To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
10 best books like To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction (Phillip Lopate): Notes of a Native Son, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, The Art of Memoir, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, The Writing Life, Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide
| Author | James Baldwin |
| ISBN | 0807064319 |
“Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.” - James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin was a fascinating and eloquent man, one who I would have loved to have had a conversation with....
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
| Author | Francine Prose |
| ISBN | 0060777052 |
In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire...
| Author | Mary Karr |
| ISBN | 0062223062 |
Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.
For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning...
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
| Author | William Zinsser |
| ISBN | 0060891548 |
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people...
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
| Author | Mason Currey |
| ISBN | 0307273601 |
Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”
...
| Author | Annie Dillard |
| ISBN | 0060919884 |
This is a brief yet intense essay on the art, or as Dillard would say, the burden of writing that will delight readers and aspiring writers alike.
Writing is a way of life, and Dillard’s relationship with words is, to say the least, controversial.
Her lucid ponderings on the obsessive nature...
Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies
| Author | Sol Stein |
| ISBN | 0312254210 |
Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for all writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether they are newcomers or old hands, students or instructors, amateurs or professionals. As the always clear and direct Stein explains here, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions--how...
If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
| Author | Brenda Ueland |
| ISBN | 1555972608 |
In her 93 remarkable years, Brenda Ueland published six million words. She said she had two rules she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. Her integrity shines throughout If You Want to Write, her best-selling classic on the process of writing that has already...
Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew
| Author | Ursula K. Le Guin |
| ISBN | 0933377460 |
I'm pretty skeptical of books on writing, if only because everyone seems to have written one. And so many of them come at you with flashy promises: "Sell Your Novel In Thirty Days!"
Prior to having read LeGuin's "Steering the Craft," I relied on three books, more or less:
1. Strunk and...
How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide
| Author | Howard Mittelmark |
| ISBN | 0061357952 |
Many writing books offer sound advice on how to write well. This is not one of those books. On the contrary, this is a collection of terrible, awkward, and laughably unreadable excerpts that will teach you what to avoid—at all costs—if you ever want your novel published.
In How Not to Write...
Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction
| Author | Tracy Kidder |
| ISBN | 1400069750 |
Good Prose is an inspiring book about writing—about the creation of good prose—and the record of a warm and productive literary friendship. The story begins in 1973, in the offices of The Atlantic Monthly, in Boston, where a young freelance writer named Tracy Kidder came looking for an assignment....
| Author | Joy Harjo |
| ISBN | 0393325342 |
Over a quarter-century's work from the 2003 winner of the Arrell Gibson Award for Lifetime Achievement.
This collection gathers poems from throughout Joy Harjo's twenty-eight-year career, beginning in 1973 in the age marked by the takeover at Wounded Knee and the rejuvenation of indigenous...
Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home: A Memoir
When longtime Zen practitioner and world-renowned writing teacher Natalie Goldberg learns that she has a life-threatening illness, she is plunged into the challenging realm of hospitals, physicians, unfamiliar medical treatments, and the intense reality of her own impermanence. In navigating...
Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process
The long-awaited guide to writing long-form nonfiction by the legendary author and teacher
Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined...
| Author | Prince |
| ISBN | 0399589651 |
From Prince himself comes the brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death.
Prince was...
Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World
| Author | Zak Dychtwald |
| ISBN | 1250078814 |
The author, in his twenties, who is fluent in Chinese, examines the future of China through the lens of the Jiu Ling Hou—the generation born after 1990.
A close up look at the Chinese generation born after 1990 exploring through personal encounters how young Chinese feel about everything...
| Author | Gretel Ehrlich |
| ISBN | 0140081135 |
When I requested this title in NetGalley, I did not realize it was an older book of essays coming up for a reprinting. I actually have another book from the author on my "around the world" shelves at home - This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland. So she was on my vague periphery, but I was very happy to...
| Author | Marion Roach Smith |
| ISBN | 0446584843 |
A recent study revealed that the Number 1 thing that baby boomers want to do in retirement is write a book....about themselves. It's not that every person has lived such a unique or dramatic life, but we inherently understand that writing memoir-whether it's a book, blog, or just a letter to a child-is...
| Author | Vivian Gornick |
| ISBN | 0374528586 |
A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author of Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love
All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can...
| Author | Lee Gutkind |
| ISBN | 0738215546 |
From "the godfather behind creative nonfiction" (Vanity Fair) comes this indispensable how-to for nonfiction writers of all levels and genres, "reminiscent of Stephen King's fiction handbook On Writing" (Kirkus). Whether you're writing a rags-to-riches tell-all memoir or literary journalism,...
| Author | Jo Ann Beard |
| ISBN | 0316085251 |
Rarely does the debut of a new writer garner such attention & acclaim. The excitement began the moment "The Fourth State of Matter," one of the fourteen extraordinary personal narratives in this book, appeared in the pages of The New Yorker. It increased when the author received a prestigious Whiting...
| Author | John D'Agata |
| ISBN | 1555973752 |
In this singular collection, John D'Agata takes a literary tour of lyric essays written by the masters of the craft. Beginning with 1975 and John McPhee's ingenious piece, "The Search for Marvin Gardens," D'Agata selects an example of creative nonfiction for each subsequent year. These essays are...
| Author | Leslie Jamison |
| ISBN | 0544817338 |
"Jamison has done an exceptional job curating this volume, selecting essayists who are diverse in ideas and experiences, and essays that are challenging, passionate, sobering, and clever."
--
Publishers Weekly
“The essay is political—and politically useful, by which I mean...
Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship
In Let’s Take the Long Walk Home, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell has written a powerful and moving memoir about her coming-of-age in mid-life, and her extraordinary friendship with the author of Drinking: A Love Story, Caroline Knapp—fellow writers, AA members, dog lovers, and...
They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing
| Author | Gerald Graff |
| ISBN | 0393924092 |
Very interesting premise, namely, looking at academic writing as participating in a dialogue. It's a fascinating idea that goes back to at least Greek roots in the Socratic dialogue. (Come to think of it, some Eastern teachers use that technique as well; I'm just not well-versed in non-Western history)....
How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing
| Author | Paul J. Silvia |
| ISBN | 1433829738 |
All academics need to write, but many struggle to finish their dissertations, articles, books, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. How can we write it all while still having a life?
In this second edition of his popular guidebook,...
Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief
| Author | Jill Smolowe |
| ISBN | 1938314727 |
In Four Funerals and a Wedding, Smolowe jostles preconceptions about caregiving, defies cliche´s about losing loved ones, and reveals a stunning bottom line: far from being uncommon, resilience like hers is the norm among the recently bereaved. With humor and quiet wisdom, and with a lens firmly...
A Cancer in the Family: Take Control of Your Genetic Inheritance
| Author | Theodora Ross |
| ISBN | 1101982837 |
Oncologist and cancer gene hunter Theo Ross delivers the first authoritative, go-to for people facing a genetic predisposition for cancer
There are 13 million people with cancer in the United States, and it’s estimated that about 1.3 million of these cases are hereditary. Yet despite...
New Life, No Instructions
| Author | Gail Caldwell |
| ISBN | 0804190852 |
The Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of Let’s Take the Long Way Home now gives us a stunning, exquisitely written memoir about a dramatic turning point in her life, which unexpectedly opened up a world of understanding, possibility, and connection. New Life, No Instructions...
The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last
| Author | Azra Raza |
| ISBN | 1541699521 |
With the fascinating scholarship of The Emperor of All Maladies and the deeply personal experience of When Breath Becomes Air, a world-class oncologist examines the current state of cancer and its devastating impact on the individuals it affects -- including herself.
We have lost the war on cancer....
