : This course will consider the construction of whiteness in contemporary America.

Historical Overview 1. The History of White People , by Nell Irvin Painter (W. W. Norton) 2. Look, A White!: Philosophical Essays on Whiteness , by George Yancy (Temple University Press) 3. The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control , by Theodore W. Allen and Jeffrey B. Perry 4. The Invention of the White Race, Volume 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo- America , by  Theodore W. Allen and Jeffrey B. Perry 5. Dear White America , by Tim Wise (City Lights Open Media) 6. Working Towards Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs , David R. Roediger 7. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States , by Kenneth T. Jackson (Oxford University Press)

Entertainment & Media 1. White: Essays on Race and Culture by Richard Dyer (Oxford) 2. White Girls , by Hilton Als (McSweeney’s) 3. The Devil Finds Work , by James Baldwin (Vintage)

White Activism (And Failures) 1. Good White People: The Problem with Middle-Class White Anti-Racism , by Shannon Sullivan (State University of New York Press) 2. Revealing Whiteness: The Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege , by Shannon Sullivan (Indiana University Press) 3. Between Barack and a Hard Place , by Tim Wise (Soft Skull Press)

Confronting Whiteness: Systemic Racism, Economic Inequality, Prison Complex, Housing Discrimination 1. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit , by Thomas J. Sugrue (Princeton University Press) 2. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness , by Michelle Alexander (The New Press) 3. Race Matters , by Cornell West (Vintage) 4. “The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning,” by Claudia Rankine, (New York Times Op-Ed)

Literary Criticism 1. Reading Race: White American Poets and the Racial Discourse in the Twentieth Century , by Aldon Lynn Nielsen (University of Georgia Press) 2. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination , by Toni Morrison (Vintage)

Memoirs & Personal Narratives 1. White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son , by Tim Wise 2. Detroit: An American Autopsy , by Charlie LeDuff (Penguin) 3. Between the World and Me , by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau) 4. Times Square Red, Times Square Blue , by Samuel R. Delany (New York University Press)

Poetry 1. Delusions of Whiteness in the Avant-Garde , by Cathy Park Hong (Lana Turner onine) 2. White Papers , by Martha Collins (Pitt Poetry Series) 3. The Forage House , by Tess Taylor (Red Hen Press) 4. The Cloud Corporation , by Timothy Donnelly (Wave Books) 5. Metropole , by Geoffrey G. O’Brien (University of California Press)

The Situation of Writing (ENG 392), Northwestern University, Fall 2015

Course Description : Writers are the inheritors, perpetuators, and innovators of literary culture. In this class we will explore the contemporary landscape of creative writing, with a particular emphasis on the role of small presses and small journals and magazines. We will explore how venues for writing, including online publications, shape contemporary literature. We will discuss the distinct missions and personalities of a number of presses, while exploring the relationship between press and practitioner. This course is designed especially for students who hope to forge careers as writers, and it will challenge all participants to think creatively about the place of literature in our society.

Stuart Dybek:

Advanced Creative Writing: Fabulous Fictions (ENG 307), Northwestern University, Winter 2018

Course Description : Fabulous Fictions focuses on writing that departs from realism. Often the subject matter of such writing explores states of mind that are referred to as non-ordinary reality. A wide variety of genres and subgenres fall under this heading: fabulism, myth, fairy tales, fantasy, science ction, speculative ction, horror, the grotesque, the supernatural, surrealism, etc. Obviously, in a mere quarter we could not hope to study each of these categories in the kind of detail that might be found in a literature class. The aim in 307 is to discern and employ writing techniques that overarch these various genres, to study the subject through doing—by writing your own fabulist stories. We will read examples of fabulism as writers read: to understand how these ctions are made—studying them from the inside out, so to speak. Many of these genres overlap. For instance, they are all rooted in the tale, a kind of story that goes back to primitive sources. They all speculate: they ask the question, What If? They all are stories that demand invention, which, along with the word transformation, will be a key term in the course. The invention might be a monster, a method of time travel, an alien world, etc., but with rare exceptions the story will demand an invention and that invention will often also be the central image of the story. So, in discussing how these stories work we will also be learning some of the most basic, primitive moves in storytelling. To get you going I will be bringing in exercises that employ fabulist techniques and hopefully will promote stories. These time-tested techniques will be your entrances—your rabbit holes and magic doorways—into the gurative. You will be asked to keep a dream journal, which will serve as basis for one of the exercises. Besides the exercises, two full-length stories will be required, as well as written critiques of one another’s work. Because we all serve to make up an audience for the writer, attendance is mandatory.

Vievee Francis:

Engaging Hybridity: Race, Gender, Genre (ENGL 87.10), Dartmouth College, Fall 2017

Course Description : In this course, from the graphic novel written by poets to the narrative collage to the imagined tweets of Anne Sexton, all of the contemporary readings and visual materials dare take on social, political and cultural engagement with this anxious moment in history. The stakes are high. We will consider the diverse and provocative creative work of Mat Johnson ( Incognegro ), Maggie Nelson ( Bluets ), Sebastian Matthews ( Beginner’s Guide to A Head On Collision ), Claudia Rankine ( Citizen ), Tyehimba Jess ( Olio ), Kwame Dawes ( Duppy Conqueror ), A. Van Jordan ( The Cineaste ) and Dee Matthews ( Simulacra ), among others, to explore hybrid genres (such as the prose poem) and other sites of artistic production met through intersection, exchange, conflict, inhabitance, resistance, and cultural address. These writers and artists may work as well in more than one distinct genre and or take on hybridity of forms and approaches within a particular genre. We will respond to the readings (and visual material) by creating our own. Further, this class will encourage topical discussion and readings will include author interviews, commentaries, and critical analyses of their process and production, as we ask what kind of parameters, if any, art, particularly literature, truly requires? Are they porous enough? Is there a skein where a wall is necessary? What role does identity play in the choice to cross such borders?

Kevin Young:

Special Topics in Creative Writing: The Lyric (ENGCW379W-01P), Emory University, Fall 2016

Course Description : The Lyric will explore recent adventures in the ancient form of the lyric, that primal mode of song and sustenance. In this advanced course, students will study and write in a range of forms, from the manifesto to the three-line novel, from sonnets to erasures, the prose poem and the lyrical essay, in order to discover new paths in reading and writing. They will emerge with their own work and their own sense of the English-language tradition, the avant-garde, and the counterculture.

We will also explore primary materials, discovering many of these works in their original form in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (the Rose Library) and its Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, where I serve as curator. The course reflects the broad scope of the Danowski Poetry Library itself, which, despite its name, also includes prose, counterculture, the roots of the lyric essay, and artists’ books.

Besides weekly reading and writing assignments, students also will be monitoring new media, including Twitter, where much of this new lyricism might be found. The result would also involve a possible web presence as students familiarize themselves with the latest in digital scholarship. The course concludes with students curating a final project. All these innovations are meant to help students understand the widespread place of the lyric in culture. In its fresh mix of digital and dust jackets, new media and material culture, The Lyric Essay’s investigations and instigations will help us discover the lyric mode in the modern world, and ourselves.

Natasha Trethewey:

Poetry and the Muse of History (ENGCW190-000), Emory University, Fall 2016

Course Description : A freshman-only workshop for students who have had little or no experience in creative writing. Not a prerequisite for other courses in the program. The course will take an in-depth look at poems that seek to engage and document our stories—those histories both public and private, real and imagined. We will discuss the ways that some poets have used personal and public history in their work, define some strategies for using information gathered from our research, and begin writing some poems that engage those histories to which we have some connection. In all of this, we will focus on cultivating the craft of poetry with particular emphasis on what makes a poem work—metaphor, image, musicality, voice, etc. We will work to develop the critical language necessary for discussing each other’s work and for critically approaching our own poems during the important process of revision.

Vikram Chandra:

The Short Story (English 180H), University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2017

Course Description :

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne. . . —Chaucer

This course will investigate how authors craft stories, so that both non-writers and writers may gain a new perspective on reading stories. In thinking of short stories as artefacts produced by humans, we will consider—without any assertions of certainty—how those people may have experienced themselves and their world, and how history and culture may have participated in the making of these stories. So, in this course we will explore the making, purposes, and pleasures of the short story form. We will read—widely, actively and carefully—many published stories from various countries in order to begin to understand the conventions of the form, and how this form may function in diverse cultures. Students will write a short story and revise it; engaging with a short story as a writer will aid them in their investigations as readers and critics. Students will also write two analytical papers about stories we read in class. Attendance is mandatory.

Lyn Hejinian:

Slow Seeing / Slow Reading (English 190), University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2016

Course Description : This is a seminar in the poetics of reading poems and seeing paintings. Over the course of the semester, students will undertake prolonged, exploratory, multi-contextual readings of a selection of recent and contemporary “difficult” poems. Each student will also undertake a similar engagement with a 20th/21st century painting of his or her choice from the permanent collection of the Berkeley Art Museum. Poems by W. B. Yeats, Claude McKay, Rae Armantrout, Elizabeth Bishop, Ed Roberson, Marianne Moore, Juliana Spahr, and Susan Howe are among the poems that will be considered. Paintings by Philip Guston, Hans Hoffman, Willem de Kooning, and Helen Frankenthaler are among the paintings that will be available for repeated viewing. The individual poems and paintings will be read/seen against the backdrop of their historical moment and contextual purport and in conjunction with assigned critical texts, but students will be expected to conduct their own research, using primary and secondary sources in the process of coming to relevant, meaningful readings/seeings of the works. Students will be asked to maintain a reading/seeing journal and to write two critical papers.

“English 190: Slow Seeing / Slow Reading” is an experiment, and is offered as a collaboration between Lyn Hejinian, of the English Department, and Apsara DiQuinzio, of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Among the outcomes of the course will be an exhibition at BAMPFA that will be part of a new exhibition series at the museum titled Cal Conversations; the materials for the “Slow Seeing / Slow Reading” exhibition will be determined by the seminar’s students and include some of their course writings.

21st-Century American Writing (English 134), University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2016

Course Description : In this course we will take seriously the notion of “the contemporary” as that which coexists with us and is relevant to our times—or our spaces. All the works on the syllabus have been published in the past ten years, most within the past three. They offer examples of current literature’s attempts to dwell in the present while thinking both about that temporal situation (“the present”) and that activity (“dwelling”). Not all the works are readily categorizable as to genre; the syllabus is weighted toward prose, but some of the prose works are, arguably, poetry. In many, communication, and even humanness, appear to be in question. Or, perhaps, they are evolving into new forms. But, as many of the books on the course reading list suggest, one thing that is not vanishing is the centrality of desire in the experiencing of lived life.

The first two books on the syllabus are Open City , by Teju Cole, and SPRAWL , by Danielle Dutton. It is suggested that at least the first, and preferably both, be purchased in advance, so that the course can proceed without anyone’s falling behind.

Book List: Brown, Brandon: Top 40 ; Clevidence, Cody-Rose: Beast Feast ; Coates, Ta-Nehisi: Between the World and Me ; Cole, Teju: Open City ; Dutton, Danielle: Sprawl ; Díaz, Junot: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ; Gladman, Renee: Event Factory ; Lerner, Ben: 10:04 ; Moten, Fred: The Service Porch ; Notley, Alice: Certain Magical Acts ; Rankine, Claudea: Citizen: An American Lyric ; Robertson, Lisa: Nilling ; Spahr, Juliana and Buuck, David: The Army of Lovers

Geoff Dyer:

Reporting and Literature (ENGL 620), USC, Spring 2017

Course Description : At what point does reporting become literature? How does the obligation to record facts or document events sit alongside the artistic urge to shape and embellish? To what extent can a highly individual personal style conflict with reliability? These are some of the questions to be raised in a survey of landmark books by—among others—Gay Talese, Janet Malcolm, Rebecca West, Dexter Filkins, Norman Mailer and Ryszard Kapuscinski. We will also consider some photographic books, especially collaborations between writers and photographers such as A Fortunate Man by John Berger and Jean Mohr and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans. It was Evans, after all, who expressed the crux of the matter most concisely by making a distinction between documentary and what he insisted on calling “documentary style.”

Jim Shepard:

Motherhood and Horror: The Movie (ENGL 380), Williams College, Spring 2018

Course Description : Horror might be the most durable of film genres as well as the genre that’s done the most work in terms of transforming the medium as a whole, and its transgressive nature has insured it attention, giving its most famous texts enormous cultural reach when it comes to ongoing conversations as to what defines evil, what constitutes normality, or what comprises the taboo. A look at the particular anxieties the genre has—especially recently—mobilized through its portraits of mothers and motherhood. The course will also touch on other genres that suggest an unspeakable invisible beneath the maternal quotidian. Films to be studied will include Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho , Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby , Jee-Woo Kim’s A Tale of Two Sisters , Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, James Cameron’s Aliens, Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce, Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later, and Veronika Franz’s and Severin Fiala’s Goodnight Mommy.

Hollywood Film (ENGL 204), Williams College, Fall 2017

Course Description : For almost a century, Hollywood films have been the world’s most influential art form, shaping how we dress and talk, how we think about sex, race, and power, and what it means to be American. We’ll examine both the characteristic pleasures provided by Hollywood’s dominant genres—including action films, horror films, thrillers and romantic comedies—and the complex, sometimes unsavory fantasies they mobilize. We will do this by looking carefully at a dozen or so iconic films, probably including Psycho ; Casablanca ; The Godfather ; Schindler’s List ; Bridesmaids ; Groundhog Day , and 12 Years a Slave . In addition to the assigned reading, students will be required to attend free screenings of course films on Sunday evenings at Images Cinema.

Karen Shepard:

Imagination and Authority (ENGL 154), Williams College, Fall 2017

Course Description : A course on the subject of who gets to write about what when it comes to fiction. Among the questions we’ll be taking up: What are the outer boundaries of those imaginative acts that should be attempted? The central goal of this course is to teach you how to write a well-argued and interesting analytical paper. We will spend most of our class time actively engaged in a variety of techniques to improve your critical reasoning and analytical skills, both written and oral. Though the skills you learn will be applicable to other disciplines, this is also a literature class, designed as well to prepare you for upper level courses in the English Department.

Frank Bidart:

Great Works of Poetry (English 115), Wellesley College, Spring 2018

Course Description : We live in a culture that has lost any collective agreement or wisdom about what a poem is, or why we read poetry. Yet many of the greatest things ever written are poems. How can we read poems so that we experience them as brilliantly made things, as powerful, seductive works of art? This course will look at great poems from the whole history of poetry in English (and at some poems in translation). Why read poetry? This course attempts to tackle that question head-on, with an emphasis on the pleasure and insight great art brings.

Contemporary American Poetry (English 253), Wellesley College, Fall 2017

Course Description : A survey of the great poems and poets of the last 75 years, a period of immense invention and brilliant creation. Our poets articulate the inside story of what being an American person feels like in an age of mounting visual spectacle, and in an environment where identities are suddenly, often thrillingly, sometimes distressingly, in question. Without repudiating the great heritage of Modernism, how have the poets that followed added to it? Poets include: Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, the poets of “The New York School” (John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara), Adrienne Rich, Louise Glück, Robert Pinsky, Anne Carson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove, Dan Chiasson, and others.

Tiphanie Yanique:

Girls: Character Development Across Genres (ENGL 312), Wesleyan University, Fall 2017

Course Description : In this special topics course we will study the craft of character building. We will focus on how novelists, short story writers, film makers, poets and essayists over the 20th and the beginning of 21st century have crafted the female child in literature to have a broad but challenging conversation about narration, voice, subjectivity, and agency. We will use the course materials and discussions as impetus to write characters that challenge easy tropes while also contributing to ongoing conversations about literature and writing.

Possible texts include : Girls dir by Lena Dunham Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison White Teeth by Zadie Smith Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Cowboys and East Indians by Nina McConigley

Living Room: Place and Structure in the Novel and Short Story (ENGL 318), Wesleyan University, Spring 2018

Course Description : In this special topics course we will study the craft of structure and setting. We will focus on how novelists and short story writers have made use of architecture and the environment as a means to shape story, reveal character, and direct plot. We will apply our learning to our own fiction by writing work that reveals a sophisticated awareness of the relationship between content and form.

Possible texts include : The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez Blindness by Jose Saramago A House for Mr. Biswas by VS Naipaul The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

Hisham Matar:

Estrangement and Exile in Global Novels (ENGL BC3192), Barnard College, Fall 2017

Course Description : “I would never be part of anything. I would never really belong anywhere, and I knew it, and all my life would be the same, trying to belong, and failing. Always something would go wrong. I am a stranger and I always will be, and after all I didn’t really care.” —Jean Rhys.

This course examines the experiential life of the novelist as both artist and citizen. Through the study of the work of two towering figures in 20th century literature, we will look at the seemingly contradictory condition of the novelist as both outsider and integral to society, as both observer and expresser of time’s yearnings and passions. In different ways and with different repercussions, Jean Rhys and Albert Camus were born into realities shaped by colonialism. They lived across borders, identities and allegiances. Rhys was neither black-Caribbean nor white-English. Albert Camus could be said to have been both French and Algerian, both the occupier and the occupied, and, perhaps, neither. We will look at how their work reflects the contradictions into which they were born. We will trace, through close reading and open discussion, the ways in which their art continues to have lasting power and remain, in light of the complexities of our own time, vivid, true and alive. The objective is to pinpoint connections between novelistic form and historical time. The uniqueness of the texts we will read lies not just in their use of narrative, ideas and myths, but also in their resistance to generalization. We will examine how our novelists’ existential position, as both witnesses and participants, creates an opportunity for fiction to reveal more than the author intends and, on the other hand, more than power desires.

Listen: Claudia Rankine talks to Paul Holdengräber about objectifying the moment, investigating a subject, and accidental stalking.

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Emily Temple

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The 20+ Best Books on Creative Writing

If you’ve ever wondered, “How do I write a book?”, “How do I write a short story?”, or “How do I write a poem?” you’re not alone. I’m halfway done my MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts , and I ask myself these questions a lot, too, though I’m noticing that by now I feel more comfortable with the answers that fit my personal craft. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing candidate, or even a college graduate, in order to soak up the great Wisdom of Words, as I like to call it. Another word for it is craft . That’s because there are so many great books out there on writing craft. In this post, I’ll guide you through 20+ of the most essential books on creative writing. These essential books for writers will teach you what you need to know to write riveting stories and emotionally resonant books—and to sell them.

I just also want to put in a quick plug for my post with the word count of 175 favorite novels . This resource is helpful for any writer.

Now, with that done… Let’s get to it!

What Made the List of Essential Books for Writers—and What Didn’t

So what made the list? And what didn’t?

Unique to this list, these are all books that I have personally used in my journey as a creative and commercial writer.

That journey started when I was 15 and extended through majoring in English and Creative Writing as an undergrad at UPenn through becoming a freelance writer in 2014, starting this book blog, pursuing my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts , and publishing some fiction and nonfiction books myself . My point here is not to boast, just to explain that these books have all helped me better understand and apply the craft, discipline, and business of writing over the course of more than half my life as I’ve walked the path to become a full-time writer. Your mileage my vary , but each of these books have contributed to my growth as a writer in some way. I’m not endorsing books I’ve never read or reviewed. This list comes from my heart (and pen!).

Most of these books are geared towards fiction writers, not poetry or nonfiction writers

It’s true that I’m only one human and can only write so much in one post. Originally, I wanted this list to be more than 25 books on writing. Yes, 25 books! But it’s just not possible to manage that in a single post. What I’ll do is publish a follow-up article with even more books for writers. Stay tuned!

The most commonly recommended books on writing are left out.

Why? Because they’re everywhere! I’m aiming for under-the-radar books on writing, ones that aren’t highlighted often enough. You’ll notice that many of these books are self-published because I wanted to give voice to indie authors.

But I did want to include a brief write-up of these books… and, well, you’ve probably heard of them, but here are 7 of the most recommended books on writing:

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – With her guided practice on how to rejuvenate your art over the course of 16 weeks, Cameron has fashioned an enduring classic about living and breathing your craft (for artists as well as writers). This book is perhaps best known for popularizing the morning pages method.

The Art of Fiction by John Gardner – If you want to better understand how fiction works, John Gardner will be your guide in this timeless book.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – A beloved writing book on process, craft, and overcoming stumbling blocks (both existential and material).

On Writing by Stephen King – A must-read hybrid memoir-craft book on the writer mythos and reality for every writer.

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose – A core writing book that teaches you how to read with a writer’s eye and unlock the ability to recognize and analyze craft for yourself.

Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin – Many writers consider this to be their bible on craft and storytelling.

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg – A favorite of many writers, this book takes an almost spiritual approach to the art, craft, and experience of writing.

I’m aiming for under-the-radar books on writing on my list.

These books are all in print.

Over the years, I’ve picked up several awesome books on creative writing from used bookstores. Oh, how I wish I could recommend these! But many of them are out of print. The books on this list are all available new either as eBooks, hardcovers, or paperbacks. I guess this is the right time for my Affiliate Link disclaimer:

This article contains affiliate links, which means I might get a small portion of your purchase. For more on my affiliate link policy, check out my official Affiliate Link Disclaimer .

You’ll notice a lot of the books focus on the business of writing.

Too often, money is a subject that writers won’t talk about. I want to be upfront about the business of writing and making a living as a writer (or not ) with these books. It’s my goal to get every writer, even poets!, to look at writing not just from a craft perspective, but from a commercial POV, too.

And now on to the books!

Part i: the best books on writing craft, the anatomy of story by john truby.

For you if: You want to develop an instinctive skill at understanding the contours of storytelling .

All I want to do as a writer, my MO, is tell good stories well. It took me so long to understand that what really matters to me is good storytelling. That’s it—that’s the essence of what we do as writers… tell good stories well. And in The Anatomy of Story , legendary screenwriting teacher John Truby takes you through story theory. This book is packed with movie references to illustrate the core beat points in story, and many of these example films are actually literary adaptations, making this a crossover craft book for fiction writers and screenwriters alike.

How to read it: Purchase The Anatomy of Story on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The art of memoir by mary karr.

For you if: You’re writing a memoir book or personal essays .

Nobody is a better person to teach memoir writing than Mary Karr, whose memoirs The Liar’s Club and Lit are considered classics of the genre. In The Art of Memoir , Karr delivers a master class on memoir writing, adapted from her experience as a writer and a professor in Syracuse’s prestigious MFA program. What I love about this book as an aspiring memoirist is Karr’s approach, which blends practical, actionable advice with more bigger-picture concepts on things like truth vs. fact in memoir storytelling. Like I said in the intro to this list, I didn’t include many nonfiction and poetry books on this list, but I knew I had to make an exception for The Art of Memoir .

How to read it: Purchase The Art of Memoir on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The emotional craft of fiction by donald maass.

For you if: Plot isn’t your problem, it’s character .

From literary agent Donald Maass, The Emotional Craft of Fiction gives you the skill set you need to master emotionally engaging fiction. Maass’s technique is to show you how readers get pulled into the most resonant, engaging, and unforgettable stories: by going through an emotional journey nimbly crafted by the author. The Emotional Craft of Fiction is a must-have work of craft to balance more plot-driven craft books.

How to read it: Purchase the The Emotional Craft of Fiction on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

How to Write Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson

For you if: You need a quick-and-dirty plotting technique that’s easy to memorize .

I first heard of the “Snowflake Method” in the National Novel Writing Month forums (which, by the way, are excellent places for finding writing craft worksheets, book recommendations, and online resources). In How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method , the Snowflake Method is introduced by its creator. This quick yet thorough plotting and outlining structure is humble and easy to master. If you don’t have time to read a bunch of books on outlining and the hundreds of pages that would require, check out How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method for a quick, 235-page read.

How to read it: Purchase How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Meander, spiral, explode: design and pattern in narrative by jane alison.

For you if: You want to do a deep dive understanding of the core theory of story, a.k.a. narrative.

A most unconventional writing craft book, Meander, Spiral, Explode offers a theory of narrative (story) as recognizable patterns. According to author Jane Alison, there are three main narrative narratives in writing: meandering, spiraling, and exploding. This cerebral book (chock full of examples!) is equal parts seminar on literary theory as it is craft, and it will make you see and understand storytelling better than maybe any book on this list.

How to read it: Purchase Meander, Spiral, Explode on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The modern library writer’s workshop by stephen koch.

For you if: You’re wondering what it means to be the writer you want to become .

This is one of the earliest creative writing books I ever bought and it remains among the best I’ve read. Why? Reading The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop echoes the kind of mind-body-spirit approach you need to take to writing. The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop doesn’t teach you the nuts and bolts of writing as much as it teaches you how to envision the machine. Koch zooms out to big picture stuff as much as zeroes in on the little details. This is an outstanding book about getting into the mindset of being a writer, not just in a commercial sense, but as your passion and identity. It’s as close as you’ll get to the feel of an MFA in Fiction education.

How to read it: Purchase The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Romancing the beat by gwen hayes.

For you if: You write or edit the romance genre and want a trusted plotting strategy to craft the perfect love story .

If you’re writing romance, you have to get Gwen Hayes’s Romancing the Beat . This book breaks down the plot points or “beats” you want to hit when you’re crafting your romance novel. When I worked as a romance novel outliner (yes, a real job), our team used Romancing the Beat as its bible; every outline was structured around Hayes’s formula. For romance writers (like myself) I cannot endorse it any higher.

How to read it: Purchase Romancing the Beat on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Save the cat writes a novel by jessica brody.

For you if: You have big ideas for a plot but need to work on the smaller moments that propel stories .

Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel adapts Blake Snyder’s bestselling screenwriting book Save the Cat! into story craft for writing novels. Brody reworks the Save the Cat! methodology in actionable, point-by-point stages of story that are each explained with countless relevant examples. If you want to focus your efforts on plot, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel is an excellent place to go to start learning the ins and outs of what makes a good story.

How to read it: Purchase Save the Cat! Writes a Novel on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Story genius by lisa cron.

For you if: You’re a pantser and are terrified at outlining yet also realize you might have a “plot problem .”

More than any other book, Lisa Cron’s Story Genius will get you where you need to go for writing amazing stories. Story Genius helps you look at plotting differently, starting from a point of characterization in which our protagonists have a clearly defined need and misbelief that play off each other and move the story forward from an emotional interior and action exterior standpoint. For many of my fellow MFA students—and myself— Story Genius is the missing link book for marrying plot and character so you innately understand the contours of good story.

How to read it: Purchase Story Genius on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Wonderbook: the illustrated guide to creating imaginative fiction by jeff vandermeer.

For you if: You’re writing in a speculative fiction genre—like science fiction, fantasy, or horror—or are trying to better understand those genres.

Jeff VanderMeer’s Wonderbook is a dazzling gem of a book and a can’t-miss-it writing book for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers. This book will teach you all the skills you need to craft speculative fiction, like world-building, with micro-lessons and close-reads of excellent works in these genres. Wonderbook is also one to linger over, with lavish illustrations and every inch and corner crammed with craft talk for writing imaginative fiction (sometimes called speculative fiction). And who better to guide you through this than Jeff VanderMeer, author of the popular Southern Reach Trilogy, which kicks off with Annihilation , which was adapted into a feature film.

How to read it: Purchase Wonderbook on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Writing picture books by ann whitford paul.

For you if: You’re looking to write picture books and/or understand how they work .

This book is the only one you need to learn how to write and sell picture books. As an MFA student studying children’s literature, I’ve consulted with this book several times as I’ve dipped my toes into writing picture books, a form I considered scary and intimidating until reading this book. Writing Picture Books should be on the shelf of any writer of children’s literature. a.k.a. “kid lit.”

How to read it: Purchase Writing Picture Books on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Writing with emotion, conflict, and tension by cheryl st. john.

For you if: You need to work on the conflict, tension, and suspense that keep readers turning pages and your story going forward .

Mmm, conflict. As I said earlier, it’s the element of fiction writing that makes a story interesting and a key aspect of characterization that is underrated. In Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict , bestselling romance author Cheryl St. John offers a masterclass on the delicate dance between incorporating conflict, the emotions it inspires in characters, and the tension that results from those two factors.

How to read it: Purchase Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Part ii: the best books on the productivity, mfas, and the business of writing, 2k to 10k: writing faster, writing better, and writing more of what you love by rachel aaron.

For you if: You struggle to find the time to write and always seem to be a chapter or two behind schedule .

If you’re struggling to find time of your own to write with competing obligations (family, work, whatever) making that hard, you need Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k . This book will get you in shape to go from writing just a few words an hour to, eventually, 10,000 words a day. Yes, you read that right. 10,000 words a day. At that rate, you can complete so many more projects and publish more. Writers simply cannot afford to waste time if they want to keep up the kind of production that leads to perpetual publication. Trust me, Aaron’s method works. It has for me. I’m on my way to 10k in the future, currently at like 4 or 5k a day for me at the moment.

How to read it: Purchase 2k to 10k on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The 3 a.m. epiphany by brian kitele.

For you if: You’re going through writer’s block, have been away from writing for a while, or just want to loosen up and try something new .

Every writer must own an an exercise or prompt book. Why? Because regularly practicing your writing by going outside your current works-in-progress (or writer’s block) will free you up, help you plant the seeds for new ideas, and defrost your creative blocks. And the best book writing exercise book I know is The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley, an MFA professor who uses prompts like these with his grad students. You’ll find that this book (and its sequel, The 4 A.M. Breakthrough ) go beyond cutesy exercises and forces you to push outside your comfort zone and learn something from the writing you find there.

How to read it: Purchase The 3 A.M. Epiphany on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

The 4-hour workweek by timothy ferriss.

For you if: You think being a writer means you have to be poor .

The 4-Hour Workweek changed my life. Although not strictly about writing in the traditional sense, The 4-Hour Workweek does an excellent job teaching you about how passive income can offer you freedom. I first heard about The 4-Hour Workweek when I was getting into tarot in 2013. On Biddy Tarot , founder Brigit (author of some of the best books on tarot ) related how she read this book, learned how to create passive income, and quit her corporate job to read tarot full time. As a person with a total and permanent disability, this spoke to me because it offered a way out of the 9-to-5 “active” income that I thought was the only way. I picked up Ferriss’s book and learned that there’s more than one option, and that passive income is a viable way for me to make money even when I’m too sick to work. I saw this come true last year when I was in the hospital. When I got out, I checked my stats and learned I’d made money off my blog and books even while I was hospitalized and couldn’t do any “active” work. I almost cried.; I’ve been working on my passive income game since 2013, and I saw a return on that time investment when I needed it most.

That’s why I’m recommending The 4-Hour Workweek to writers. So much of our trade is producing passive income products. Yes, your books are products! And for many writers, this means rewiring your brain to stop looking at writing strictly as an art that will leave you impoverished for life and start approaching writing as a business that can earn you a real living through passive income. No book will help you break out of that mindset better than The 4-Hour Workweek and its actionable steps, proven method, and numerous examples of people who have followed the strategy and are living the lifestyle they’ve always dreamed of but never thought was possible.

How to read it: Purchase The 4-Hour Workweek on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book by Courtney Maum

For you if: You’re serious about making a living as a writer and publishing with a Big 5 or major indie publisher .

Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal addresses exactly what its title suggests: what happens after you sell your first book. This book is for ambitious writers intent on submission who know they want to write and want to avoid common pitfalls while negotiating terms and life after your debut. As many published authors would tell you, the debut is one thing, but following that book up with a sustainable, successful career is another trick entirely. Fortunately, we have Maum’s book, packed with to-the-moment details and advice.

How to read it: Purchase Before and After the Book Deal on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Diy mfa: write with focus, read with purpose, build your community by gabriela pereira.

For you if: You’re stressed out wondering if you really need an MFA .

The MFA is under this header “business of writing” because it is absolutely an economic choice you make. And, look, I’m biased. I’m getting an MFA. But back when I was grappling with whether or not it was worth it—the debt, the time, the stress—I consulted with DIY MFA , an exceptional guide to learning how to enrich your writing craft, career, and community outside the structures of an MFA program. I’ve also more than once visited the companion site, DIYMFA.com , to find a kind of never-ending rabbit hole of new and timeless content on the writing life. On DIYMFA.com and in the corresponding book, you’ll find a lively hub for author interviews, writing craft shop talk, reading lists, and business of writing articles.

How to read it: Purchase DIY MFA on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Mfa vs. nyc by chad harbach.

For you if: You’re wondering how far an MFA really gets you—and you’re ready to learn the realities of the publishing world .

About a thousand years ago (well, in 2007), I spent the fall of my sophomore year of college as a “Fiction Submissions and Advertising Intern” for the literary magazine n+1 , which was co-founded by Chad Harbach, who you might know from his buzzy novel, The Art of Fielding . In MFA vs NYC , Harbach offers his perspective as both an MFA graduate and someone deeply enmeshed in the New York City publishing industry. This thought-provoking look at these two arenas that launch writers will pull the wool up from your eyes about how publishing really works . It’s not just Harbach’s voice you get in here, though. The book, slim but mighty, includes perspectives from the likes of George Saunders and David Foster Wallace in the MFA camp and Emily Gould and Keith Gessen speaking to NYC’s writing culture.

How to read it: Purchase MFA vs. NYC on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Scratch: writers, money, and the art of making a living – edited by manjula martin.

For you if: a) You’re worried about how to balance writing with making a living; b) You’re not worried about how to balance writing with making a living .

Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living is alternately one of the most underrated and essential books on writing out there. This collection of personal essays and interviews all revolve around the taboo theme of how writers make their living, and it’s not always—indeed, rarely—through writing alone. Some of the many contributing authors include Cheryl Strayed ( Wild ), Alexander Chee ( How to Write an Autobiographical Novel ), Jennifer Weiner ( Mrs. Everything ), Austin Kleon ( Steal Like an Artist ), and many others. Recently a young woman asked me for career advice on being a professional freelance writer, and I made sure to recommend Scratch as an eye-opening and candid read that is both motivating and candid.

How to read it: Purchase Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

Write to market: deliver a book that sells by chris fox.

For you if: You don’t know why your books aren’t selling—and you want to start turning a profit by getting a real publishing strategy

So you don’t have to be an indie author to internalize the invaluable wisdom you’ll find here in Write to Market . I first heard about Write to Market when I first joined the 20Booksto50K writing group on Facebook , a massive, supportive, motivating community of mostly indie authors. Everyone kept talking about Write to Market . I read the book in a day and found the way I looked at publishing change. Essentially, what Chris Fox does in Write to Market is help you learn to identify what are viable publishing niches. Following his method, I’ve since published several successful and #1 bestselling books in the quotations genre on Amazon . Without Fox’s book, I’m not sure I would have gotten there on my own.

How to read it: Purchase Write to Market on Amazon and add it on Goodreads

And that’s a wrap what are some of your favorite writing books, share this:, you might be interested in.

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Sarah S. Davis is the founder of Broke by Books, a blog about her journey as a schizoaffective disorder bipolar type writer and reader. Sarah's writing about books has appeared on Book Riot, Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, BookRags, PsychCentral, and more. She has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Library and Information Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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The 19 best online writing classes led by famous authors, including Malcolm Gladwell, Neil Gaiman, and Judy Blume

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

• Strong communication and writing skills will help you succeed in any profession.
• Online classes are an affordable way to learn writing tips and receive feedback on your work.
• All the classes on this list are taught by award-winning writers with decades of experience.

Good writing skills can take you far (just take it from a business major who wormed her way into an editorial career). Strong written communication skills can help you land a job or move up in your career , but good writing doesn't come easily or instinctively to everyone. As with any skill, you won't get any better at writing simply by reading books or watching videos about it.

Online classes from e-learning platforms like MasterClass and Skillshare are affordable, flexible ways to not only learn the proper strategies but also practice and receive feedback on your writing. And who better to learn from than actual published authors, writers, and editors?

The following classes are all taught by accomplished, award-winning writers who have decades of experience in communicating ideas, telling stories, and captivating audiences. Some specialize in fiction, while others employ storytelling tricks to make even the driest facts shine.

If you see the word "creative" in the title, don't immediately dismiss the class. All the courses have valuable lessons to learn for making your writing more effective, whether you're in a creative industry or not.

19 writing classes taught by experienced authors, writers, and editors:

Neil gaiman's masterclass on the art of storytelling.

The teacher: Award-winning writer Neil Gaiman (" The Sandman ," " Coraline ," " American Gods ") has dabbled in everything from novels and comic books to film and audio theatre. The course: Gaiman covers the fundamentals of storytelling, from finding your voice to fleshing out your characters. The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership.

Joyce Carol Oats' MasterClass on the Art of the Short Story

The teacher: Joyce Carol Oates is the author of over 58 novels (" We Were the Mulvaneys ," " Blonde ," " The Accursed "), as well as countless short stories, essays, and articles. She is also a former professor of creative writing at Princeton University .

The course: Oates' class helps students finetune their storytelling instincts for short story writing, from learning how to observe the world around them to nailing down structure and form.

The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership.

Judy Blume's MasterClass on Writing

The teacher: Judy Blume's beloved children's books (" Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret ," " Superfudge ") have sold millions of copies, and Blume has written over 25 novels. She's also the recipient of the 2004 National Book Foundation medal for distinguished contribution to American letters, as well as numerous other awards.

The course: With a focus on writing for young readers, Blume's course dives into developing ideas, creating plot structure, and even pitching book ideas to editors, and even dealing with issues like rejection or censorship. The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership.

N.K. Jemisin's MasterClass on Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing

The teacher: NK Jemisin, a Hugo Award winner for three consecutive years for her " Broken Earth " trilogy, is an an acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author. The course: Jemisin's course, geared towards sci-fi/fantasy writing, teaches students how to build a believable world from scratch (including macro and micro details), create characters that truly feel relatable even in fantastical settings, and find a literary agent. The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership.

Creative Nonfiction: Write Truth with Style

The teacher: Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992 and is the author of eight books, including New York Times bestseller " Rin Tin Tin " and " The Orchid Thief ," which was later adapted into Spike Jonze's "Adaptation," (in which Meryl Streep portrayed Orlean). The course:  The best nonfiction makes facts compelling and interesting to read, but it's not easy to do this. This course takes students through Susan Orlean's writing process, from finding a topic to making final edits, and helps them polish their own creative processes. The class project is a 1,000-word profile on someone you find mysterious.  The price: Free with 14-day Skillshare trial; $8.25 per month or $19 per month after trial ends.

Malcolm Gladwell's MasterClass on Writing

The teacher:  Malcolm Gladwell has written for "The New Yorker" since 1996. His fascinating books, which include " The Tipping Point ," " Blink ," and " Outliers " reveal the most unexpected insights into our world. "The Tipping Point" was named as one of the best books of the decade by Amazon customers, The A.V. Club, and The Guardian, and was Barnes & Noble's 5th bestselling nonfiction book of the decade. 

The course: In 24 lessons, you'll learn how to find, research, and write stories that capture big ideas. This is Gladwell's first-ever online class, where he analyzes his own works to reveal his unique creative process. He also answers select student questions during virtual office hours. 

Roxane Gay's MasterClass on Writing for Social Change and Creative Writing: Crafting Personal Essays with Impact

The teacher: On top of writing bestselling memoirs like " Bad Feminist " and " Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body ," Roxane Gay is a professor and New York Times columnist , making her as experienced an author as she is an educator. The course: If you want to see change in the world, strong storytelling skills can help you get there. Gay's MasterClass teaches you how to tap into your identity, figure out your voice, and write about emotionally hard subjects with care, so that you can get people on board with the broader visions you have for improving the world.

Roxane Gay also teaches a short Skillshare class on crafting impactful personal essays from start to finish. You can read a review of it here .

The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership. Free with 14-day Skillshare trial; $8.25 per month or $19 per month after trial ends.

Daniel José Older's Storytelling 101: Character, Conflict, Context, Craft

The teacher:  Daniel José Older is the bestselling author of the " Bone Street Rumba " urban fantasy series and the YA novel " Shadowshaper ." "Shadowshaper" was a "New York Times" Notable Book of 2015 and named one of Esquire's "80 Books Every Person Should Read." Older's short stories and essays have appeared in the Guardian, NPR, and a number of other sites.  The course:  This short 40-minute class breaks down the fundamentals of narrative storytelling and what makes a story different from a mere anecdote. Learn the "4 C's" of storytelling and see them in action in one of the teacher's own short stories. The fun final project is to write a short story about something that happened on a single block in your hometown over the course of one hour.

The price: Free with 14-day Skillshare trial; $8.25 per month or $19 per month after trial ends

Steven Heller's The Designer's Guide to Writing and Research

The teacher:  Steven Heller writes the Visuals column for the "New York Times Book Review" and is the editor of the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. A former "New York Times" art director , he is the author, co-author, or editor of over 170 books on design and popular culture , and also regularly contributes to design publications.  The course:  Geared towards designers, this course illuminates the parallels between writing and design. You'll learn about the professional importance of research and writing to designers today, best practices for developing your voice, and creative ways to communicate. The final project is a 500-word essay on an object in your wallet, bag, or pocket. 

David Sedaris’s MasterClass on Storytelling and Humor

The teacher: If you want to inject your writing with a dash of comedy, David Sedaris — "The New Yorker" essayist and author of " Me Talk Pretty One Day ," " Calypso ," and " The Best of Me " — is one of the best people to teach you how to do it.

The course: Beyond covering tips and tricks for writing eye-grabbing openings and endings with huge payoffs, Sedaris also gives his advice on finding humor in the darkest moments of our lives.

Amy Tan's MasterClass on Fiction, Memory, and Imagination

The teacher: Most known for her bestselling novel " The Joy Luck Club " (which spent 40 weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list), Amy Tan is an inspiration to anyone who's started exploring their writing voice later in life — she started at age 33 and published her famed debut novel a mere few years later. Tan went on to write many other books, including " The Bonesetter's Daughter " and " The Kitchen God's Wife: A Novel ." The course: With a focus on utilizing your most powerful memories, this course teaches you how to find your voice as well as sharpen your story with compelling beginnings and endings. The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership.

Shani Raja's Writing With Flair: How To Become An Exceptional Writer

The teacher: Shani Raja  is a former Wall Street Journal editor who has written for The Economist, Financial Times, and Bloomberg News. He has also taught advanced writing skills to professionals and edited for leading global companies like Microsoft, IBM, and PwC. The course:  Another bestseller from Shani Raja, this course promises to "dramatically improve the quality of your writing in as little as days or weeks" through a few key principles. Both new students and experienced writers have benefitted from the course, which teaches you how to sharpen your words and command the reader's attention.

Raja also has a Udemy course on the four levels of writing mastery .

The price: Both of Raja's Udemy courses are $109.99 each.

Margaret Atwood's MasterClass on Creative Writing

The teacher: Of " The Handmaid's Tale " fame, Margaret Atwood has been titled the "Prophet of Dystopia" for works such as " Oryx and Crake " and the "Handmaid's Tale" sequel, " The Testaments: A Novel ." The course: Atwood's MasterClass "covers the general points of interest for writers — how to get started, handle the middle of a story, develop characters, craft dialogue, and address writers' block — as well as more specific queries, like research and maintaining historical accuracy," according to Insider senior reporter Mara Leighton. You can read her full review of the course here . The price: $180 ($15 per month) for an annual MasterClass membership.

Simon Van Booy's The Writer's Toolkit: 6 Steps to a Successful Writing Habit

The teacher:  Simon Van Booy's short story collection " Love Begins in Winter " won the 2009 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. He has written two other short story collections as well as three anthologies of philosophy, and his work has been translated into over a dozen languages throughout the world. In 2013, he founded Writers for Children, a project that helps young people build confidence in their storytelling abilities through annual awards. The course:  Writing should be approachable and fun, not torturous. By optimizing your space for your writing style, creating a daily writing routine, and acting on inspiration, you can build a long-term writing process to rely on for years to come. This short video course teaches you how.

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's Finding Your Writing Voice: How to Express Your Unique Self in Your Work

The teacher:  Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is a former Entertainment Weekly writer and current TV columnist for BBC Culture who has also written for The New York Times Book Review, Fast Company, New York's Vulture, and The Verge. She wrote the New York Times bestseller " Seinfeldia: The Secret World of the Show About Nothing that Changed Everything ." The course: You don't have to lose your unique personality when you write; in fact, it's what will make your writing stand out in the crowd. Using pop culture icons like Beyoncé and Britney Spears, the class discusses different voices and explores ways to take chances with your writing. 

The price: Free with 14-day Skillshare trial; $8.25 per month or $19 per month after trial ends.

Salman Rushdie’s MasterClass on Storytelling and Writing

The teacher: Winner of the Man Booker Prize, Salman Rushdie is known for his mystical world-building and genre-bending plotlines as seen in books like " Quichotte ," " Midnight's Children ," and " Shame ."

The course: Rushdie provides tips on creating fleshed-out characters, believable surrealist worlds, and an air-tight plot. This is a great course for those who have lots of fantastical ideas but struggle to ground them into a cohesive story.

Clare Lynch's Writing With Confidence: Writing Beginner To Writing Pro

The teacher: Dr. Clare Lynch is a former Financial Times journalist who teaches academic writing and professional communication at the University of Cambridge. She has written for organizations like Deutsche Bank, Microsoft, and UBS and is the author of the business-writing blog Good Copy, Bad Copy .  The course: Learn powerful principles that can be applied to all types of writing, including emails, speeches, news writeups, and even presentations. The course takes you through fundamentals from techniques to beat writer's block to lessons on getting readers hooked and creating a clear, persuasive angle. 

The price: $109.99.

Joyce Maynard's Writing Your Story

The teacher: The author of 17 books (including novels and memoirs), Joyce Maynard has worked as a "New York Times" reporter and a contributor to outlets like NPR and "Vogue." Her books include " Labor Day ," " The Good Daughters ," and " Under the Influence ."

The course: Focusing on memoir writing, Maynard explains the difference between simply retelling events that happened to you and exploring your journey as a protagonist. She also covers some of the biggest questions that come up when writing about yourself, from what to cut to dealing with fears of judgment so that you can present a narrative that's authentic to readers.

The price: $89 for the course, or $11 per month for a CreativeLive membership.

Wesleyan University's Creative Writing Specialization

The teachers :   Salvatore Scibona was named one of "The New Yorker's" "20 under 40: Fiction Writers to Watch" and is the author of 2008 National Book Award finalist " The End ," the research for which he conducted while on a Fulbright Fellowship. 

Amy Bloom , author of two "New York Times" bestsellers and three collections of short stories, has written for "The New Yorker," "The New York Times Magazine," and "Vogue," among many other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award for Fiction. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Brando Skyhorse is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana University in Bloomington who won the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award and the 2011 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for his debut novel " The Madonnas of Echo Park ." 

Amity Gaige is the author of three novels, " O My Darling ," " Sea Wife ," and " Schroder ," which was shortlisted for The Folio Prize in 2014. To date, "Schroder" has been published in eighteen countries.

The course:  This specialization created by Wesleyan University consists of four courses (each taught by a teacher listed above) and covers elements of three major creative writing genres: short story, narrative essay, and memoir. It culminates in a challenging capstone project in which you'll draft, rewrite, and complete a substantial original story in the genre of your choosing.  The price: Free with 7-day Coursera trial; $49 per month to keep learning after trial ends.

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Teaching Creative Writing

• Heather Beck 0

Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

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Part of the book series: Teaching the New English (TENEEN)

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Table of contents (25 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Heather Beck

A Short History of Creative Writing in British Universities

• Graeme Harper

A Short History of Creative Writing in America

• DeWitt Henry

On the Reform of Creative Writing

• David G. Myers

Creative Writing and Creative Reading in the Poetry Workshop

• Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Jena Osman

The Irrational Element in the Undergraduate Poetry Workshop: Beyond Craft

• Gary Hawkins

The Creative Writing Workshop: a Survival Kit

• Michelene Wandor

Undergraduate Creative Writing

Undergraduate creative writing provision in the uk: origins, trends and student views, undergraduate creative writing in the united states: buying in isn’t selling out, hidden purposes of undergraduate creative writing: power, self and knowledge.

• Hans Ostrom

No Factories, Please — We’re Writers

• Maureen Freely

Postgraduate Creative Writing

Teaching creative writing at postgraduate levels: the sheffield hallam experience.

• Steven Earnshaw

Creative Writing and Ph.D. Research

A critique of postgraduate workshops and a case for low-residency mfas.

• Robin Hemley

Reflective Activities

• creative writing
• critical theory

Book Title : Teaching Creative Writing

Authors : Heather Beck

Series Title : Teaching the New English

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284464

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan London

eBook Packages : Palgrave Literature Collection , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012

Hardcover ISBN : 978-0-230-24007-0 Published: 21 October 2012

Softcover ISBN : 978-0-230-24008-7 Published: 21 October 2012

eBook ISBN : 978-1-137-28446-4 Published: 18 October 2012

Series ISSN : 1754-9728

Series E-ISSN : 2947-9266

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XIV, 198

Topics : Teaching and Teacher Education , Literary Theory , Cultural Theory , Literature, general , Creative Writing , Creativity and Arts Education

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Since 1967, Teachers & Writers Collaborative has published over 80 books dedicated to teaching creative writing.  Today, 42 titles are in print.  Retailers and educational institutions may order our books directly through Ingram .  Individuals may find our books at your local bookseller.  Visit our booklist at Word Up Books , an NYC community bookstore, or find an independent bookseller near you Visit Indie Bookstore Finder.

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Teaching Creative Writing: The Essential Guide

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• ISBN-10 1350276480
• ISBN-13 978-1350276482
• Publisher Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date February 8, 2024
• Language English
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches
• Print length 198 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Academic (February 8, 2024)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 198 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1350276480
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1350276482
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches

About the author

Stephanie vanderslice.

Stephanie Vanderslice's was born in Queens, NY in 1967 and grew up there and in the suburbs of Albany. Her essays have appeared in Mothers in All But Name, Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in their 40's and many others. In addition to The Geek's Guide to the Writing Life, she has also published Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught? 10th Anniversary edition (co-edited with Rebecca Manery) with Bloomsbury. Other books include Rethinking Creative Writing and Teaching Creative Writing to Undergraduates (with Kelly Ritter). Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Arkansas Writer's MFA Workshop at the University of Central Arkansas, she also writes novels and has published creative nonfiction, fiction, and creative criticism in such venues as Ploughshares Online, Easy Street and others. Her column, The Geek's Guide to the Writing Life appears regularly in the Huffington Post.

Recommended reads include Simon Van Booy's Father's Day, Nicole Krauss's Great House, Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, and Jesse Lee Kercheval's The Museum of Happiness (all time favorite). Stephanie lives in Conway, Arkansas with her husband, writer John Vanderslice (no, not the indie songster) and two sons. She can also make a mean loaf of french bread.

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How to teach ... creative writing

Summer is the perfect time of year for a spot of creative writing. Inspire young imaginations to put pen to paper with our lesson plans and ideas

From birds chirping aloft the trees to sapphire blue lakes sparkling in the sun, the sights and sounds of summer make it the perfect time of year for a spot of creative writing. Getting students to put pen to paper is a good way to spark their imaginations, develop reading and writing skills, and teach about empathy.

To help you and your class get inventive, this week’s how to teach brings you a selection of ideas and resources to inspire the creativity of young wordsmiths.

Primary students

Author Nick Hesketh recommends that before children start writing, you should discuss what makes a good story. He shares this and other advice in his creative writing video series for the Scottish Book Trust . Get students thinking with these “badly written” exemplars , which provide a handy baseline to work from.

Next, capture young imaginations by getting students to think about the story they want to tell. Where is it set? At what time of day? What is the weather like? What can you hear, see, smell or feel? This worksheet by Creative Writing Now will help students get to know their main character, while this plot questionnaire will encourage them think about what is going to happen. Then get your class penning their masterpieces, writing just a few sentences to begin with. Stress that they shouldn’t worry about spelling, instead, just put a wavy line under any words they are unsure of. There are examples of well thought-out sentences here .

Creative writing should be fun, and playing games is good way to help students develop story ideas. Try an alternative word association game in which you think of words that are at odds with each other (such as “boat” and “rock”) instead of words that are connected (such as “boat” and “water”). The aim is to show that good story ideas often involve some sort of tension. We also have instructions for a fun game called The Invisible Book , which involves students coming up with the first three sentences of a story on the spot, which helps them find their writer’s voice.

If ideas aren’t flowing, kickstart things by stepping outside of the classroom and into the playground as suggested in this resource by WordSpace . Give students unusual things to write on, such as the back of an envelope, a leaf, or a rough piece of wallpaper. Or challenge them to write a short story in just 50 words.

A quick way to conjure up story ideas is through pictures. Use prompts such as this image of two boys sitting on the wing of an aeroplane or this one of a dinosaur in the garden , which can work really well. Another tip from writer and teacher Heather Wright is to ask students to start several stories then choose the one they want to finish. This writing checklist will help students evaluate their work when it’s finished.

Secondary students

Challenge secondary students to write a story in just six words or get them to compile a list of objects for an imaginary cabinet of curiosity. These are just some ideas offered by the Writers’ Centre Norwich , a literature development agency based in England’s only UNESCO City of Literature . They have produced an easy-to-use 20-page activity pack for the classroom, which introduces a range of genres and draws on a variety of writing stimuli including photographs and poems.

If students want to get to the heart of a character, ask them to address the audience as their favourite fictitious creations. Writing a monologue is the focus of this key stage 4 resource by the Poetry Society . A second resource encourages students to create a piece of writing based on what they can – and can’t – see out of an imaginary window. The aim is for students to make effective use of descriptive detail as they write short lines of poetry in response to a series of prompts. As a homework task, ask students to repeat the exercise while looking out of a real window.

Students doing creative writing at A-level need to work in a whole range of written forms and genres including creative non-fiction and web content. They should be prepared to share work-in-progress with others, responding to feedback and developing drafting and editing skills. They should also write regularly to deadlines and keep a journal of writing ideas. You’ll find useful advice on approaching the first term of teaching in this guide by AQA . You’ll also find additional ideas to support learning and teaching here .

For those who are eager to take creative writing even further, this resource offers useful information on how to set up a creative writing club.

Finally, remember to encourage young people to read as often and as widely as possible – this is one of the most effective ways to teach creative writing. With this in mind, be sure to set your students off on the Summer Reading Challenge . You’ll find lots of reading and writing activities in this year’s pack .

Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach . Join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources, comment and job opportunities , direct to your inbox.

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How to Become a Creative Writing Teacher (And Enjoy It)

If you’re passionate about writing and want to share your love of the craft with others, becoming a creative writing teacher may be for you.

Creative writing is an art that offers students the opportunity to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills. Teaching this discipline requires not only expertise in writing but also the ability to inspire and guide aspiring writers on their journey to becoming better wordsmiths. Whether you’re looking to make extra money on the side or considering a full-time career, this guide will walk you through the steps of becoming a creative writing teacher, including dissertation data analysis help and resources for aspiring educators.

Become a Creative Writing Teacher: The Basics

The first step is getting the right qualifications, which typically include at least a bachelor’s degree in English or another related field. Having prior teaching experience and certifications would be a big plus. Once you have these things lined up, familiarize yourself with different lesson-planning resources and strategies. It will propel you to start strong when it’s time to teach. Finally, always be open to feedback from both your students and colleagues so you can continue growing as an educator. If you have a passion for writing and enjoy teaching, becoming a creative writing instructor could be a fulfilling career path. Now let’s get into the specifics, so you can have a better understanding of what the job entails.

5 Tips for Becoming a Creative Writing Teacher

Teaching others how to write it’s very fulfilling and allows you to share your unique perspective with your students. But there are several requirements you will need to meet to do it properly. Keep reading to see what they are:

1. Get a Degree in English or Creative Writing

While not required, having a relevant degree can give you an edge when applying for teaching positions. Formal education on the subject gives you the foundation in literature and composition that will be helpful when teaching how to write. People who wish to become creative writing teachers often attend college for additional writing training before sharing their expertise with others. This equips them to use various teaching approaches, whether it be through a traditional academic setting, an online course, a summer camp workshop, etc.

2. Consider Getting a Teaching Certification

Many states require teachers to have certain teaching certifications. Although it is not required for all positions, having one can make you more attractive as a candidate. Full-time courses usually take three to four years, while part-time courses take four to six years. If you have undergraduate credits from previous studies, you might complete a course in two years. There are also a lot of online writing certificate programs you can explore. Some of them are even conducted by bestselling authors and renowned educators, so you should check them out.

3. Start Your Own Writing Group or Workshop

This is a great way to get experience leading other writers. You’ll gain some insights into what it takes to be an effective teacher and learn how to communicate with your students . The most wonderful thing about starting a creative writing group is that you can build it exactly what you want it to be. It could be a workshop-style group where you read each other’s work. You can form a group where you meet up together and write, or just talk about writing or each other’s personal experiences in honing their craft. There are no rules. You can contact your writing sessions in a local café, or if that’s not possible, you can host the whole thing on a Facebook group.

4. Volunteer to Teach Creative Writing in Local Schools

Many educational institutions have after-school programs or summer camps that are always looking for volunteers. This is a great way to get your foot in the door and see if teaching is right for you. Most schools collaborate with volunteers who are or want to learn how to become creative writing teachers. You can teach how to edit and publish creative writing.

5. Be Patient and Persistent

Getting a job as a creative writing teacher can be competitive. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t land your dream position right away. Keep applying and refining your resume , and eventually, you’ll find the perfect fit! To become a creative writing teacher, consider getting a degree or teaching certification in English or creative writing. You can also start your writing group or workshop, or volunteer to teach creative writing in local schools. These will give you the training and experience you need to get closer to your goal.

Teaching Writing With True Excellence

We all know the importance of teaching writing. After all, as the saying goes, “If you can’t write well, you can’t think well.” And in today’s world, with so much emphasis on effective communication and clear thinking skills, it’s more important than ever to make sure our students are receiving a top-notch education on learning how to write. So what does true excellence in teaching writing look like? Here are five key concepts to consider:

1. High Expectations

As teachers, we need to have high expectations for our students’ writing abilities. This doesn’t mean that we should be unrealistic or overly critical. Rather, it means that we should expect them to produce quality work that meets or exceeds our standards. By setting the bar high from the beginning, we’ll give them a goal to strive for and help them develop their skills more quickly.

2. Quality Feedback

For our students to improve their writing abilities, they need regular quality feedback . This feedback needs to be specific and objective. Simply telling them “good job” or “nice work” will not help them improve. We need to point out what they’re doing well and where they can make improvements so that they can see their progress. The more specific you can get while providing feedback, the better.

3. Focus on the Process

It’s important to remember that writing is a process, not a product. This means that we should focus on helping our students with each step of the process, from brainstorming ideas to editing and revising their work. By focusing on the process, we’ll help them develop strong writing skills that will serve them well through life.

4. Setting an Example

Another important aspect of teaching writing is modeling good behavior for our students. If we want them to produce quality work, then we need to show them how it’s done. We can do this by sharing our writings with them (with permission, of course), or by demonstrating proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation usage in our daily communications with them. Another great idea is to encourage them to read as much as possible and introduce them to the classics so they can fully grasp what a great piece of literary art looks like.

5. Encouragement

Finally, one of the best things we can do as teachers is to encourage our students in their writing endeavors. This includes offering positive feedback when deserved, but also giving them that extra push in the right direction when the going gets tough. Letting them know you believe in their ability to improve and achieve great things will go a long way in helping them reach their full potential as writers. Teaching writing effectively requires high expectations, quality feedback, a focus on process, modeling, and encouragement.

Testing Your Students Through Writing Tasks

As a creative writing teacher, it’s essential to test your students’ skills and knowledge regularly. One way to do this is through writing tasks. By setting regular writing assignments, you can gauge your student’s progress and identify areas that need improvement.

Here are some tips for making the most of the writing tasks in your classroom :

• Make sure the task applies to what your students are currently studying. This will help them engage with the material and produce their best work.
• Clearly instruct what you expect from the finished product. This includes specifying word count, formatting requirements, etc.
• Provide feedback on each student’s performance after they submit their work. This helps them understand where they need to improve. It will also give you an idea of how well they are grasping the concepts being taught.

In short, get your students engaged in their learning by setting regular writing tasks. By making the tasks relevant and providing clear instructions, you’ll help them produce their best work. Don’t forget to provide feedback so they can understand where they need to improve. Many writing teachers are worried about the influence of artificial intelligence on the writing process. That’s why you need to explain that using AI bots for writing will teach them how to write, as it’s a form of “creative plagiarism.”

FAQ About How to Become a Creative Writing Teacher:

1. how do i start teaching creative writing.

There is no single answer to this question since there are many ways to become a creative writing teacher. The best way to teach creative writing will depend on your qualifications, experience, and goals. For example, if you have a degree in English or Creative Writing , you may teach at the college level. Alternatively, if you have significant experience as a writer but no formal education in the field, you may teach creative writing courses at community colleges or adult education centers. There are also online programs that allow people with no teaching experience to lead classes on specific topics related to creative writing. This could be an option for someone looking for flexibility and wanting to share their expertise with others without committing to traditional employment. No matter what route someone takes to become a creative writing teacher, they must possess excellent communication skills, patience, and creativity so they can encourage students to reach their fullest potential.

2. Can you teach writing when only have a creative writing degree?

Yes, you can teach creative writing with a degree in the subject. There are many ways to become a creative writing teacher, but most involve some level of formal education. Many universities offer degrees in creative writing, and there are also specialized schools that focus solely on teaching the craft of writing.

3. What degree do you need to teach creative writing in college?

Requirements for teaching creative writing at the college level can vary depending on the institution. However, most colleges and universities will require that their creative writing instructors have at least a master’s degree in English or Creative Writing. Many institutions may also prefer or require that candidates for teaching positions have prior experience teaching at the college level.

4. How Much Does a Creative Writer Make?

According to Zip Recruiter, the average yearly salary for creative writing teachers is $53, 608.00. But the range goes to as low as $46,000 a year for beginners, and up to over $100,000 a year for those who are in the biz for several years.

If you’re passionate about writing and want to share your love of literature with others, becoming a creative writing teacher may be the perfect career for you. By imparting your knowledge and expertise to students, you can help them develop their skills and find their voice as writers. Are you interested in becoming a freelance writer, working remotely, or improving your productivity and side hustle? I offer coaching and consulting services to help you achieve your goals. Visit my website or contact me today to learn more about how I can help you reach your full potential. Next up, you may want to explore a guide on how to become a columnist .

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How to Teach Creative Writing

Last Updated: March 13, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 116,879 times.

Creative writing is one of the most enjoyable types of writing for students. Not only does it allow students to explore their imaginations, but it helps them to structure their ideas and produce writing that they can be proud of. However, creative writing is a relatively difficult type of writing to teach and offers challenges to both new and seasoned teachers alike. Fortunately, though, with some work of their own, teachers can better develop their own abilities to teach creative writing.

Providing Students with the Fundamentals

• Theme. The theme of a story is its message or the main idea behind it.
• Setting. The setting of a story is the location or time it takes place in.
• Plot. The plot is the overall story, narrative, or sequence of events.
• Characterization. Characterization is how a character or person in a story is explained or presented to the reader.
• Conflict and dramatic action. Conflict and dramatic action are the main events of focus in the story. These events are often tense or exciting and are used to lure the reader in. [1] X Research source

• Explain how your students, as writers, can appeal to the humanity of their readers. One great way to do this is to ask them to explore character development. By developing the characters in their story, readers will become invested in the story.
• Discuss the triggers that engage readers in an effective story. Most great stories start with a problem, which is solved with the resolution, or conclusion of the story. Encourage students to create an engaging problem that will hook the readers in the first few pages of a short story or novel. [2] X Research source

• By setting the tone and atmosphere of a story, the author will establish his or her attitude to the subject and the feel of the story.
• Tone can be positive, neutral, or negative. [3] X Research source
• Atmosphere can be dark, happy, or neither.
• Descriptive words like “darkness” or “sunshine” can help set both the tone and atmosphere. [4] X Research source

• Active verbs are used to show action in the story.
• Active verbs are very often a better alternative to passive voice, as it keeps your writing clear and concise for your readers. [5] X Research source
• For example, instead of writing “The cat was chased by the dog” your student can write “The dog chased the cat.”

Guiding Students through the Process

• Tell your students to brainstorm about ideas they are truly interested in.
• If you must restrict the general topic, make sure that your students have a good amount of wiggle room within the broad topic of the assignment.
• Never assign specific topics and force students to write. This will undermine the entire process. [6] X Research source

• Letting your students know that the outline is non-binding. They don’t have to follow it in later steps of the writing process.
• Telling your students that the parts of their outline should be written very generally.
• Recommending that your students create several outlines, or outlines that go in different directions (in terms of plot and other elements of storytelling). The more avenues your students explore, the better. [7] X Research source

• Tell students that there is no “right” way to write a story.
• Let students know that their imaginations should guide their way.
• Show students examples of famous writing that breaks normal patterns, like the works of E.E. Cummings, William Faulkner, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare.
• Ask students to forget about any expectations they think you have for how a story should be written. [8] X Research source

• Gather the first drafts and comment on the student's work. For first drafts, you want to check on the overall structure of the draft, proper word use, punctuation, spelling, and overall cohesion of the piece. [9] X Research source
• Remind them that great writers usually wrote several drafts before they were happy with their stories.
• Avoid grading drafts for anything other than completion.

• Let students pair off to edit each others' papers.
• Have your students join groups of 3 or 4 and ask them to go edit and provide feedback on each member’s story.
• Provide guidance so students contribute constructively to the group discussion. [10] X Research source

• Reward your students if they are innovative or do something unique and truly creative.
• Avoid evaluating your students based on a formula.
• Assess and review your own standards as often as you can. Remember that the point is to encourage your students' creativity. [11] X Research source

Spurring Creativity

• Teach your students about a variety of writers and genres.
• Have your students read examples of different genres.
• Promote a discussion within your class of the importance of studying literature.
• Ask students to consider the many ways literature improves the world and asks individuals to think about their own lives. [12] X Research source

• Make sure your room is stocked with a wide variety of fiction stories.
• Make sure your room is stocked with plenty of paper for your students to write on.
• Line up other writing teachers or bring in writers from the community to talk to and encourage your students.

• Cut out pictures and photographs from magazines, comic books, and newspapers.
• Have your students cut out photographs and pictures and contribute them to your bank.
• Consider having your students randomly draw a given number of photos and pictures and writing a short story based on what they draw.
• This technique can help students overcome writer's block and inspire students who think that they're "not creative." [13] X Research source

• Pair your students with students from another grade in your school.
• Allow your students to write stories that younger students in your school would like to read.
• Pair your students with another student in the class and have them evaluate each others' work. [14] X Research source

• If you just have a typical classroom to work with, make sure to put inspirational posters or other pictures on the walls.
• Open any curtains so students can see outside.
• If you have the luxury of having an extra classroom or subdividing your own classroom, create a comfortable space with a lot of inspirational visuals.
• Writing spaces can help break writer's block and inspire students who think that they're "not creative." [15] X Research source

• Involve students in the printing process.
• Publication does not have to be expensive or glossy.
• Copies can be made in the school workroom if possible or each student might provide a copy for the others in the group.
• A collection of the stories can be bound with a simple stapler or brads.
• Seek out other opportunities for your students to publish their stories.

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You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/courses/creative-writing-101
• ↑ https://kobowritinglife.com/2012/10/14/six-tips-for-engaging-readers-within-two-seconds-the-hook-in-fiction-and-memoir/
• ↑ https://www.dailywritingtips.com/in-writing-tone-is-the-author%E2%80%99s-attitude/
• ↑ http://ourenglishclass.net/class-notes/writing/the-writing-process/craft/tone-and-mood/
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/02/
• ↑ http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/choices-children/
• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/7-steps-to-creating-a-flexible-outline-for-any-story
• ↑ http://thewritepractice.com/the-formula-to-write-a-novel/
• ↑ https://student.unsw.edu.au/editing-your-essay
• ↑ http://orelt.col.org/module/unit/5-promoting-creative-writing
• ↑ http://education.seattlepi.com/grade-creative-writing-paper-3698.html
• ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/04/educating-teenagers-emotions-through-literature/476790/
• ↑ http://www.wrightingwords.com/for-teachers/5-tips-for-teaching-creative-writing/

About This Article

To teach creative writing, start by introducing your students to the core elements of storytelling, like theme, setting, and plot, while reminding them that there’s no formula for combining these elements to create a story. Additionally, explain how important it is to use tone and atmosphere, along with active verbs, to write compelling stories that come alive. When your students have chosen their topics, have them create story outlines before they begin writing. Then, read their rough drafts and provide feedback to keep them on the right path to storytelling success. For tips from our English reviewer on how to spur creativity in your students, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Reimagining writing seminar for all writers

Entryway to New South.

Tiffany tsai / the daily princetonian.

Few Princeton students can forget their writing seminars. From the stress and confusion over the D1 to the feeling of accomplishment unique to finally submitting the R3, the mandatory first-year course provides a shared introduction to all the mixed emotions that will define every Princeton student’s future academic pursuits. However, while writing seminars teach helpful research and argumentation tactics, they often ultimately fall short of helping students with their titular skill: writing. Currently, writing seminar utilizes a one-size-fits-all approach to writing, neglecting the teaching of how different forms, types of sources, and modes of analysis vary in different disciplines. It also does not teach its students how to make the best possible use of language, especially in regards to form and style. In other words, writing seminar fails at its most fundamental task: it does not teach its students how to write, nor how to do so well.

While the time limits of Princeton’s short semester — significantly briefer than that of other schools like Harvard — could limit the ability of instructors to teach broader concepts, there still exists a structural issue with writing seminar that makes its programming fundamentally ineffective. Namely, none of the three major assignments in the writing program are especially dedicated to form or style. The first paper is dedicated to learning how to analyze a single work in detail, while the second essay teaches students how to effectively compare arguments and build their own. The third paper is completely focused on fostering independent research techniques and strong engagement with a variety of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. While these assignments are invaluable for teaching students how to form strong research papers guided with sufficient evidence, none provide the essential skills of form & style required of a good writer. 

Rarely does the writing seminar curriculum explicitly teach students how a purposeful, well-thought-out structure can effectively communicate ideas. After all, without structure, arguments simply don’t make sense. Future professors will evaluate lab scientific evaluations, close readings, and other varying assignments with their discipline-individual structures in mind because, in academic writing, coherency to a certain audience is key. The writing seminar program should set students up for success at Princeton — and in the wider world of publishing — by placing a greater emphasis on the many different kinds of idea organization in analytical writing. 

Form — which goes beyond the organization of ideas, and encompasses the text type and media used to convey an argument — also does serious work to get an author’s point across clearly. Teaching only one form of the “academic paper” neglects how helpful it can be to expose freshmen to the many forms analysis can take across fields. A lab report, a poetic analysis, and a policy memo are all forms of academic writing whose form will diverge far from the source-critique-conclusion style of essay taught in writing seminars.

The present design of writing seminar also prevents students from expanding their idea of what sources from different disciplines may look like. It focuses mainly on engaging with scholarly secondary and tertiary sources and how a thesis can be formed on external research . Although the D1/R1 does focus on primary source analysis, students spend the majority of their time simply figuring out how to write an essay instead of engaging deeply with their primary sources of choice. Additionally, because many writing seminars focus on sociological or anthropological scholarship without incorporating the works favored in other disciplines, which call for different sourcing and analytical techniques.

Humanities disciplines that involve rigorous analysis of various texts may require skills that call for a different type of analysis beyond what is offered in the writing seminar curriculum. When you analyze a novel strictly through the skills taught in writing seminar  you tend to miss out on the creative and cultural nuances of  authors’ intents and perspectives. While some seminars certainly incorporate these creative works, it’s often done at a limited, marginal level.

Furthermore, in fictional works, when one only engages with the arguments made about a character in a novel can exclude the literary context in which the character lives, and the fact that their written existence in relation to a larger cultural moment influences the author’s purpose in creating such a character at all. Analyzing other writers’ style and purpose — especially in literary works — becomes much more difficult when you haven’t learned that those are viable elements for academic investigation. Journalistic scholarly pieces are not the only argumentative works. To focus almost exclusively on published academic sources is to ignore entire fields of work ripe for analysis and leads to the exclusion or minimization of other forms of writing, and accordingly subjective, creative analysis of one body of work. 

Lastly, writing seminar also ignores the importance of style — a part of writing can greatly enhance the ability of a piece to read fluidly and engagingly. Except for passing warnings about personal style, style is excluded from the curriculum. But style is important: clarity and concision make pieces easy to read, and personal voice can make it interesting. If you don’t understand how to effectively develop and adapt your own style to different disciplines, your work will be far less engaging. This might mean professional consequences down the line, like low readership and decreased citability. 

A significant part of understanding the proper use of style comes from the ability to write and convey meaning — especially through subtle manners. The focus on directly stated arguments during writing seminars neglects the various ways that an author might further more subtle points through tone, syntax, and figurative language. Developing these skills in your own writing makes it far easier to critically examine them in other people’s work.

The very specific style of academic writing favored in writing seminars makes abundant use of the passive voice, and favors long, clause-heavy sentences with complex grammatical structures. I call this “dissertation-ese”: a language which exists to remind the reader that the author is smart. But consequently, it can be difficult to read, and the clarity of the argument can get easily lost in excessive vocabulary. This is not to imply that complex ideas don’t require idiosyncratic constructions and polysyllabic words, but rather that first-years ought to focus more on clarity as they learn the basics of argumentative writing. By holding up wordy papers as paragons of great style encourages students to mimic that same wordiness in their own work, but often at the expense of clarity. If a student is struggling to understand the fundamental points an article is making, the addition of a functional language barrier via forced loquacity does not help the situation. A simply-written paper that can be clearly understood will be much more comprehensive than one that “sounds impressive.”

Writing seminar doesn’t need to be completely overhauled, and we don’t need to compromise the high curriculum standards of the writing program. However, there are certainly key modifications that could fix these problems and make our writing and research education more well balanced. 

First, there should be a stronger focus on forming independent arguments that are informed by, but not wholly reliant on, existing scholarly discourse around a topic. In particular, an enthusiastic promotion of literary analysis can help expand students’ horizons and ideas of what analytical writing can look like. Second, there must be a greater emphasis on structural analysis as opposed to purely argument critiques. A curriculum that is designed to teach students about writing structures in different academic fields will benefit students in every discipline. Lastly, style should be emphasized in the curriculum: how to develop and hone both the subtle, creative aspects of academic writing, and the power of simplicity in service of a more interesting, widely accessible paper. Any of the above will help the writing seminar program best prepare students for larger and more complex assignments — both now, and in future academic endeavors. 

Anna Ferris is a sophomore in the English department. She can be reached at [email protected].

U. under federal investigation for antisemitism after complaint by conservative activist

The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University on Wednesday, April 3 regarding antisemitism on campus following a January complaint. Princeton joins other universities, including Harvard and Yale, who are also facing antisemitism investigations in recent months by the Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University on Wednesday, April 3 regarding antisemitism on campus following a January complaint. Princeton joins other universities, including Harvard and Yale, who are also facing antisemitism investigations in recent months by the Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

Eight multi-goal scorers propel No. 18 Princeton past Columbia, 24–12

The Tigers’ 24 goals is a new season-high, as the Tigers ran out to a 10–2 lead in the first quarter and never took their foot off the gas.

USG updates budget, initiative for improved event accessibility

The USG heard a budget update, addressing fund allocations for travel, wellness programming, and local arts experiences. The Senate also heard a presentation about AccessAbility initiatives to improve event accessibility for disabled students. New student groups approved by the Student Groups Recognition Committee were automatically passed in a vote with no motions to overturn.

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How Carrie Fisher became Hollywood’s master ventriloquist in ‘Postcards From the Edge’

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“Maybe I shouldn’t have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number, but who cares?” There is no more quotable novel about Hollywood than Carrie Fisher ’s roman à clef, “Postcards From the Edge.” Fisher’s sentences bristle with caustic, self-effacing humor. Outside of her forays into that galaxy far, far away, that brand of sharp deadpan comedy is perhaps what the former Princess Leia would become best known for. And in her debut novel , the actress-turned-writer makes great use of her enviable way with words.

The Ultimate Hollywood Bookshelf

“Postcards From the Edge” ranks No. 15 on our list of the best Hollywood books of all time.

Whether sketching a scene with brisk efficiency or offering up aphorisms whose insights are all the more piercing for the wit that encases them (“I told him about the Oedipal thing, about my father leaving when I was very young so I knew how to pine for men, but not how to love them”), the “Star Wars” star’s 1987 bestseller remains a raucous, rollicking affair.

It’s true, though, that the novel’s merits may be somewhat eclipsed by the movie adaptation that followed . Directed by Mike Nichols, it starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine and earned Fisher a BAFTA nomination for best adapted screenplay. Nevertheless, this slice of L.A. life deserves to be celebrated for how it brilliantly works on the page.

Fisher’s protagonist is Suzanne Vale, a modestly successful actress whose journal missives from rehab anchor the first section of the novel. Suzanne’s time surrounded by fellow addicts fumbling their way into sobriety is characterized by a candid lucidity about drug abuse and recovery that is as fresh and revealing today as it was in the late 1980s. “It was like I was a car, and a maniac had gotten behind the wheel. I was driven, and I didn’t know who was driving,” Suzanne explains when describing the moments leading up to the overdose that landed her in the hospital. Decades’ worth of therapy no doubt had helped actress and author alike mine such personal epiphanies for endless cocktail hour-ready anecdotes.

Lest that suggest “Postcards From the Edge” relies on navel-gazing storytelling that borrowed freely from the star’s own very public struggles with addiction, Fisher proves early on to be a master ventriloquist. She deftly juxtaposes Suzanne’s self-deprecating journal entries with the gonzo stream of consciousness ramblings of Alex, a cocaine addict. Convinced he’s above it all and committed to staying only long enough to gather details as fodder for a TV film treatment on rehab (“I wish I could do speed, though. I always wrote better on speed”), the struggling writer serves as a foil to Suzanne. That’s crystal clear once he leaves the center and finds himself high, paranoid and spilling half an ounce of blow in the bathtub of a hotel room in the Valley.

As soon as Suzanne finishes her treatment, Fisher opts to switch voices once more. Meetings with a would-be suitor (“My route to intimacy is routine,” she quips on their first date) and her shrink (“Remember our last session when you said that maybe I shouldn’t date for a while?”) are driven by furiously funny dialogue alone. Those tour de force scenes are a reminder of Fisher’s canny ear for the specific cadence of Angelenos fully immersed in the twinned make-believe worlds of moviemaking and self-delusion.

By the time Suzanne gears up for a return to acting (in a laughable project shooting out in the desert), Fisher shifts to a third-person narrator who can more incisively dissect this young woman’s wayward attempts at getting her career and dating life back together: “Suzanne was in the business of seeming — of entertaining people with her ways of seeming real,” we’re told. “Portraying reality had become her way of experiencing it.”

Thankfully, Fisher’s novel has a structure that careens us back from the edge and toward a place where Suzanne learns how to experience life. We’re taken from the ever-doubting inner thoughts of an addict in rehab, through her slurry of words as she gets out, and into her increasingly coherent actions as observed from the outside. It’s a reminder that Fisher’s writerly gifts extended far beyond her ability to pen a killer sentence.

Yes, “Postcards From the Edge” is awash in delicious one-liners, the kind that make you angry with envy for how effortlessly they skewer all things L.A. But the beauty of this novel comes from the grace with which Fisher approaches her fictional alter ego. In her hands Suzanne’s slow ascent back into a world that has some semblance of normalcy (for a recovering Hollywood actress, at least) is punctured with a sense of humor that stings precisely because it’s so surgically self-directed. So nakedly self-revealing. And, as a result, so wounding and healing in equal measure.

Betancourt is a Los Angeles-based queer Colombian writer and film critic. His latest work, “The Male Gazed: What Hunks, Heartthrobs and Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men,” was named one of the best books of 2023 by Time magazine and NPR.

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These Spelling Bee Hint Writers Want to Help You Get to Genius

Four enthusiasts talk about why they wake up in the middle of the night to write hints for other Spelling Bee solvers.

By Elie Levine

In the early hours of the morning, a small but dedicated group of solvers log on to the Spelling Bee Forum to share hints for anyone who gets stuck on the way to Genius, the game’s official top score. They post shortly after the new Spelling Bee replaces the previous day’s at 3 a.m. Eastern time.

Their hints are short, clever phrases designed to help solvers find all of the words in the puzzle. As more solvers wake up and hit the “Recommend” button on the lists they like, the hint posts rise to the top of the Reader Picks feed. The hint creators have developed their own writing styles, and each has a community of fans.

New York Times Games peeked behind the curtain of the thriving Spelling Bee subculture to understand the independent word lovers who bring so much joy to solvers’ lives. Four volunteers, who post under the screen names Jenn E., Steve G., Kitt Richards and Kline, joined The Times from their homes on Feb. 16 for a virtual round table — or in a nod to the hints that players love, a “nonsquare dining surface,” as Ms. Richards wrote in an email ahead of the event.

The hint writers talked about where they found inspiration, how the Bee affects their sleep and the words they would like to see included in future installments. Jenn E. and Steve G. called in from Los Angeles, Kitt Richards from Cambridge, Mass., and Kline from Chicago.

Do you have a word you would like to see in the Hive? Email us at [email protected] .

This discussion has been edited for brevity and clarity.

When did you start writing hints?

STEVE G.: I’m coming up on my anniversary, on April Fools’ Day, almost two years ago. That’s when I started doing it . I was in Ormond Beach, Fla., at the time, during the pandemic. I lived with my daughter, and we’ve always played the Crossword. I have not missed the Crossword. My streak has lasted 1,673 days.

I am a Crossword-first person. I love getting my daughter involved. She’s a 20-something. We would race Monday nights. She could beat me on Mondays easily because she’s a digital native. I think I’m faster at solving than she is, but not faster in typing.

We found the Spelling Bee. I’d always ignored it. Like, OK, what is there to it? We started doing it, and then I started texting her little clues.

Then I saw that hints existed. The challenge for me was to get them out as fast as possible and to have them be as original as I could make them.

I don’t do this as a favor to the Spelling Bee community. It’s a symbiotic relationship where I get to have my little creativity session with the words. And no, I don’t solve the puzzle when I’m doing hints, but I have solved the puzzle.

When I make the hints, it’s like, How can I make Monday-level crosswords? Everybody is getting hints that I’m writing for my daughter. That’s why they’ll sometimes be educational, or have a little morality play.

KLINE: I started a year or two before Steve. I think brevity is better when you’re providing a hint or a clue. My professional life had me being very direct. I don’t mince words.

I have fun playing. I like to solve the puzzles without looking at your clues. But oftentimes I’ll be stuck on one or two, and it’s like, I could see what my friends have said.

KITT RICHARDS: I used to be an avid crossword puzzler. My point of pride was that I would always do the Crossword in pen.

It’s been about a year since I started writing hints. From September until June 2023 I was working 18 to 24 hours a day. It was the worst experience I’ve ever had of deadlines and multiple projects. I often found myself staying up all night, too. At the same time, I was like, I’ve got to do the Bee!

I lost the job because I couldn’t keep up. I don’t want to tell myself that it was the Bee that caused me to lose the job, because I would never admit that, but it could be.

I don’t know if you remember this, Steve. I thought your hints were hilarious and so well done. I would write in the replies, “I can’t get this word! Help!”

STEVE G.: Replies to me? I don’t remember those.

KITT RICHARDS: I would write to you! Other people would weigh in. They were very helpful. Eventually I got better at solving the puzzle. I saw how often words repeat, and so I started getting faster and better at it. Eventually, my competitive streak kicked in and I wanted to start writing clues.

When I first started writing them, people would make comments in the replies, like, “You write clues like Kline did.” They’re succinct, they’re short and that’s the way I think and speak anyway.

How does crafting hints fit into your sleep schedule?

STEVE G.: I was getting up at 3 a.m. Now, in Los Angeles, I’m like, How can I make it to midnight? That’s the challenge.

KITT RICHARDS: I would give anything to have it at midnight.

STEVE G.: I’m running on fumes because I still work mostly for the East Coast, so my day begins at 6 a.m.

I’ll maybe hit the hay at 10 p.m. and then wake up at midnight, and then go back to sleep if I can. Sometimes you want to see what the people are saying, you know?

JENN E.: It would be nice to be able to sleep seven or eight hours straight through. I’m falling asleep at 7:30, 8 p.m., and waking up again at midnight. I tried staying up until midnight and I just couldn’t do it.

What is your creative process like?

STEVE G.: I have dictionaries, Wikipedia and a lot of other sources ready to go. I’m a very fast researcher.

I try not to give the word away. If the word were “feline,” I probably wouldn’t want to write “beeline.” I want people to have to work, but not too much. I aspire to show them a nonobvious way to see the word, and for some people, that seems to resonate. To others, it’s annoying. That’s why I think diversity among hint writers is strength.

I do like to have some evocative trivia because again, I’m trying to write it for my daughter. In fact, I’m still trying to get her to take me to some of these trivia places in Los Angeles, because that is also my first love.

KITT RICHARDS: I probably don’t have anywhere near as many resources as Steve. I keep my emojis on my desktop for quick reference because I like to decorate my posts .

My brain thinks in textures and colors. For me, the words have to be somewhat alliterative or have a textural quality to them, so if you said them out loud it would lead you to the word.

JENN E.: All those years of teaching taught me that what I could teach one way I quickly learned didn’t work for everyone else. Everyone’s mind works differently, right?

My sentences have been called cheating many times … sorry! For other people, they need context. They need something to kick that word right out of the back of their brain.

What do you want the Spelling Bee community to know about you?

KLINE: Well, for one, that I’m on the face of the earth again. I did have somewhat of a sudden departure last year. Given that I am very short with words, I didn’t feel the need to explain my disappearance, especially since there were other people giving the clues.

JENN E.: Anything I’d want them to know about me I think they already know, because I wrote a lot of personal stories and a lot of my hints come from my experiences and life.

My Midwestern roots are well known in the forum. After I started writing the hints, I did notice that people started popping up in Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio.

What makes a good hint writer?

KLINE: The characteristics that we share seem to be best described as competitive, insomniac, addictive, self-challenging — yet we want to help others succeed. I love it when people say, “Your hints got me to Genius,” or, “I finally got to Queen Bee. Thank you for your help.” And there’s a certain rush that comes with playing “beat the clock.”

I would like to see more hinters. It would be great to have more people step up and take a shot at it. If they can’t get all 50 words, they can do the front 25 or the back 25.

What are your other favorite games?

JENN E.: Wordle, Connections and the Crossword.

KLINE: Connections, the Mini — because I don’t have time to do the Crossword — and Wordle.

STEVE G.: The Crossword. I think Connections is a great game. I hate Wordle. Don’t print that.

KITT RICHARDS: You can say that. Why not? It’s a free press.

STEVE G.: I never liked Wordle.

KITT RICHARDS: I love Wordle and Connections. I loved Tiles. I always do Wordle and Connections as my dessert after creating Spelling Bee clues.

What’s your favorite Bee word of all time?

STEVE G.: I’m not going to answer your question. I’m going to give the two words that I want in the Bee tomorrow, which are “caracal” and “birria.”

KITT RICHARDS: What are the words?

STEVE G.: “ Caracal,” the cat with the tufted hair.

KITT RICHARDS: What was the other one?

STEVE G.: “Birria.” It’s something you put in tacos. Oh, you’ve got to try it.

JENN E.: It originally was goat, but it’s meat that’s been chopped up and in a sauce. You can have it in tacos and on rice. It tends to be made of beef or pork now, not goat, unless you go to Mexico.

STEVE G.: I don’t know my favorite regular Bee word, so maybe you all can answer and it’ll come to me.

KITT RICHARDS: I can’t think of a single one.

KLINE: I don’t think I have a favorite one.

JENN N.: Well, it wouldn’t be “acacia” or “açaí,” and it wouldn’t be the Hawaiian goose.

KITT RICHARDS: I actually wrote a poem about the nene because I had such an affection for it.

STEVE G.: I do like “rococo.” It’s a good word.

What do you love most about the Spelling Bee Forum?

JENN E.: The sharing of people’s days or ideas or experiences. I do love the rush that Kline mentioned, when somebody says, “Because of you, I got to Queen Bee” or “I got to Genius.” The forum is a place where I learn a lot about people. It’s cool to read posts from somebody in South Africa, Sydney and Perth, and Singapore — places I’ve lived, visited and wanted to go.

STEVE G.: I’m afraid that my most memorable moments are various controversies. People try to school me or to set me right. I call myself a free speech absolutist, and I mean it.

Occasionally, in my clues, I’ll reference an Italian or foreign speaker who has an accent, and people will take me to task because they think I’m deriding that accent. They couldn’t be farther from the truth. As a person who loves language and linguistics, I love accents. My Italian grandmother never learned to speak English in 90 years in this country, but I know she really did speak English.

When I feel like I’ve broken through, I feel like there’s hope for humanity. I don’t care about helping people become Queen Bee, but if somebody says, “I spit out my coffee,” that makes me feel like I made somebody happy today. I don’t tend to make a lot of people happy in my profession as an actuary.

KITT RICHARDS: One of the really stellar elements in the forum is the poetry. I always read the poems, especially the ones that float to the top.

I wrote a poem about being up at 3 a.m. That was a lot of fun, and I got some responses from other forum poets. We’ve never met or exchanged any kind of private communication, but I think of them as friends because we communicate on the forum.

Elie Levine is part of The Times’s Games team, working on editorial and social media initiatives. More about Elie Levine

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