A note from Joyce McDonald on honing your writing skills :

I can't stress enough that writers are readers first. Read for pleasure, read for knowledge, read to broaden your horizons, read to absorb the basic elements of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. But most of all, read the kinds of books you want to write. There is no better way to learn.

For more information about the elements of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and for building a basic vocabulary of terms, here is a list of my personal favorites:

FICTION

Burroway, Janet. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Cassill, R.V. Writing Fiction
Friedman, Bonnie. Writing Past Dark
Gardner, John. The Art of Fiction
---. On Becoming a Novelist
King, Stephen. On Writing
Lamott, Ann. Bird by Bird
Lerner, Betsy. The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers
McKee, Robert. Story
On Writing Short Stories, edited by Tom Bailey
Ueland, Brenda. If You Want to Write

POETRY

Kooser, Ted. The Poetry Home Repair Manuel
Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry
Wallace, Robert. Writing Poems
Van Cleave, Ryan. Contemporary American Poetry

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life.
Lopate, Phillip. The Art of the Essay
---. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present
Updike, John. Hugging the Shore
White, E. B. One Man's Meat

OF GENERAL INTEREST

Butler, Robert Olen. From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction
Epel, Naomi. Writers Dreaming
Welty, Eudora. One Writer's Beginnings

ANNUAL ANTHOLOGIES

The Best American Short Stories, edited by Heidi Pitlor (series editor)
The Best American Essays, edited by Robert Atwan (series editor)
The Best American Poetry, edited by David Lehman (series editor)
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, edited by Bill Henderson

RECOMMENDED PUBLICATIONS

Poets and Writers, published by Poets and Writers, Inc.
The Writer's Chronicle, published by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs

INFORMATION ON PUBLISHERS

The International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses, edited by Len Fulton
CLMP Literary Press and Magazine Directory (Published by the Council of Literary Magazines
    and Presses)
The Writers Market, edited by Robert Brewer

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