Comic book writer J. Michael (Rising Stars, The Amazing Spider-Man) Straczynksi made the following statement a few years ago: “Find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say it, and get the hell out.” The All Things Writerly column has been back for about a month and our last installment where we talked about various craft books was such a hit, we’re back for a sequel. So yet again we are providing a list of must-read books for writers of all ability and skill levels. You asked and we heard, so let’s say it and get the hell out so you can get to reading and writing. Here they are, in no particular order:
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts by Joseph Harris
The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as it Takes by Joan Silber
Writing Suburban Citizenship: Place-Conscious Education and the Conundrum of Suburbia by Robert E. Brooke and others
Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
The Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera
Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing by Stacey Waite
Both Flesh and Not: Essays by David Foster Wallace
Techniques of Fiction Writing: Measure and Madness by Leon Surmelian
The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
So there you have it. Like I said with the first entry in what is apparently going to be a series for the All Things Writerly column, there are thousands (hundreds of which are actually really, really good) of craft books out there, but these are the ones that have prominent places on our bookshelves. And the ones that leave the shelves and make it to the writing desk. Hope you’ll check them out. These folks really know their stuff.
