Resources for Fiction Writers
The books listed below—a small selection of what’s available—range from introductory guides to handbooks to extended discussions of craft in the broadest sense.
Donald Barthelme, Not Knowing
Charles Baxter, The Art of Subtext, Burning Down the House, and Wonderlands
Robert Boswell, The Half-Known World
Catherine Brady, Story Logic and the Craft of Fiction
Janet Burroway, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium and Why Read the Classics
Maud Casey, The Art of Mystery
Christopher Castellani, The Art of Perspective
Seymour Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film
Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentaries
Robert Cohen, Going to the Tigers: Essays and Exhortations
Stephen Dobyns, Best Words, Best Order and Next Word, Better Word
E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel
John Gardner, The Art of Fiction
David Jauss, On Writing Fiction and Alone With All That Could Happen: Rethinking
Conventional Wisdom About the Craft of Fiction Writing
Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel
Liz Lerman and John Borstel, Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process
Margot Livesey, The Hidden Machinery
David Lodge, The Art of Fiction: Illustrated From Classic and Modern Texts
David Madden, Revising Fiction
Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
and The Origin of Others and Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary
Imagination
David Mura, A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity & Narrative Craft in Writing
Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature and Lectures on Russian Literature
Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners
Frank O’Connor, The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story
Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?
Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
Raymond Queneau, Exercises in Style
Matthew Salesses, Craft in the Real World
George Saunders, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain
Joan Silber, The Art of Time
Debra Spark, Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing and And Then Something
Happened: Essays on Fiction Writing
Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren, Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and
Advanced Writers
Peter Turchi, Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer and A Muse and
A Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic
Virginia Wolff, A Writer’s Diary
Anthologies
The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work
Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life,
edited by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi
A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft,
edited by Andrea Barrett and Peter Turchi
The Story Behind the Story
The Paris Review interviews
The Writer’s Notebook: Craft Essays from Tin House (two volumes)
Online
Craft (https://www.craftliterary.com/)
Fiction Writer’s Review (https://fictionwritersreview.com/)
Valuable References for Poets
• Marianne Boruch’s In the Blue Pharmacy: Essays on Poetry and Other Transformations
• Stephen Dobyns’ Best Words, Best Order
• Carl Dennis’ Poetry as Persuasion
• Tony Hoagland’s Real Sofistikation: Essays on Poetry and Craft
Tony Hoagland’s Twenty Poems that Could Save America and Other Essays
• Poets Teaching Poets
• Poet’s Work, Poet’s Play: Essays on the Practice and the Art
• Michael Ryan’s A Difficult Grace: On Poets, Poetry, and Writing
• Ellen Bryant Voigt’s The Flexible Lyric
• Alan Williamson’s Eloquence and Mere Life: Essays on the Art of Poetry