Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone


Nancy Dean - 2000
    Each of the 100 sharply focused, historically and culturally diverse passages from world literature targets a specific component of voice, presenting the elements in short, manageable exercises that function well as class openers. Includes teacher notes and discussion suggestions.

The Book of Positive Quotations


John Cook - 1997
    "A valuable tool for anyone who writes or speaks."-- Zig Zigler

The Lake House: A Novel by Kate Morton | Summary & Analysis


aBookaDay - 2015
    If you have not yet bought the original copy, make sure to purchase it before buying this unofficial summary from aBookaDay. SPECIAL OFFER $2.99 (Regularly priced: $3.99) INTRODUCTION The Lake House by Kate Morton is about diving into the past. The novel transports the reader to different time-periods throughout a century. The story takes place in the early 1900’s, the 1930’s (1932 - 1933 for the most part), and in 2003. In August 1933, a young woman buries something in the woods. We aren’t sure what it is or who she is, but we learn she will never forget what she’s done. The book then takes us to June 1933, a month earlier, where we meet a young, adventurous, romantic girl named Alice Edevane. Alice lives with her mother, Eleanor, her father, Anthony, her two sisters (her younger sister Clementine and her older sister Deborah), and her baby brother, Theodore, on an estate known as Loeanneth. Leoanneth, located in Cornwall, England, is described through Alice’s thoughts as being a very beautiful and peaceful place to live. It’s a beautiful day and all Alice wants to do is go talk with Ben Munro and forget about the annual Midsummer Party her mother is frantically preparing for. We are then brought to the year 2003, where we're introduced to detective Sadie Sparrow. We learn that she’s on temporarily leave for mishandling a case involving a missing child (referred to as the Bailey case throughout the novel) and is visiting her grandfather who lives in Cornwall. When she’s on her daily run, she stumbles across an abandoned Loeanneth. She learns that the little baby, Theodore disappeared during a party held at Loeanneth back in June 1933. The book takes the reader back and forth between the early 1900’s, the 1930’s, and to the year 2003 as Sadie uncovers the truth behind Theodore Edevanes disappearance. The novel is about motherhood, the difficulties of motherhood, and the loss of oneself as well as the loss of loved ones. It’s about the lives of different characters and the decisions they make when placed in difficult situations. Available on PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device. © 2015 All Rights Reserved

The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature


Bill Goldstein - 2017
    S. Eliot, E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence during 1922, the birth year of modernismThe World Broke in Two tells the fascinating story of the intellectual journey four legendary writers, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, and D. H. Lawrence, make over the course of one pivotal year. As 1922 begins, all four writers are literally at a loss for words, confronting an uncertain creative future despite success in the past. The literary ground is shifting beneath their feet, as Ulysses is published and Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past is translated into English. Yet, dismal as they felt in January, by the end of the year Woolf has started Mrs. Dalloway, Forster has returned to the pages that would become Passage to India, Lawrence has begun Kangaroo, and Eliot has finished The Waste Land.As Willa Cather put it, The world broke in two in 1922 or thereabouts, and what these writers were struggling with that year was in fact the invention of modernism. Based on original research in libraries and archives, The World Broke in Two captures both the literary breakthroughs and the intense personal dramas of these beloved writers as they strive for greatness.

Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry


David Orr - 2011
    . . . Beautiful & Pointless is a clear-eyed, opinionated, and idiosyncratic guide to a vibrant but endangered art form, essential reading for anyone who loves poetry, and also for those of us who mostly just admire it from afar." —Tom PerrottaAward-winning New York Times Book Review poetry columnist David Orr delivers an engaging, amusing, and stimulating tour through the world of poetry. With echoes of Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, Orr’s Beautiful & Pointless offers a smart and funny approach to appreciating an art form that many find difficult to embrace.

Poetry is Not a Project


Dorothea Lasky - 2010
    Calling poets away from civilization, back towards the wilderness, Lasky brazenly urges artists away from conceptual programs, resurrecting imagination and faith-in-the-uncertain as saviors from mediocrity.

The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination


Carl Phillips - 2014
    What does it mean to give shapelessness a form? How can a poem explore both the natural world and the inner world? Phillips demonstrates the restless qualities of the imagination by reading and examining poems by Ashbery, Bogan, Frost, Niedecker, Shakespeare, and others, and by considering other art forms, such as photography and the blues. The Art of Daring is a lyrical, persuasive argument for the many ways that writing and living are acts of risk. "I think it's largely the conundrum of being human that makes us keep making," Phillips writes. "I think it has something to do with revision—how, not only is the world in constant revision, but each of us is, as well."

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory


Peter Barry - 1995
    This new and expanded third edition continues to offer students and readers the best one-volume introduction to the field.The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unraveled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles and concepts have been grasped.

Stevens: Poems


Wallace Stevens - 1947
    Poems: Stevens contains a selection, chosen by Helen Vendler, of over sixty of Stevens's poems, revealing with renewed force his status as our supreme acrobat of the imagination.

Prayers Plainly Spoken


Stanley Hauerwas - 1999
    Originally prayed in Stanley Hauerwas's divinity school classroom on a variety of occasions, this collection of prayers not only displays an invigorating faith but demonstrates how Christians today can pray with all the passion of the ancient psalmists.

Words are our Sorcery


Karl Wiggins - 2014
    You know those ….. drifting kinds of thoughts? When it’s easy to believe that someone else is dreaming you? Well that’s Trance Poetry. The purpose of the poems in this book are to try and show how words alone can lift you up and take you places, how they can enchant and bewitch, creating the illusion that just for a few minutes everything’s alright with the world. When I started to write poetry I searched around for subject matter, and chose colour. Not yellow, red and blue, but Paprika, Jet, Ochre, Huckleberry Blue, Fiesta etc. and went inside trying to see where that ‘colour’ would take me. From this I created a series of poems which I entitled Colour-oetry, and I’ve included these here as well. Only half of this book is poetry, well 56% to be precise. A while ago I took an interest in the parallel lives of the chef and the writer. How the chef creates his magic in the chaotic environment of the kitchen compares well with how the writer creates his hocus-pocus in the peace and quiet of his study. A chef’s wizardry is in his ingredients, whilst a writer’s sorcery is in his words. So I wrote a few chapters on food, following it all over the world at one stage, attempting to paint pictures with my words. But I also focused on the 'writer,' comparing him or her not only to the chef but also to other master tradesmen, even a bricklayer at one stage. Deep down this is the purpose of this book, to discuss the art of the writer and the sorcery in his words. Whether I’ve succeeded or not, only the reader can tell. I’ve finished the book with three chapters on parenting experiences. True stories actually. My goal here is to use the writer’s sorcery to establish emotion and hopefully leave you with a lump in your throat. I hope you enjoy reading this, because I loved writing it!

What Is Poetry?: The Essential Guide to Reading and Writing Poems


Michael Rosen - 2016
    What is Poetry

The Poetics of Space


Gaston Bachelard - 1957
    Bachelard takes us on a journey, from cellar to attic, to show how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shape our thoughts, memories, and dreams."A magical book. . . . The Poetics of Space is a prism through which all worlds from literary creation to housework to aesthetics to carpentry take on enhanced-and enchanted-significances. Every reader of it will never see ordinary spaces in ordinary ways. Instead the reader will see with the soul of the eye, the glint of Gaston Bachelard." -from the new foreword by John R. Stilgoe

Bukowski and the Beats: A Commentary on the Beat Generation. Followed by "An Evening at Buk's Place"


Jean-François Duval - 1998
    Commentary. Interviews. Translated from the French by Alison Ardron. There are several reasons for this book. The principle one is pleasure--the pure joy of returning to Charles Bukowski and to the Beats, by dipping into their legend--particularly since the Beat movement is now enjoying a lively revival of attention through new editions, appearances of previously unpublished material, exhibitions, and other events. There is also the pleasure of rediscovering Charles Bukowski, cult author whose reputation continues to grow steadily all over the world. The full drama of his humor, of his angers, memories, frustrations, and distinctive grace come to life during Jean-Fran�ois Duval's long interview with Buk: An Evening at Buk's Place. The pleasure also consists of having a close look at the links and contradictions between Bukowski and the Beat constellation.

Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2016


A&C Black - 1907
    Acknowledged by the publishing industry, authors and would-be writers as the indispensable companion to navigating the world of publishing.The 80+ articles provide inspirational and how-to guidance on writing for newspapers, magazines, scripts for film, radio and TV; advice on writing and submitting plays, poetry, non-fiction and fiction of all genres - from fantasy to thrillers to romance; how to contact publishers and agents; managing finances as a writer; negotiating legal issues, such as copyright; understanding the editing process; self-publishing and conventional routes; digital and print.NEW articles in the 2016 edition include:Alison Weir Historical fictionBen Schott On writingRose Prince Writing about foodSara Wheeler Travel WritingDanny Hahn Literary translationNick Spalding Being a hybrid authorMel Sherratt Successful self-publishing Mike Poulton Adapting works for the stageJulia Copus Being a published poetand pieces on: Writing theatre reviews, Graphic novels, Getting poetry published, Literary festivals, Greetings cardsEvery one of over 4,500 listings of who to contact, where and for which disciplines across the media, are reviewed and most updated, with new listings added every year.The combination of up-to-date listings information and expert advice, make the Yearbook a topical and reliable resource; the perfect gift for every writer every year.