Recommended Reading MENU BAR Introduction: The need to READ! Print disability resources Poetry Essays & Nonfiction Humor Short Story/Short Fiction Novels/Long Fiction Plays/Scripts Memoir & Autobiography Books About Writing Do you feel the need? The need to READ! The most important step in becoming a good writer is being a major reader*! Read what you want to write. If you want to be a poet, devour poetry. If you write essays, feast on nonfiction. Reading a great number and variety of a particular genre helps you to digest that form -- to become attuned to its rhythms, textures, smells, and sounds. Below are lists of some of my favorite writers, books, and plays to help you along in becoming a hungry, unstoppable reader (or to feed your obsession if you already are one). Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to the authors below. Sample around. Ask your friends or librarian what they suggest. In fact, there are a few pieces below that I haven't read but that have been strongly recommended by respected writing colleagues. If you're not sure whose writing you like, try one of the many excellent collections that are published every year, such as The Best American Short Stories or Best Science Writing . You can even dig up that Norton Anthology from high school lit or Contemporary American Poetry from your college poetry class and jot down the names of the writers you like best. Then hunt down more of their work. To be a good writer, you should be reading on two levels. First, consider your enjoyment and involvement in the piece: Do you care about the characters? Do you want to know what happens next? Are you affected by the beauty of the words? Second, try to be cognizant of what the author has done. For instance: - What is the plot of this story? Where is the conflict, the action, the resolution? What makes the characters real for you? What details does the author include to make the people in the story come alive? - Where does the leap occur in the poem? How does the poet leap from the minute detail to the big truth that makes you gasp? Which words bring out the rhyme and rhythm in the piece? - How does the essayist build her argument? Do you find yourself wanting to fight with her, or are you swept along in the tide of her rationale? Do you find yourself identifying with the writer, and if so, what makes you feel connected to him? Of course you don't want to get so bogged down in analyzing the books or stories that you become detached from them. Good writing should suck you in and carry you off. If you're too busy asking the Big Questions, you won't have any fun reading; then what will keep you coming back for more? So, read. Enjoy. Have fun. And keep a itty-bitty notepad in the back of your mind where you can jot down neat writer tricks that you notice as you come across them in your literary travels. This will make you a better writer. And a more interesting person. I promise. *A print disability should not prevent you from reading. Lots of excellent books are available on audio cassette, both commercially (from your library or bookstore) or through the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress. Anyone with a print disability, including learning disability, blindness, chemical sensitivity, a physical disability that makes it difficult to hold a book, or a cognitive impairment, is eligible for this wonderful, free service. To learn more, go to http://www.loc.gov/nls. These are a few of my favorite writers (and books) Poets W. H. Auden Olga Broumas Lucille Clifton Billy Collins Chrystos John Donne Rita Dove Judy Grahn Essex Hemphill Phillip Levine Pablo Neruda Sharon Olds Mary Oliver Marge Piercy Sylvia Plath Edgar Allan Poe Anne Sexton William Stafford Poetry Collections This Bridge Called My Back -- classic collection of poems by women of color The Best American Poetry The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses -- yearly collection of selected poetry and prose from literary journals and magazines Essayists and Nonfiction Writers Kat Duff, especially The Alchemy of Illness Joan Didion Ursula K. Le Guin, especially Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places Audre Lorde, especially Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches Barbara Kingsolver, especially High Tide in Tucson Annie Proulx Floyd Skloot Susan Sontag, especially Illness As Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors Virginia Woolf, especially A Room of One's Own Essay and Nonfiction Collections* Best Spiritual Writing Best American Essays The Best American Science and Nature Writing Best Food Writing The Best American Science Writing *All of these are annual publications which have the year as the last part of their title, e.g., The Best American Sports Writing 2002. I've left the year out above for simplicity's sake. Humorists Douglas Adams, especially The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (trilogy) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul Dave Barry, especially Dave Barry Talks Back ; Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up ; and Big Trouble Carolyn Chute, especially The Beans of Egypt, Maine William Goldman, especially The Princess Bride Garrison Keillor Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life David Sedaris, especially Me Talk Pretty One Day ; Naked ; and Barrel Fever Jane Wagner, especially Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Other Humor Writing "This American Life," is a weekly one-hour radio program produced by Ira Glass at WBEZ in Chicago for Public Radio International. TAL uses interviews, short stories, and journalistic storytelling to focus on diverse, unique themes relating to people living in the US. While TAL is not always funny -- it is frequently poignant, thoughtful, and bizarre -- very often it is hysterical, zany, and quirky, showcasing some of the best humor writers (fiction and nonfiction) on air. Visit http://www.thislife.org. The Onion is a humor/satirical newspaper that can be read online or purchased by subscription through the mail. It is the most popular humor site on the Internet, deservedly so. Hysterically irreverent. Check out http://www.theonion.com. Short Story Writers (Fiction) Rick Bass Claire Davis Junot Diaz Chitra Divakaruni Elizabeth Graver Ha Jin Jhumpa Lahiri Ursula K. Le Guin, especially Tales from Earthsea Rick Moody Grace Paley Sara Paretsky, especially Windy City Blues Annie Proulx Short Story Collections "Selected Shorts" is a weekly radio broadcast. "A Celebration of the Short Story! Acclaimed actors read classic and bold new fiction recorded live for later broadcast on public radio nationwide. Prominent actors read short stories in front of a New York City audience." Examples of this year's reader/actors are Jane Curtin, Jon DeVries, Cynthia Nixon, James Naughton, Lawrence Clayton, and Michael Genét. Authors include Al Hirschfeld, Sam Shepard, D.H. Lawrence, Maeve Binchy, James McBride, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, Angela Carter, R.K. Narayan, and Paul Bowles. For more information, see http://www.symphonyspace.org/home/home.php. The Best American Short Stories -- published since 1915, edited every year by a different famous author. Published by Houghton Mifflin. Novelists Dorothy Allison, especially Bastard Out of Carolina Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility James Baldwin, especially Giovanni's Room and Another Country Leslie Feinberg, especially Stone Butch Blues Ralph Ellison, especially The Invisible Man Ursula Hegi, especially Stones from the River Zora Neale Hurston, especially Their Eyes Were Watching God John Irving, especially A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp Judith Katz, especially Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound Barbara Kingsolver, especially Poisonwood Bible ; Bean Trees ; and Prodigal Summer Marge Piercy, especially Gone to Soldiers and He, She, and It J. K. Rowling, the Harry Potter series Sir Walter Scott, especially Ivanhoe Sarah Schulman, especially After Delores ; People in Trouble ; and The Sophie Horowitz Story Alice Walker, especially The Color Purple Jeanette Winterson, especially Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Playwrights Edward Albee, especially Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure David Auburn, Proof Anton Chekov, especially The Seagull ; Three Sisters ; and The Bear Caryl Churchill, especially Cloud Nine Christopher Durang, especially Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You Margaret Edson, Wit Euripides, especially Medea William Inge, especially Picnic Arthur L. Kopit, Oh, Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad Tony Kushner, especially Angels in America Charles Ludlam, especially Avant-Garde Arthur Miller, especially Death of a Salesman Moliere, especially Tartuffe and Le Misanthrope Marsha Norman, especially Night, Mother Eugene O'Neill, especially Long Day's Journey into Night Theresa Rebeck, especially Spike Heels Jean Paul Sartre, No Exit Paul Schaffer, especially Amadeus William Shakespeare, especially Hamlet ; Romeo and Juliet ; Macbeth ; and Othello Ntozake Shange, especially For colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enuf Peggy Shaw, Menopausal Gentleman Sam Shephard, especially True West Diana Son, Stop Kiss Sophocles, especially Antigone Tom Stoppard, especially Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead and Arcadia Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Wendy Wasserstein, especially The Heidi Chronicles Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country's Good Tennessee Williams, especially A Streetcar Named Desire and Small Craft Warnings August Wilson, especially Fences Memoirs and Autobiographies Maya Angelou, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Eli Clare, especially Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation Lillian Faderman, especially Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir Susanna Kaysen, especially Girl, Interrupted Bel Kaufman, especially Up the Down Staircase Ron Kovic, especially Born on the Fourth of July Audre Lorde, especially Zami: A New Spelling of My Name and The Cancer Journals Robert McCrum, especially My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke Joan Nestle, especially A Restricted Country Books About Writing (Organized roughly by preference.) Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Natalie Goldberg If you only read one book about writing, this is the one to get. Gentle, kind, universal advice, very easy to read, very applicable. The basic writer's guide, Bones lays a foundation of writing practice that can be applied to almost any writing situation. Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life, Natalie Goldberg The worthy sequel of Bones , very much in the same style -- readable, funny, useful, spiritual. More practical, with lots of "Try This" writing exercises. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott The most hilarious book on writing, ever. An excellent read. Especially useful for fiction writers and those who already have a couple years of writing under their belts. If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit , Brenda Ueland A lovely, quaint, encouraging book, great for the beginning writer, originally published in 1938, with lots of straightforward advice and first-person accounts. Also has wonderful chapter titles, such as "Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say" and "Keep a slovenly, headlong, impulsive, honest diary." Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds , Deena Metzger A beautifully written, spiritually oriented book on writing especially geared toward using writing to heal the injured or fragmented parts of the self. Lots of poetry, discussion, and writing exercises. Recommended for the intermediate or advanced writer or for those who enjoy a denser, deeper, more lush writing style than the other books in this section. Write Now: Maintaining a Creative Spirit While Homebound and Ill , Susan Dion This small book was written by a writer with CFIDS (chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome) for other people with severe or chronic illness who want to express themselves through writing. It is a kind, encouraging, easy-to-digest book designed for those who may have limited energy, cognitive impairment, or physical difficulty picking up a pen. Available for free with the right postage and envelope. For information, see http://www.kporterfield.com/chronic_illness/Chronic_Write_Now.html or send a SASE to WRITE NOW, P.O. Box 341, Penns Grove, New Jersey 08069-0341.
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