This document consists of great books or articles on Creative Writing. Some are here because there is a course covering the same material; some are just great books that you should read at some point in your career.
Once you have made it through most of the curriculum, knowing whether a book is worth your time will become easier. Or, if you are struggling in one of the courses, perhaps reading a book on the subject will help.
| Name | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| The Writing Life | Annie Dillard |
| Bird by Bird | Anne Lamott |
| Steering the Craft | Ursula K. Le Guin |
| On Writing | Stephen King |
| The Art of Fiction | John Gardner |
| The Art of Memoir | Mary Karr |
| Reading Like a Writer | Francine Prose |
| The Poet’s Companion | Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux |
| The Triggering Town | Richard Hugo |
| The Making of a Poem | Mark Strand & Eavan Boland |
| The Situation and the Story | Vivian Gornick |
| Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction | Jeff VanderMeer |
| Craft in the Real World | Matthew Salesses |
| The Paris Review Interviews (Series) | Multiple authors |
Open/free classics:
| Name | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Poetics | Aristotle |
| The Art of Fiction (public domain essays) | Henry James |
| Story of an Hour (for analysis practice) | Kate Chopin |
| The Raven and many poems | Edgar Allan Poe |
| Leaves of Grass (various editions) | Walt Whitman |