Editors’ note – in a book such as this it is of course impossible to give a definitive guide to all the great books that are out there. This is meant as a course guide, a jumping-off point into a lifetime of further reading. The books have been chosen because we believe that all these writers have something to show us about how to write moving, exciting, excellent pieces of creative work. If you are serious about developing your writing, you might want to scan through this list and pick fifty-two titles – one for each week of the year – and dedicate a few hours a week to reading them.
Alvarez, A. The Writer’s Voice. London: Bloomsbury, 2005.
Atwood, Margaret. On Writers and Writing. London: Virago Press, 2015.
Bennett, Alan. Writing Home. London: Faber & Faber, 1998.
Berg, Elizabeth. Escaping into the Open. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: BBC / Penguin Books, 1972.
Cixous, Hélène, Cornell, Sarah, and Sellers, Susan. Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Cline, Sally, and Gilles, Midge. The Arvon Book of Literary Non-Fiction Writing. London: Methuen Drama, 2012.
Cohen, Robert, and Parini, Jay (eds.). The Writer’s Reader. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
Davies, Russell T., and Cook, Benjamin. Doctor Who – The Writer’s Tale: The Untold Story of the BBC Series. London: BBC Books, 2008.
Goldberg, Natalie. The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. London: Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Heaney, Seamus. The Government of the Tongue: Selected Prose, 1978–1987. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995.
Highsmith, Patricia. Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. Boston: The Writer, 1966.
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. London: Hodder, 2012.
Lodge, David. The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts. London: Penguin Books, 1994.
——Consciousness and the Novel: Connected Essays. London: Vintage, 2018.
Luckhurst, Mary, and Singleton, John. The Creative Writing Handbook: Techniques for New Writers. London: Macmillan, 1996.
Mabley, Edward. Dramatic Construction: An Outline of Basic Principles. Philadelphia, PA: Chilton, 1972.
McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. London: Methuen, 1997.
Newland, Courttia, and Hershman, Tania (eds.). Writing Short Stories: A Writers’ and Artists’ Companion. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
O’Connor, Flannery, Fitzgerald, Sally, and Fitzgerald, Robert. Mystery and Manners. London: Faber & Faber, 1984.
O’Connor, Frank. The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story. New York: Melville House Publishing, 2011.
Polizzotti, Mark. Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto. London: The MIT Press, 2018.
Sellers, Susan. Taking Reality by Surprise: Writing for Pleasure and Publication. London: Women’s Press, 1991.
Skinner, Richard. Writing a Novel: Bring Your Ideas to Life the Faber Academy Way. London: Faber & Faber, 2018.
Strand, Mark, and Boland, Eavan. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New York: Norton, 2000.
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey. Studio City, CA: Wiese, 1998.
Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son. London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2017.
Beaumont, Matthew, and Dart, Gregory. Restless Cities. London: Verso, 2010.
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006.
Bellamy, Dodie. When the Sick Rule the World. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2015.
Bennett, Alan. Untold Stories. London: Faber & Faber, 2005.
Bogarde, Dirk, and Coldstream, John (ed.). Ever, Dirk: The Bogarde Letters. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008.
Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential. London: Bloomsbury, 2000.
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. London: Penguin Books, 2000.
——and Clarke, Gerald (ed.). Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote. New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
Carey, John (ed.). The Faber Book of Reportage. London: Faber & Faber, 1996.
Chee, Alexander. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.
Chew-Bose, Durga. Too Much and Not the Mood. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017.
Clayton, Jace. Uproot: Travels in Twenty-First-Century Music and Digital Culture. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2016.
Didion, Joan. The White Album. London: Fourth Estate, 2017.
——Slouching Towards Bethlehem. London: Fourth Estate, 2017.
Ephron, Nora. I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections. London: Doubleday, 2011.
Funder, Anna. Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall. London: Granta, 2001.
Gornick, Vivian. The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002.
Greenlaw, Lavinia. The Importance of Music to Girls. London: Faber & Faber, 2017.
Gross, John J. (ed.). The Oxford Book of Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Gutkind, Lee (ed.). In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction. New York: Norton, 2005.
Hamblyn, Richard. Terra: Tales of the Earth; Four Events That Changed the World. London: Picador, 2009.
Hammond, Will, and Steward, Dan. Verbatim, Verbatim: Contemporary Documentary Theatre. London: Oberon, 2008.
Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: New Yorker, 1946.
Jamie, Kathleen. Sightlines. London: Sort of Books, 2012.
Kingsolver, Barbara. Small Wonder. London: Faber & Faber, 2002.
Knausgård, Karl O., and Bartlett, Don. My Struggle. London: Harvill Secker, 2012.
Kramer, Mark, and Call, Wendy (eds.). Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. New York: Plume, 2007.
Laing, Olivia. The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2016.
Levy, Deborah. The Cost of Living. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2018.
Lopate, Phillip (ed.). The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. London: Anchor Books, 1995.
Miller, Brenda, and Paola, Suzanne. Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Nelson, Maggie. The Argonauts. London: Melville House, 2016.
Orwell, George, Murphy, Dervla, and Davison, Peter. Down and Out in Paris and London. London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2001.
Perryman, Neil, and Perryman, Sue. Adventures with the Wife in Space: Living with Doctor Who. London: Faber & Faber, 2013.
Powell, Julie. Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living. London: Viking, 2006.
Roberts, Michèle. Paper Houses: A Memoir of the ’70s and Beyond. London: Virago Press, 2007.
Sage, Lorna. Bad Blood: A Memoir. London: Fourth Estate, 2000.
Sankovitch, Nina. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading. New York: Harper, 2012.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and the Story of a Return. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006.
Sebald, Winfried G., and Hulse, Michael. The Emigrants. London: Vintage, 2002.
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. London: Abacus, 2002.
Shields, David. Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2011.
Shukla, Nikesh (ed.). The Good Immigrant. London: Unbound, 2017.
Solnit, Rebecca, and Fernandez, Ana T. Men Explain Things to Me. London: Granta, 2014.
Smith, Patti. M Train. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
Talese, Gay, and Lounsberry, Barbara. Writing Creative Nonfiction: The Literature of Reality. London: Addison-Wesley, 1996.
Talese, Gay. Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and Other Essays. London: Penguin Classics, 2011.
Winterson, Jeanette. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? London: Vintage, 2012.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.
Adichie, Chimamanda N. Americanah. London: Fourth Estate, 2013.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. London: Vintage Books, 1985.
Baker, Jo. Longbourn. London: Doubleday, 2013.
Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain. London: Penguin Books, 1991.
Carroll, Jonathan. The Land of Laughs. New York: Orb, 2001.
Chambers, Becky. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2015.
Coetzee, J. M. Life & Times of Michael K. London: Viking, 1983.
Cusk, Rachel. Outline. London: Faber & Faber, 2015.
de Waal, Kit. My Name Is Leon. London: Viking, 2016.
Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca. London: Victor Gollancz, 1939.
Evaristo, Bernardine. Blonde Roots. London: Penguin Books, 2009.
Ford, Michael T. Lily. Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2016.
Fowler, Karen J. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2014.
Galgut, Damon. In a Strange Room: Three Journeys. Johannesburg: Penguin, 2010.
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. London: Penguin Books, 2013.
Hamid, Moshin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2007.
Han, Kang, and Smith, Deborah. The Vegetarian: A Novel. London: Portobello Books, 2016.
Heller, Zoë. Notes on a Scandal. London: Viking, 2003.
Isherwood, Christopher. A Single Man. London: Methuen, 1964.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. London: Faber & Faber, 1989.
Joyce, Rachel. The Music Shop. London: Doubleday, 2017.
Lerner, Ben. Leaving the Atocha Station: A Novel. London: Granta, 2013.
Levy, Deborah. Swimming Home. London: Faber & Faber, 2011.
Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. London: Fourth Estate, 2009.
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2001.
Maupin, Armistead. Maybe the Moon. London: Black Swan, 1993.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
McLain, Paula. The Paris Wife. London: Virago Press, 2011.
Montasser, Thomas. A Very Special Year. London: Oneworld, 2016.
Moore, Edward Kelsey, The Supremes At Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2014.
Moore, Liz. Heft. London: Windmill, 2013.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Washington Square Press, 1970.
Murakami, Haruki. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. London: Harvill Press, 1999.
Newland, Courttia. The Scholar: A West Side Story. London: Abacus, 2008.
Nicholson, Joy. The Tribes of Palos Verdes. New York: Frances Sayers, 1997.
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Penguin Books, 2000.
Rowell, Rainbow. Fangirl: A Novel. London: Macmillan, 2014.
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. London: Flamingo, 1997.
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. London: Penguin Books, 2001.
Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Edinburgh: Polygon, 2018.
Tartt, Donna. The Goldfinch. London: Abacus, 2014.
Tyler, Anne. Saint Maybe. London: Chatto & Windus, 1991.
Vickers, Salley. The Librarian. London: Viking, 2018.
Williams, John. Stoner: A Novel. New York: Viking Press, 1965.
Winterson, Jeanette. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. London: Vintage, 1985.
Zephaniah, Benjamin. Refugee Boy. London: Bloomsbury, 2001.
Zevon, Gabrielle. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. London: Abacus, 2015.
Barrett, Colin. Young Skins. New York: Black Cat, 2014.
Barry, Kevin. Dark Lies the Island. London: Vintage, 2013.
Bennett, Claire-Louise. Pond. London: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2015.
Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1979.
Carver, Raymond. Where I’m Calling From: The Selected Stories. London: Harvill Press, 1993.
Chekhov, Anton, and Wilks, Ronald. The Kiss and Other Stories. New York: Penguin Books, 1982.
Davis, Lydia. Almost No Memory: Stories. New York: Picador USA, 2001.
Du Maurier, Daphne. The Birds and Other Stories. London: Virago Press, 2015.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. London: Penguin Classics, 2007.
July, Miranda. No One Belongs Here More Than You. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2007.
Keegan, Claire. Antarctica and Other Stories. London: Faber & Faber, 1999.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies: Stories. London: Flamingo, 2000.
Machado, Carmen Maria. Her Body and Other Parties. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2017.
Mansfield, Katherine. The Collected Stories. London: Penguin Classics, 2007.
McGregor, Jon. This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
Munro, Alice. Too Much Happiness. London: Vintage, 2010.
Packer, ZZ. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005.
Proulx, Annie. Close Range: Wyoming Stories. London: Fourth Estate, 2000.
Saunders, George. Tenth of December. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
Simpson, Helen. Hey Yeah Right Get a Life. London: Vintage, 2001.
Smith, Ali. Other Stories and Other Stories. London: Penguin Books, 2004.
Williams, Eley. Attrib. and Other Stories. London: Influx Press, 2017.
Armitage, Simon. Selected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 2001.
Astley, Neil. Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy. Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2012.
Bird, Hera L. Hera Lindsay Bird. London: Penguin Books, 2017.
Carson, Anne. Nox. New York: New Directions, 2010.
Darling, Julia. Indelible, Miraculous: The Collected Poems of Julia Darling. Todmorden: Arc Publications, 2015.
Dharker, Imtiaz. Over the Moon. Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2014.
Duffy, Carol A. New Selected Poems: 1984–2004. London: Picador, 2011.
Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. New York: Norton, 2005.
Clarke, Gillian. Gillian Clarke: Selected Poems. London: Picador, 2016.
Howe, Marie. What the Living Do: Poems. New York: Norton, 1999.
Hughes, Ted. New Selected Poems, 1957–1994. London: Faber & Faber, 1995.
Hugo, Richard. The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing. New York: Norton, 1979.
Komunyakaa, Yusef. Scandalize My Name: New and Selected Poems. London: Picador, 2002.
Larkin, Philip, and Thwaite, Anthony. Collected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 2003.
Longley, Edna. The Bloodaxe Book of 20th Century Poetry from Britain and Ireland. Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2013.
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies. London: Faber & Faber, 1959.
O’Brien, Sean. The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland After 1945. London: Picador, 1998.
Olds, Sharon. Selected Poems. London: Cape Poetry, 2005.
Oliver, Mary. Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver. London: Penguin, 2017.
Oswald, Alice. Dart. London: Faber & Faber, 2002.
Parker, Morgan. There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé. London: Corsair, 2017.
Paterson, Don. 101 Sonnets: From Shakespeare to Heaney. London: Faber & Faber, 1999.
Plath, Sylvia. The Collected Poems. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2018.
Rilke, Rainer M., Kappus, Franz X., and Mitchell, Stephen. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Random House, 2011.
Salzman, Eva, and Wack, Amy. Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English. Bridgend: Seren, 2008.
Scott, Richard. Soho. London: Faber & Faber, 2018.
Smith, Danez. Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 2018.
Vuong, Ocean. Night Sky with Exit Wounds. London: Vintage Books, 2017.
Williams, William C. I Wanted to Write a Poem. London: Jonathan Cape, 1967.
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Lit Hub. https://lithub.com/
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