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For courses in Introduction to Creative Writing or Creative Writing in English or Creative Writing Departments.
Written by bestselling author Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing, covers all four genres: creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama. This textbook discusses elements of craft common to all creative writing before delving into the individual genres. After an introduction, the next five chapters each investigate a specific element of craft—Image, Voice, Character, Setting, and Story—from a perspective that crosses all genres. Nearly half of the selections in all four genres are new. New "Try This" exercises give students plenty of practice. Imaginative Writing is a very popular book for courses on teaching the craft of creative writing.
JANET BURROWAY is the author of plays, poetry, essays, children’s books, and eight novels including The Buzzards, Raw Silk (runner up for the National Book Award), Opening Nights, Cutting Stone, and Bridge of Sand. Her other publications include a collection of personal essays, Embalming Mom, in addition to a volume of poetry, Material Goods, and three children’s books in verse, The Truck on the Track, The Giant Jam Sandwich, and The Perfect Pig. Her plays Medea with Child (The Reva Shiner Award), Sweepstakes, Division of Property (Arts & Letters Award), and Parts of Speech have received readings and productions in New York, London, San Francisco, Hollywood, Chicago, and various regional theaters. Her textbook Writing Fiction, now in its ninth edition, is the most widely used creative writing text in the United States. Her most recent books are a memoir, Losing Tim, and a collection of essays she has edited, A Story Larger Than My Own: Women Writers Look Back on Their Lives and Careers. She is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita at the Florida State University in Tallahassee and has most recently taught in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Northwestern University.
Preface
Chapter 1 Invitation to the Writer
You …
… and writing …
… and reading …
… and this book …
… and your journal …
Journal Excerpts
Ayelet Waldman
Billy Collins
Cris Mazza
Patricia Henley
Philip Graham
A word about your workshop …
Part I The Elements of Craft
Chapter 2 Image
Image and Imagination
Concrete, Significant Details
Figures of Speech
Readings
Creative Nonfiction
Annie Dillard
from Heaven and Earth in Jest
David Sedaris
Standing By
Fiction
Tobias Wolff
Bullet in the Brain
Jamaica Kincaid
Girl
Poems
Roger Bonair-Agard
American History looks for light—a prayer for the survival of Barack Obama
Billy Collins
Snow Day
Yusef Komunyakaa
Facing It
Drama
Jane Martin
French Fries
Chapter 3 Voice
Your Voice
Persona
Irony
Character Voice
Point of View
Readings
Creative Nonfiction
Alice Walker
Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self
Warren J. Bowe
Guns for Teachers
Fiction
George Saunders
Victory Lap
Jorge Luis Borges
The Book of Sand
Poems
Alicia Ostriker
Wrong About the Horse
Barbara Hamby
Ode to American English
Adam J. Ruben
The Grad Student Rap
Drama
Chuck O’Connor
High Hard Ones a Play
Chapter 4 Character
Character as Desire
Character as Image
Character as Voice
Character as Action
Character as Thought
Character as Presented by the Author
Character as Conflict
Stock and Flat Characters
Readings
Creative Nonfiction
Aleksandar Hemon
The Book of My Life
Benjamin Percy
Me vs. Animals
Fiction
Richard Bausch
Tandolfo the Great
Poems
Theodore Roethke
I Knew a Woman
Carole Simmons Oles
Stonecarver
Elizabeth Jennings
One Flesh
Kaylin Haught
God Says Yes to Me
Drama
Molly Campbell
Telephone Bob
Chapter 5 Setting
Setting as the World
Setting as a Camera
Setting as Mood and Symbol
Setting as Action
Readings
Creative Nonfiction
Joan Didion
At the Dam
Fiction
Donald Barthelme
The School
Angela Carter
The Werewolf
Poems
Sherman Alexie
At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School
John Freeman
Beirut
Philip Appleman
Nobody Dies in the Spring
Yusef Komunyakaa
Nude Interrogation
Drama
David Ives
The Philadelphia
Chapter 6 Story
As a Journey
As a Power Struggle
As Connection and Disconnection
Readings
Creative Nonfiction
Patricia Hampl
Red Sky in the Morning
Fiction
David Foster Wallace
Incarnations of Burned Children
Scott Blackwood
One of Us Is Hidden Away
Poems
Robert Hass
A Story About the Body
Albert Goldbarth
Columbine High School/Littleton, CO
Maxine Kumin
Woodchucks
Li-Young Lee
The Hammock
Drama
Lanford Wilson
Eukiah
Chapter 7 Development and Revision
Developing a Draft
Structuring
Research
Revision
Editing
The Workshop
Examples
Elizabeth Bishop: First and Final Drafts of “One Art”
Patty Seyburn: “Anatomy of Disorder”
Janet Burroway: The Opening of Indian Dancer
Part II The Genres
Chapter 8 Creative Nonfiction
The Essay and Creative Nonfiction
Memoir and the Personal Essay
Techniques of Creative Nonfiction
Fact and Truth
Readings
Gayle Pemberton
Do He Have Your Number, Mr. Jeffrey?
Margaret Atwood
The Female Body
S. L. Wisenberg
Margot’s Diary
Michael Chabon
Ragnarok Boy
Creative Nonfiction Format
Chapter 9 Fiction
Story and Plot
Scene and Summary
Backstory and Flashback
Text and Subtext
Readings
Amy Bloom
The Story
Ernest Hemingway
A Very Short Story
Ursula K. Le Guin
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Edith Pearlman
Self Reliance
Ron Carlson
Bigfoot Stole My Wife
Fiction Format
Chapter 10 Poetry
Formal and Free Verse
Working with Sound
The Poetic Line
Imagery, Connotation, and Metaphor
Density and Intensity
Finding the Poem
Readings
Gerald Stern
Columbia the Gem
Sylvia Plath
Stillborn
Steve Kowit
The Grammar Lesson
Tony Hoagland
There Is No Word
Grace Paley
Fathers
Erin Belieu
Love Is Not an Emergency
Sharon Olds
The Language of the Brag
Nick Laird
Epithalamium
Poetry Format
Chapter 11 Drama
The Difference Between Drama and Fiction
Sight: Sets, Action, Costumes, Props
Sound: Verbal and Nonverbal
Structure: Making a Scene
The Ten-Minute Play
Readings
Anton Chekhov
The Proposal
José Rivera
Gas
William Dunne
Good Morning, Romeo
Joe DiPietro
Executive Dance
Drama Format
Appendix A: A Basic Prosody
Appendix B: Line Editing
Glossary
Credits
Index
Other versions by this Author
