Best Books for Writers

“Roethke was an extraordinarily rigorous critic, and if you couldn’t take it, you didn’t learn much. For example, he said the real test was that every line of a poem should be a poem. That’s about as tough as you can get,” writes poet Carolyn Kizer about her former writing teacher and mentor in the foreword to this volume of selected prose and journal entries. Roethke, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for his poetry collection The Waking, taught at various colleges and universities and was a mentor to a generation of Northwest poets that included Kizer, Tess Gallagher, Richard Hugo, and David Wagoner. Compiled from two previous volumes of Roethke’s prose notebooks, this four-part volume includes essays on identity, lessons on rhythm, the teaching of poetry, critical analyses of the works of Dylan Thomas and Louise Bogan, and advice for young writers. This rare collection of essays reintroduces Roethke to a new generation of poets seeking instruction from an acclaimed and influential poet and teacher.   

“What are the ingredients of a Latinx poetics? Is there such a thing? How do we go about it? These concerns are tackled in every essay in this most wisdom-deep and visionary collection,” writes former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera in the foreword to this unique anthology of personal and academic essays from Latino, Latin American, Latinx, and Luso poets on the nature of poetry and its practice. With over twenty essays from poets and scholars such as Daniel Borzutzky, Rafael Campo, Brenda Cárdenas, Raina J. León, and Tomás Q. Morín, this collection explores the ways in which history and language can influence a poet’s imagination and showcases the wide variety of voices, styles, and perspectives present in a lineage of influential Latinx poets. Covering topics including ekphrasis, lyric poetry, duende, and class consciousness in poetry, this seminal anthology expands the poetic landscape with insights on the lasting impact Latinx poets have on global literature.  

In Storyteller, the late award-winning author Kate Wilhelm compiles her memories of teaching and cofounding the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop as well as the lessons she imparted over the years to countless students, often using examples from the short stories workshopped in her classes. The book takes readers through the first days of the workshops in the late 1960s and the lessons and exercises developed over the years, then into chapters with writing exercises and advice. Ideal for anybody interested in learning the fundamentals of a good story, this mix of memoir and craft book is as much about writing as it is about the importance of good teaching and community. “It is a truism that a writer reveals the self, sometimes in full awareness, sometimes unconsciously, but that is the goal. That finally is all that any of us has to offer as writers: our own perceptions of the world, our own interpretation of our culture, our experiences in fictional terms,” writes Wilhelm.  

In this collection of meditative essays, award-winning poet Carl Phillips draws upon his decades of teaching and mentorship to create a book “not in terms of how to write or to be a writer, but in terms of how to live, as a writer.” In the preface, Phillips writes: “If writing is an ongoing quest—and I believe it is—then this book is meant as a guide for navigating the various distractions that hinder the writing (and sometimes the life), things that we’re all susceptible to, like self-doubt, a feeling of having nothing left to say, a fear that we’re somehow not doing this thing ‘correctly.’” Throughout seven succinctly titled essays, including “Ambition,” “Stamina,” and “Community,” Phillips balances personal interrogation with insights on the mysteries of creating art, guiding emerging and seasoned writers through what is arguably the most challenging aspect of being a writer: sustaining the practice across a lifetime.   

The author of the novel Indelicacy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) as well as two earlier collections of short fiction returns with her first nonfiction book, an essayistic meditation on writers and their work and an argument for the “essential unity of writing and life.” What started as the author’s diary of reading and writing fiction expands to include topics such as female friendships, landscape painting, book titles, and the politics of excess explored through readings of Marguerite Duras, Elena Ferrante, Renee Gladman, Virginia Woolf, and others in a paean to personal authenticity and artistic freedom. “A Horse at Night is like light from a candle in the evening: intimate, pleasurable, full of wonder,” writes novelist Ayşegül Savaş. “It asks us to consider fiction as life and life as fiction. Amina Cain is our generous, gentle guide through an exquisite library.”  

In this anthology edited by Paul Mandelbaum, each short story is accompanied by an interview with the author discussing the challenges they faced during the writing process. Each story is selected not only for its singular style but for its exemplary illustration of one of the six elements of fiction: character, plot, theme, structure, voice, and setting. Included are Ursula K. Le Guin on the Antarctic setting of her short story “Sur,” Gail Godwin on the structure of her short story “Dream Children” and her favorite ghost stories, and Allan Gurganus on the point of view and voice in his short story “Condolences to Every One of Us.” For writers of fiction and readers alike, this unique collection of short stories and interviews will shed light on both the technical and inspirational elements behind crafting great fiction.  

This second volume of The Story About the Story edited by author and essayist J. C. Hallman continues to address and exemplify the idea of a “creative criticism,” one that allows for a personal perspective when writing about reading. As Hallman writes in the introduction, the book includes “writers who think that writing about literature ought to be art itself, ought to have all of the power and sensuousness of a great piece of literature, ought to be a little bit sexy maybe, or at least feel alive.” This collection includes essays by contemporary writers on the writing of canonical authors, such as Zadie Smith on Zora Neale Hurston, Charles Baxter on Anton Chekhov, Francisco Goldman on Robert Bolaño, and Margaret Atwood on H. G. Wells. Altogether, this volume of over twenty essays offers a rare occasion for readers to not only absorb lessons on the elements of great fiction, but on what makes literary criticism great.  

“This is not a book about how to write,” says author, editor, and literary agent Betsy Lerner in this guide for writers. “I offer advice to writers whose neuroses seem to get in their way, those who sabotage their efforts, those who have met with some success but are stalled between projects.” In this book organized into two sections titled “Writing” and “Publishing,” Lerner starts with the creative side of the publishing process categorizing writers into archetypes: “The Ambivalent Writer,” “The Natural,” “The Wicked Child,” “The Self-Promoter,” and “The Neurotic.” In addressing different personalities and ways a writer might be blocked, Lerner aims to show how a writer’s style on and off the page can work in tandem. The second half of the book includes essential information on how to seek agents, handle rejection, promote your book, and understand what editors are seeking. Drawing from her experience as a writer and teacher of writing workshops as well as an editor and agent, Lerner offers an insider’s perspective on the life of a writer and ways to overcome and confront the demons that may be in the way.  

This anthology of twenty-five poems, edited by Martha Collins and Kevin Prufer, brings readers into the process and art of translating poetry into the English language. Contributors were asked to select one poem in another language, each translated into English by three different translators, and to write an essay about the challenges and rewards of translating it. The wide-format book displays the original poem and three translations side by side for readers to compare for themselves. The accompanying essays—written by working translators such as Willis Barnstone, Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Karen Emmerich, Carl Phillips, and Arthur Sze—provide an additional layer of historical context as well as discussions on word choice, tone, and other craft lessons on the art of translating poetry. Assembled in chronological order, the book features the original works of poets such as Basho, Rilke, Akhmatova, Szymborska, Amichai, and Adonis. Perfect for avid readers of poetry, translators, and writers across backgrounds, this unique anthology opens readers up to the rich possibilities within literary translation.  

“Poetry is the sound of language organized in lines. More than meter, more than rhyme, more than images or alliteration or figurative language, line is what distinguishes our experience of poetry as poetry,” writes James Longenbach in the preface to this installment of Graywolf’s Art of series. This thought-provoking writing guide breaks down the historical and technical aspects of the practice of lineation with an examination of metered, rhymed, syllabic, and free-verse poetry. Offering a range of examples—from the work of poets such as Frank Bidart, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and C. D. Wright—Longenbach makes the art of the poetic line approachable as he simultaneously challenges preconceived notions of how it is understood. Whether for the poet, the curious prose writer, or the poetry reader, this book will expand the lexicon and understanding of the musicality behind all writing.  

The author of the novel America Is Not the Heart, published in 2018 by Viking, returns with a collection of essays exploring the power and potential of a more engaged mode of reading that pulls together literature’s personal and shared histories. Attempting to deepen the aspirational claim that reading builds empathy and books can save lives, Castillo encourages us to acknowledge complicated truths (“the way we read now is simply not good enough, and it is failing not only our writers—especially, but not limited to, our most marginalized writers—but failing our readers, which is to say, ourselves,” she writes) and to forge deeper connections. An intensely personal history of one writer’s reading life and a wide-ranging intervention into our conversations about why reading matters, Castillo’s book urges us to create a space where literature truly imbues our lives with more meaning.  

“Here and there, we find these gems, these glittering gems of pure delight in the art, and they remind us of why we do this work, why we keep coming back to make this art that we do, why we keep trying,” writes Kwame Dawes in the preface to this collection of craft talks on writing and the writing life delivered by faculty at the Pacific University MFA in Writing program. Organized into three sections titled “Reflections on the Writing Life,” “Reflections on the Writing Process,” and “Reflections on the Nuts and Bolts of Writing,” the essays express both the personal and technical aspects of being a writer in the world. Featuring essays by Ellen Bass, Marvin Bell, Pam Houston, Dorianne Laux, and Mike Magnuson, among others, this collection offers writers of all backgrounds insight from a range of voices and styles that make up a community enriched by writing. As Dawes writes, “What we bring is our own distinctive history, our own narrative of struggle and triumph in the making of our art, and our satchels full of the wisdom and empathy that other writers have given to us.”