Research Guides: Creative Writing: Finding Books

General books on writing

The Libraries offer a number of general books on creative writing and writing craft. You can find these through the Libraries' catalog. Below is a small selection of books in our collection; see the rest of this page for guidance on finding more books, both within the NYU Libraries and beyond them.

The Art of Revision by Peter Ho Davies
ISBN: 9781644450390
Publication Date: 2021-11-02
In The Art of Revision: The Last Word, Peter Ho Davies takes up an often discussed yet frequently misunderstood subject. He begins by addressing the invisibility of revision--even though it's an essential part of the writing process, readers typically only see a final draft, leaving the practice shrouded in mystery. To combat this, Davies pulls examples from his novels The Welsh Girl and The Fortunes, as well as from the work of other writers, including Flannery O'Connor, Carmen Machado, and Raymond Carver, shedding light on this slippery subject. Davies also looks beyond literature to work that has been adapted or rewritten, such as books made into films, stories rewritten by another author, and the practice of retconning in comics and film.
The A to Z of Creative Writing Methods by Deborah Wardle, Julienne van Loon, Stayci Taylor, Francesca Rendle-Short, Peta Murray, and David Carlin
ISBN: 9781350184220
Publication Date: 2022
The A to Z of Creative Writing Methods is an alphabetical collection of essays to prompt consideration of method within creative writing research and practice.Almost sixty contributors from a range of writing traditions and across multiple forms and genre are represented in this volume: from poets, essayists, novelists and performance writers, to graphic novelists, illustrators, and those engaged in multi-media writing or writing-related arts activism. Contributors bring to this collection their distinct and diverse literary and cultural contexts, defining, expanding and enacting the methods they describe, and providing new possibilities for creative writing practice.
Beyond Craft: an Anti-Handbook for Creative Writers by Steve Westbrook and James Ryan
ISBN: 1350119474
Publication Date: 2020
Simultaneously a handbook and a critique of one, Beyond Craft combines an orientation to the field of creative writing with an insight into current scholarship surrounding creative writing pedagogy. A much-needed alternative to the traditional craft guide, this text pairs advice and exercises on composition with an illuminating commentary on the issues surrounding these very techniques. Teaching the craft whilst apprising students of the issues of craft pedagogy, this book allows them to gain an awareness of how current pedagogy comes at the expense of larger and increasingly relevant cultural concerns.
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
ISBN: 9780385480017
Publication Date: 1995-09-01
For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"
The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing by Tara Mokhtari
ISBN: 9781350056695
Publication Date: 2019-03-21
Covering all of the major genres, The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing is a complete introductory manual for students of creative writing. Now in its second edition, the book features an updated and expanded chapter on writing for digital media, and new exercises for reading across the genres and writing hybrid forms. Through a structured series of practical writing exercises - perfect for the classroom, the writer's workshop or as a starting point for a portfolio of work - the book builds the student writer from the first explorations of voice and the relationship between writing and knowledge, through to mastery of a wide range of genres and forms.
The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing by David Morley (Editor); Philip Neilsen (Editor)
ISBN: 9781139028417
Publication Date: 2012-03-28
Creative writing has become a highly professionalised academic discipline, with popular courses and prestigious degree programmes worldwide. This book is a must for all students and teachers of creative writing, indeed for anyone who aspires to be a published writer. It engages with a complex art in an accessible manner, addressing concepts important to the rapidly growing field of creative writing, while maintaining a strong craft emphasis, analysing exemplary models of writing and providing related writing exercises. Written by professional writers and teachers of writing, the chapters deal with specific genres or forms - ranging from the novel to new media - or with significant topics that explore the cutting edge state of creative writing internationally (including creative writing and science, contemporary publishing and new workshop approaches).
A Companion to Creative Writing by Graeme Harper (Editor)
ISBN: 9780470656938
Publication Date: 2013-05-28
A COMPANION TO CREATIVE WRITING A Companion to Creative Writing is a comprehensive collection covering myriad aspects of the practice and profession of creative writing in the contemporary world. The book features contributions from an international cast of creative writers, publishers and editors, critics, translators, literary prize judges, and many other top professionals. Chapters not only consider the practice of creative writing in terms of how it is "done," but also in terms of what occurs in and around creative writing practice. Chapters address a wide range of topics including the writing of poetry and fiction; playwriting and screenwriting; writing for digital media; editing; creative writing and its engagement with language, spirituality, politics, education, and heritage. Other chapters explore the role of literary critics and ideas around authorship, as well as translation and creative writing, the teaching of creative writing, and the histories and character of the marketplace, prizes, awards, and literary events.
The Creative Writing Compass by Graeme Harper
ISBN: 9781032004938
Publication Date: 2024-07-31
The Creative Writing Compass presents a dynamic navigational instrument for creative writers and those learning to be creative writers, providing a method for developing and advancing knowledge of creative writing. Award-winning novelist Graeme Harper explores the many fluid interactions of the imagination and the physical acts of writing. He includes observations and approaches that can be personalized to assist with writing decisions.
Creative Writing for Dummies by Maggie Hamand
ISBN: 9781394196692
Publication Date: 2023-08-24
In Creative Writing For Dummies, you'll learn how to unleash your creative side and become a confident and productive writer. Discover the essential elements of storytelling, including structure, characterization, setting, dialogue, and plot, as you navigate the countless ways you can express yourself with the written word. Explore the media and methods you can use to help find an audience--from traditional to self-publishing, social media, blogging, and more!
Historical Research, Creative Writing, and the Past by Kevin A. Morrison (Editor); Pälvi Rantala (Editor)
ISBN: 9781032180885
Publication Date: 2023-07-12
Although historical research undertaken in different disciplines often requires speculation and imagination, it remains relatively rare for scholars to foreground these processes explicitly as a knowing method. Historical Research, Creative Writing, and the Past brings together researchers in a wide array of disciplines, including literary studies and history, ethnography, design, film, and sound studies, who employ imagination, creativity, or fiction in their own historical scholarship or who analyze the use of imagination, creativity, or fiction to make historical claims by others.
Intersecting Genre: a Skills-Based Approach to Creative Writing by Jason Olsen
ISBN: 1350288667
Publication Date: 2023
Creative writing takes on many genres, or forms: fiction, poetry, nonfiction and dramatic writing. Whilst all have their own principles and 'rules', all modes of writing overlap and borrow from each other, and so what you learn in one form can influence, inform and inspire your practice in others. Intersecting Genre holds this idea at its heart, embracing the dissolution of disciplinary and genre boundaries to discuss the ways each genre supports the others. Whilst traditional approaches typically discuss one genre independent of others, this book explores genre relationships with each chapter focusing on the intersection between 2 modes and what you can learn and the skills you can transfer by combining the wisdom gained from the study of, for example, fiction and poetry together.
Letters to a Young Writer by Colum McCann
ISBN: 9780399590801
Publication Date: 2017-04-04
A paean to the power of language, both by argument and by example, Letters to a Young Writer is fierce and honest in its testament to the bruises delivered by writing as both a profession and a calling. It charges aspiring writers to learn the rules and even break them. These fifty-two essays are ultimately a profound challenge to a new generation to bring truth and light to a dark world through their art.
Once upon a Time in the Twenty-First Century: Unexpected Exercises in Creative Writing by Robin Behn (editor)
ISBN: 9780817392321
Publication Date: 2020-12-01
Once Upon a Time in the Twenty-First Century: Unexpected Exercises in Creative Writing is a unique creative writing text that will appeal to a wide range of readers and writers--from grade nine through college and beyond. Successful creative writers from numerous genres constructed these exercises, including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction to one-act plays, song lyrics, genre fiction, travel guides, comics and beyond. The exercises use a broad range of creative approaches, aesthetics, and voices, all with an emphasis on demystifying the writing process and having fun.
Walk Write (Repeat) by Sonia Overall
ISBN: 9781913743185
Publication Date: 2021-02-18
Offering a whole array of sparks, experiments, projects, catapults, prompts, drifts, and exercises, Sonia Overall invites us to see walking as a creative writing method. She sets out a particular form which she calls walking-writing and suggests ways to gather materials, submit to the sensory, explore your home like a tourist, and scour the streets like a metal-detector in search of the hidden, the forgotten, and the overlooked. This is a manual for creative writers, but the approaches and exercises can readily be adapted by practitioners working in other media.
World Enough and Time by Christian McEwen
ISBN: 9780872333802
Publication Date: 2023-10-11
More than twelve years ago, over the course of ten years training teachers to write their own poems in order to pass the craft along to students, McEwen realized that nothing comes easily when life is conducted at a high rate of speed. In this updated, second edition, she reflects on the experience of publishing World Enough & Time in 2011. There are chapters on walking, talking, drawing, dreaming, on making space, on pausing/praying, on telling stories. World Enough & Time is aimed at the educated general reader, could be used as a creative primer, and will be of interest to creative writing students and artists in every genre.
The Writer's Hustle: A Professional Guide to the Creativity, Discipline, Humility, and Grit Every Writer Needs to Flourish by Joey Franklin
ISBN: 9781350160781
Publication Date: 2022
The first guide for developing writers on the professional practices required by creative writing instruction and careers in the field, The Writer's Hustle offers pragmatic and systematic advice on how to navigate your time as a writer when you are not actually writing. Spread across ten chapters covering every juncture encountered by a writer, this book examines mastering the workshop; everyday life; earning a mentor; becoming a true literary citizen; attending conferences; the big final project; routes through further education; and preparing for a full-blown career. Based on his own experience and anecdotes from over 50 professionals and writers, Joey Franklin provides an orientation for every step of your writing journey.

Finding books using subject headings

Subject headings are words and phrases which constitute a "controlled vocabulary" to categorize books by subject field. Subject headings often indicate the contents of books in terms that their titles (or your keywords) do not use, which often may be very general.

Use general subject headings for searching a broad topic or more specific subject headings for a specific author, historical period, or animal. You will find (more) headings specific to the subject category within the left-hand facets in our online catalog. If you want to see the subject headings for a specific title, click on the "details" link in the title record.

Here are some examples of subject headings:

Creative writing
Writing & editing guides
Fiction -- Technique
Playwriting
Poetry -- Authorship
Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)

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