Resources For Poets

Books are my teachers, bookstores and libraries are where I’ve found my people and tools, and I enjoy learning at my own pace, according to my passions and my particular needs at a given moment. Therefore, I tend to think that if you’re an aspiring writer you can give yourself a perfectly fine education without the expense of an MFA program, if that is what you need or want to do. The following resources can become your companions and tutelary texts in that process. You are not alone.

The Art & Craft of Creative Writing

This is a personal and incomplete list of the books I have found most useful in my writing life, and which have contributed to my teaching philosophy and approach to sharing poetry with college students and adults. *Highest recommendations.

Books

  • Several Short Sentences About Writing. Verlyn Klinkenborg*

  • A Poet’s Glossary. Edward Hirsch*

  • How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love With Poetry. Edward Hirsch*

  • Sister Outsider. Audre Lorde*

  • Next Word, Better Word: The Craft of Writing Poetry. Stephen Dobyns*

  • The Poetry Home Repair Manual. Ted Kooser*

  • The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden. Stanley Kunitz with Genine Lentine

  • Real Sofistikashun: Essays on Poetry and Craft. Tony Hoagland

  • Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. Jane Hirshfield*

  • Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World. Jane Hirshfield*

  • Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor. Lynda Barry*

  • A Primer for Poets & Readers of Poetry. Gregory Orr*

  • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Jenny Odell*

  • Ordering the Storm: How to Put Together a Book of Poems. Susan Grimm, Editor

  • World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down. Christian McEwen*

  • Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interviews. Christian McEwen

  • The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. Twyla Tharp

  • Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing. Hélène Cixous

  • Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. bell hooks

  • The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life. John Daido Loori

  • The Art of the Poetic Line. James Longenbach

  • The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song. Ellen Bryant Voigt

  • The Art of Description: World into Word. Mark Doty

  • The Art of Attention: A Poet's Eye. Donald Revell

  • The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. Lewis Hyde

  • Letters to a Young Artist: Straight Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts—For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind. Anna Deavere Smith

  • Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures. Mary Ruefle

    Essays & Articles & A Chapbook

  • “Writing Off the Subject.” Richard Hugo

  • “Revising One Sentence.” Lydia Davis

  • “Omission.” John McPhee

  • “Learning the Poetic Line.” Rebecca Hazelton

  • “How to Read a Poem.” Edward Hirsch

  • “Out There: Naming the things of the world.” Lili Taylor

  • “The Art of Finding.” Linda Gregg

  • “Flying Revision’s Flag.” Donald Hall

  • “Shaping a Collection of Poems.” Jamaal May

  • “Shore Lines.” Camille Dungy

  • “On Imagination.” Mary Ruefle

Around the Internet

If you are reading and researching on the web, I want to recommend the websites that I use most often, and can be trusted to present the work in question without errors, and in compliance with author copyrights.

Podcasts

I am often alone and so I enjoy listening to poets and other people, in conversation with each other. Here are the ones I return to most often:

Other Treasures

 
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