LANCASTER UNIVERSITY
Department of English and Creative Writing
MA Creative Writing Shorter Essential Reading
This list is even less complete than our longer reading list – but this has been revised,
updated, and contains some key books that will help you in various ways and genres. It is
also important to try and keep informed by reading the periodicals (such as TLS or LRB), as
well as making use of various online resources. This list is intended as a starting place and
point of departure.
The Practice & Craft of Writing – Recommended
Becoming A Writer, Dorothea Brande (Papermac)
The Art of Poetry Shira Wolosky (Oxford University Press)
The Shape of the Dance Michael Donaghy (Picador)
Rhyme’s Reason John Hollander (Yale)
Starting From Scratch, Rita Mae Brown (Bantam)
Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg (Shambhala)
The Art of Fiction, David Lodge (Penguin)
The Art of Creating Fiction, Zulfikar Ghose (Macmillan)
The Agony And The Ego: The Art & Strategy of Fiction Writing... ed Clare Boylan (Penguin)
How Fiction Works, James Wood (Vintage)
The Triggering Town: Lectures & Essays On Poetry & Writing, Richard Hugo (Norton)
The Elements of Style, Strunk and White (Longman)
Story, Robert McKee (Methuen)
The Writer's Journey, Christopher Vogler (Boxtree)
The Practice & Craft of Writing – Further Suggested Reading
The Poet's Voice & Craft, ed. C B McCully (Carcanet)
Techniques of Fiction Writing: Measure & Madness, Leon Surmelian
Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway (Harp College) (3 copies)
Impro: Improvisation In The Theatre, K. Johnston (Methuen)
Getting Into Poetry, Paul Hyland (Bloodaxe)
Poetic Metre and Poetic Form, Paul Fussell
The Women Writers' Handbook, eds. Robson, Georgeson, Beck (Aurora Metro)
A Passion For Narrative: A Guide For Writing..., Jack Hodgins (McClelland & Stewart Inc.)
A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver (Harcourt Brace)
The New Book of Forms: A Handbook... Lewis Turco (University Press of New England)
How To Write A Damn Good Novel, James N Frey
Writing Poems, Peter Sansom (Bloodaxe)
Writing in Action, Paul Mills (Routledge)
Teaching Creative Writing, eds. Moira Monteith & Robert Miles (Open University)
The Creative Writing Handbook - Techniques for..., eds John Singleton and Mary Luckhurst
(MacMillan).
Writing a Novel...for Dummies, George Green and Lizzy Kremer (Wiley)
Writing for Self-Discovery: A Personal..,Myra Schneider/John Killick (Element Books).
The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron
The Red Notebook, Paul Auster
The Art of the Novel, Milan Kundera
The Weekend Novelist, Robert J. Ray (Dell Publishing) 1994
The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing, Gillie Bolton
Alternative Scriptwriting, Ken Dancyger
The Art of Poetry Writing, William Packard
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions of Writing and Life, Anne Lamott
The Writer as an Artist: A New Approach to Writing Alone and with Others, Pat Schneider
The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes
Creating Fiction, ed Julie Chechkoway
The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction and Nonfiction.., by Patricia Kubis & Robert Howland
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Biography As High Adventure: Life-Writers Speak on Their Art, Stephen B Oates
75 Creative Ways to Publish Students’ Writing, Cherlyn Sunflower
The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing, Gillie Bolton
Language and Creative Illusion, Walter Nash
How to Write Non-Fiction Books, Gordon Wells
The Portable Creative Writing Workshop, Pat Boran
Solutions for Novelists: Secrets of a Master Editor, Sol Stein
Student’s Guide to Writing, Peck and Coyle
Writer on Writing, Margaret Atwood
The Joy of Writing Sex, Elizabeth Benedict
Negotiating with the Dead, Margaret Atwood
A Multidisciplinary Study of Fiction Writing, Anthony Bloor
Writing Radio Drama, Keith Richards
Radio Script Writing, Sam Boardman-Jacobs
On Writing Well, William Zinsser
Screenwriting, Syd Field (Ebury)
A Creative Writing Handbook, ed Neale (ACB)
Writers On Writing
You should read as widely as possible writing by writers on their own practice. Below are
some suggestions.
Negotiating With the Dead Margaret Atwood
Fires, Raymond Carver (Picador)
The Writing Life, Annie Dillard (Picador)
On Writing, George V Higgins (Bloomsbury)
Delighting The Heart, ed Susan Sellers (Women's Press)
The Writer On Her Work, ed Janet Sternburg (Virago)
One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora Welty (Faber)
Selected Essays & Notebooks, Albert Camus
Silences,Tillie Olsen (Virago)
Diary 1964-1985, Ian Breakwell
A Writer's Notebook, Somerset Maugham
On Becoming A Novelist, John Gardner (Harper Collins)
Made From This Earth: Selections From Her Writing.., Susan Griffin (Women's Press)
Letters of William Burroughs, ed Oliver Harris (Picador)
The Journals, John Cheever (Vintage)
From Pitch to Publication, Carol Blake (Macmillan)
Letters Between a Father and Son, V S Naipaul (Little, Brown)
Films
Narration in the Fiction Film, David Bordwell
Directing - Film Technique and Aesthetic, Michael Rabiger
Writing Short Scripts, Phillips
Hollywood Spectatorship: Changing Perspections of Cinema Audiences, Melvyn Stokes and
Richard Maltby
The Tools of Screenwriting, D Howard & Edward Mubley
Bambi vs Godzilla, David Mamet (Simon and Schuster)
Short Stories
The Granta Book of the American Short Story ed Ford (Granta)
The Best American Short Stories series, ed Robert Stone (Houghton Mifflin)
Points Of View: An Anthology Of Short Stories, Moffett & McElheny (New American
Library/Dutton)
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories, ed Joyce Carol Oates
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Poetry
The Firebox ed O’brien (Bloodaxe)
Staying Alive ed Neil Astley (Bloodaxe)
Being Alive ed Neil Astley (Bloodaxe)
Being Human ed Astley (Bloodaxe)
52 Ways of Looking at a Poem ed Ruth Padel (Chatto)
New British Poetry eds Simic and Paterson (Graywolf)
Identity Parade ed Lumsden (Bloodaxe)
Making For Planet Alice ed rees-Jones (Bloodaxe)
Women’s Work eds Salzman and Wack (Bloodaxe)
Emergency Kit eds Shapcott and Sweeney (Faber)
Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry eds Herbert and Hollis (Bloodaxe)
The Making of a Poem eds Strand and Boland (Norton)
Contemporary British Poetry and the City Barry (Manchester University Press)
Literary Criticism
Finders Keepers Seamus Heaney
Writing to the Moment: Selected Criticial Essays 1980-1996, Tom Paulin
The Secret Life of Poems Tom Paulin
Lyric Powers Robert Von Hallberg
Behind the Lines Michael Hofmann
How to Read a Poem Terry Eagleton
The War Against Cliché Martin Amis
The English Novel Terry Eagleton
How Novels Work John Mullan
Cult Fiction: A Reader's Guide, Andrew Calcutt & Richard Shephard
Introduction to English Poetry, James Fenton
Shop Talk, Philip Roth
Nothing Remains the Same: Rereading and Remembering, Wendy Lesser
Reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
The Oxford Companion to English Literature
The Oxford Book of English Literature
Periodicals and Online
Poetry Review
Poetry London
Poetry (Chicago) online
Times Literary Supplement
London Review of Books
www.poetryarchive.org
www.poetryfoundation.org
www.poetryinternational.org
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