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Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction

10 best books like Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction (Charles Baxter): 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing, The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry, On Becoming a Novelist, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, The Art of Description: World into Word, Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes, Creating Fiction: Instruction and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel
AuthorJane Smiley
ISBN1400040590
Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling novelist Jane Smiley celebrates the novel–and takes us on an exhilarating tour through one hundred of them–in this seductive and immensely rewarding literary tribute.

In her inimitable style–exuberant, candid, opinionated–Smiley explores...
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
AuthorFlannery O'Connor
ISBN0374508046
Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

At her death in 1964, O'Connor left behind a body of unpublished essays and lectures as well as a number of critical articles that had appeared in scattered publications during her too-short lifetime. The keen writings comprising Mystery and Manners,...
The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing
AuthorRichard Hugo
ISBN0393309339
Richard Hugo was that rare phenomenon of American letters—a distinguished poet who was also an inspiring teacher. The Triggering Town is Hugo's now-classic collection of lectures, essays, and reflections, all "directed toward helping with that silly, absurd, maddening, futile, enormously...
The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry
AuthorKim Addonizio
ISBN0393316548
The Poet's Companion presents brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing, each followed by distinctive writing exercises. The ups and downs of writing life—including self-doubt and writer's block—are here, along with tips about getting published...
On Becoming a Novelist
AuthorJohn Gardner
ISBN0393320030
On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against,...
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
AuthorJanet Burroway
ISBN0321277368
The most widely used and respected text in its field, Writing Fiction, 7e guides the novice story writer from first inspiration to final revision. A bestseller through six editions, Writing Fiction by novelists Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French explores the elements of fiction, providing...
The Art of Description: World into Word
AuthorMark Doty
ISBN1555975631
"It sounds like a simple thing, to say what you see," Mark Doty begins. "But try to find words for the shades of a mottled sassafras leaf, or the reflectivity of a bay on an August morning, or the very beginnings of desire stirring in the gaze of someone looking right into your eyes . . ." Doty finds refuge in...
Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer
AuthorBret Anthony Johnston
ISBN0812975480
You already have the tools to become a gifted writer; what you need is the spark. Harvard creative writing professor and acclaimed author Bret Anthony Johnston brings you an irresistible interactive guide to the craft of narrative writing. From developing characters to building conflict, from mastering...
The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes
AuthorJoan Silber
ISBN1555975305
Fiction imagines for us a stopping point from which life can be seen as intelligible," asserts Joan Silber in The Art of Time in Fiction. The end point of a story determines its meaning, and one of the main tasks a writer faces is to define the duration of a plot. Silber uses wide-ranging examples from F....
Creating Fiction: Instruction and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
AuthorJulie Checkoway
ISBN1884910513
It's been a while since I read a good book on writing! This collection of essays on creative writing, compiled and edited by Julie Checkoway, doesn't disappoint. There's much to like:

1. It's a very accessible and hands-on book. It should easily get the beginning and motivated writer to write.
2....
The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction
AuthorRobert Boswell
ISBN1555975046
A rigorous examination of the workings of fiction by the novelist Robert Boswell, "one of America's finest writers" (Tom Perrotta)

Robert Boswell has been writing, reading, and teaching literature for more than twenty years. In this sparkling collection of essays, he brings this vast experience...
The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers
AuthorVendela Vida
ISBN1932416366
Believer Books has collected, in alphabetical order, twenty-three conversations and correspondences between much admired writers and the writers they admire. The interviews include favorites gleaned from the pages of the Believer magazine along with previously unpublished conversations....
The Writer's Notebook: Craft Essays from Tin House
AuthorDorothy Allison
ISBN0979419816
The Writer's Notebook combines the best craft seminars from the Summer Writers Workshop's history with craft essays by some of Tin House's favorite authors and features a list of contributors that reads like a veritable who’s who of contemporary poets and prose writers. Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender,...
The Paris Review Interviews, III
AuthorThe Paris Review
"I have all the copies of The Paris Review and like the interviews very much. They will make a good book when collected and that will be very good for the Review."--Ernest Hemingway

Since The Paris Review was founded in 1953, it has given us invaluable conversations with the greatest writers...
Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life
AuthorBonnie Friedman
ISBN0060922001
“In the spirit of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, Friedman...gives heartfelt counsel to those who need to be coaxed into the creative process."—Washington Post

An indispensable guide for writers that explores the emotional side of writing and offers insightful advice on overcoming...
Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from The New York Times
AuthorThe New York Times
ISBN0805070850
Now in paperback, today's most celebrated writers explore literature and the literary life in an inspirational collection of original essays.

By turns poignant, hilarious, and practical, Writers on Writing brings together more than forty of contemporary literature's finest voices.

Pieces...
Making Shapely Fiction
AuthorJerome Stern
Here is a book about the craft of writing fiction that is thoroughly useful from the first to the last page—whether the reader is a beginner, a seasoned writer, or a teacher of writing. You will see how a work takes form and shape once you grasp the principles of momentum, tension, and immediacy. "Tension,"...
From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction
AuthorRobert Olen Butler
ISBN0802142575
Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, teaches graduate fiction at Florida State University -- his version of literary boot camp. In From Where You Dream, Butler reimagines the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual, and tells writers how to achieve the dreamspace...
Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form
AuthorMadison Smartt Bell
ISBN0393320219
Focusing on the big picture as well as the crucial details, Bell examines twelve stories by both established writers (including Peter Taylor, Mary Gaitskill, and Carolyn Chute) and his own former students. A story's use of time, plot, character, and other elements of fiction are analyzed, and readers...
Ron Carlson Writes a Story
AuthorRon Carlson
ISBN1555974775
Ron Carlson has been praised as “a master of the short story” (Booklist). In this book-length essay, he offers a full range of notes and gives rare insight into a veteran writer’s process by inviting the reader to watch over his shoulder as he creates the short story “The Governor’s Ball.”

“This...
The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction
AuthorJohn Dufresne
ISBN0393325814
Finally, a truly creative—and hilarious—guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and...
The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story
AuthorFrank O'Connor
The legendary book about writing by the legendary writer is back!Frank O’Connor was one of the twentieth century’s greatest short story writers, and one of Ireland’s greatest authors ever. Now, O’Connor’s influential and sought-after book on the short story is back.THE LONELY VOICE...
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