Even Gertrude Stein.
Welcome!
- Ready to start writing? We're here to help with reading lists, creative writing exercises, and a nurturing writing community.
Writing Rooms
Categories
- Fooling Around with Poems (21)
- FYI Publishing Tips (10)
- getting published (36)
- getting started (23)
- Inspiration (78)
- Internet Tips (4)
- Keeping a Journal (5)
- Lies & Truth in Fiction (18)
- Personal Essays (28)
- Quotes for Writers (10)
- Student Spotlight (10)
- teaching writing (41)
- Terrific Books (54)
- The Writing Life (191)
- Writing a Blog (19)
- Writing Advice (69)
- Writing Exercises (23)
- Writing for Kids (3)
- Writing Memoirs (10)
- Writing Your Own History (10)
Recent Posts
- Onward...
- 2014 Writers Studio UCLA Extension
- Lake Arrowhead Writers Retreat May 2-4
- Read This: Some Great Books
- Home
- Drumming to Sunset
- Work That's Real
- A New Year to Write Dangerously, And if You Speak Korean….
- Happy Holidays From My Family to Yours
- New Blog! The Intimidated Cook: The Non-Foodies Guide to Cooking for Friends
Search the Archives
« Off the Grid: Glacier National Park | Main | Why We Write »
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed.
Subscribe!
- We publish new posts weekly. If you would like to be notified when new posts are added, please enter your email:
Reading Lists
- Click on a book or book title and you will automatically be connected to Amazon.
On My Bedside Table
Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain
The spare, beautiful short story the movie came from.- Tony Hendra: Father Joe
A memoir of much recent controversy. Reading about Father Joe is worth wading through Tony Hendra's demons. Zadie Smith: On Beauty
She makes it look easy. It's a page turning novel of ideas and character.Charles Baxter: Saul and Patsy
A deep, serious, funny novel by a writer who should be better known outside of literary circles.Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness (Armstrong, Karen)
Articulate and deeply insightful.
Favorite Favorites
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life
A book that truly encourages you to write, understands you, makes you laugh and cry as you read it.
On creativity
Rollo May: The Courage to Create
To go deeper into the creative process and yourself.Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It for Life
Full of inspiration and really practical advice and exercises.
Inspiration to Get Started
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life
This is my favorite of favorites. Encouragement and humor.Brenda Ueland: If You Want to Write : A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
Her 12 things you should know/do as a writer are timeless.Carolyn See: Making a Literary Life
Such good advice, and so hilarious.Deena Metzger: Writing for Your Life : Discovering the Story of Your Life's Journey
An exploration of creativity, story and spiritual practice through writing.Dorothea Brande: Becoming a Writer
Her "artistic coma" is what we're all looking for.Naomi Epel: Writers Dreaming: 26 Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process
Writers reveal all their weird and wise working quirks.Natalie Goldberg: Writing down the bones
Zen bits of advice, inspiration and wisdom.Ralph Keyes: The Courage to Write : How Writers Transcend Fear
Like having a funny, smart, articulate friend holding your hand when you start.Stephen King: On Writing
My copy flutters with Post-its. He writes of the true magic of writing.
How Other Writers Do It
Annie Dillard: The Writing Life
“A work in progress quickly becomes ferel,” she writes, and you nod yes, yes.- Daniel Halpern: Our Private Lives
A look into the process of writing via raw excerpts from writers’ notebooks. An out of print treasure. Donald Hall: Life Work
A poet at work, and living life with poet Jane Kenyon.John Steinbeck: Journal of a Novel
His daily warm-up letters to his editor while writing East of Eden.Naomi Epel: Writers Dreaming: 26 Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process
Weird and wise ways of writers working as well as dreaming.Stephen King: On Writing
How it all started, with smart advice for other writers.
Essays
Anne Fadiman: Ex Libris : Confessions of a Common Reader
Elegantly written essays about loving books.Phillip Lopate: The Art of the Personal Essay : An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present
Great introduction and selection of 400 years of personal essays.Anne Lamott: Traveling Mercies : Some Thoughts on Faith
From her heart and soul, both funny and honest.Natalia Ginzberg: The Little Virtues
Brilliant essays to learn from and live by.Ellen Gilchrist: Falling Through Space: The Journals of Ellen Gilchrist (Banner Books)
Actually from her broadcast NPR pieces. A portrait of a writer in family and work roles.Andre Dubus: Broken Vessels
Includes elegant pieces full of courage written after his horrific accident.Joan Didion: The White Album
She's a master of the contemporary essay.
Poetry
Billy Collins: Sailing Alone Around the Room
Read "Introduction to Poetry". Funny, accessible, and also serious poetry.Jane Kenyon: Otherwise : New & Selected Poems
Read the title poem first. A poem to live by.Mary Oliver: New and Selected Poems : Volume One
Read "The Summer Day" and "The Journey" - more poems to live by.Raymond Carver: Ultramarine
He makes it look easy. It isn't.
Recently Published Memoirs
Joan Didion: The Year of Magical Thinking
Pure Art. I read it in one sitting.Ulla-Carin Lindquist: Rowing without oars
Lean and illuminating prose as the author faces her own death. To be published in the U.S. in April ’06.Carole Radziwill: What Remains
A beautifully written memoir that transcends its celebrity frame of the Kennedys.Donald Hall: The Best Day the Worst Day
The story of the death of his wife, Jane Kenyon.Samantha Dunn: Faith in Carlos Gomez, A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation
The title alone should make you want to read it.
Memoir for those who can't get enough
Carolyn See: Dreaming, Hard Luck and Good Times in America
Witty, as well as poignant - and written with abundant generosity.Genevieve Jurgensen: The Disappearance
The most heart-breaking memoir I've read, written as letters to a friend.James McBride: The Color of Water
The amazing story of his white Jewish mother who had twelve black kids, all of whom grew up to earn graduate degrees.Judy Blunt: Breaking clean
Her story of fleeing rural Montana and her family to become a writer.Katharine Butler Hathaway: The Little Locksmith
Like finding a friend who has a deep and inspiring inner life that she'll share with you.Kathleen Norris: Dakota
A book not only about her life and spiritual growth, but also the meaning of community and place.Kathryn Harrison: The Kiss
The true version of her novel, "Thicker Than Water".Mark Doty: Firebirds
Growing up gay in suburbia - funny, deeply moving, eloquent.Mark Doty: Heaven's Coast
Some of the best writing on grief I've ever read - both spiritual and literary.Mary Karr: The Liar's Club
The book that started the current popularity of memoir.
Want to Write a Memoir? Read these first
Maureen Murdock: Unreliable Truth
Exploration of memory and why and how one should write a memoir.Vivian Gornick: The Situation and the Story, the Art of Personal Narrative
A writer's writer takes a deep and illuminating look at the genre.
Blogs We Love
Writing Resources
- 10 Writing Mistakes
Pat Holt, an editorial consultant and former editor, describes 10 common writing problems and how to fix them. - Amazon Shorts
A collection of short, never before published, literary works (stories, novellas and essays) that can be downloaded for $0.49 apiece. - Amazon Shorts Needs Writers
Amazon is looking for any previously unpublished short-form work (2,000 - 10,000 words, fiction or nonfiction). - Author Network
An extensive index of writing resources. - Backstory
Authors share how they got started writing and the stories behind the stories. - Creativity Portal
An online creative "sanctuary" for artists and writers. Contains articles, projects, and resources to get your creative juices going. - Fresh Yarn
Read this online salon devoted to personal essays. - Imagine Magazine
"It's never too late to be what you might have been," said George Eliot. Imagine is devoted to helping you create the life you want to live. - Screenwriting Tips
Emmy award-winning Stephen Cannell discusses discipline, choosing your story, characters and structure in this free online seminar. - Spoiled Ink
Poets and writers post their work and get feedback from the rest of the Spoiled Ink writing community. - Wordcount
Need inspiration? This ranking of over 80,000 words by frequency, produces sequences of words ("often seen school money") guaranteed to spark an idea. - Writing on the Run
Filled with tips and exercises to get you writing. - Zinkville
A community of writers and readers, featuring a literary e-zine and book reviews.
Haahahaha! I love it.
I recently got two rejections from the same lit mag---for the one piece I sent them.
Posted by: Denise Emanuel Clemen | June 19, 2012 at 09:00 PM
And a rather nasty rejection at that.
Posted by: Bob G. | June 19, 2012 at 10:25 PM
I love seeing a typewriter. I love see "Miss." I love imagining Rue de Fleuris. The whole letter brings me back to W. Allen's Midnight in Paris which was great. I would see it more than once with my one pair of eyes. Best, Loren
Posted by: Loren Stephens | June 19, 2012 at 11:18 PM
I remember my first rejection I received when I was 13 or so and how excited I was. A little slip of paper. I taped it on my wall as proof that I was a poet. Not nearly as much fun these days. What a wondrous post, Barbara.
Posted by: Laura B | June 20, 2012 at 04:26 AM
Denise - and send back in a few months and there will be new editors who might accept it!
Bob - Yes, a bit snide.
Loren - I love those things too (but no so much the 'Miss' - I do think Ms. was a vast improvement.
Laura - What a sweet memory!
Posted by: Barbara | June 20, 2012 at 05:17 AM
This was lol funny. And in the end, it didn't really matter.
Posted by: Beverly Higginson | June 21, 2012 at 09:14 AM
I love this. I might steal it and post it (with an attribute, of course!).
Posted by: Elizabeth | June 21, 2012 at 12:03 PM