Young adult literature holds an exceptional place in modern American popular culture-accessible to readers of all levels, it captures a diverse audience and tends to adapt to the big screen in an exciting way. With its wide readership, YAL sparks interesting discussions inside and outside of the classroom. This collection of new essays examines how it has impacted college composition courses, primarily focusing on the first year. Contributors discuss popular YA stories, their educational potential, and possibilities for classroom discussion and exercise.

Offering guidance on writing poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, Environmental and Nature Writing is a complete introduction to the art and craft of writing about the environment in a wide range of genres. With discussion questions and writing prompts throughout, Environmental and Nature Writing: A Writers' Guide and Anthology covers such topics as: * The history of writing about the environment * Image, description and metaphor * Environmental journalism, poetry, and fiction * Researching, revising and publishing * Styles of nature writing, from discovery to memoir to polemic The book also includes an anthology, offering inspiring examples of nature writing in all of the genres covered by the book, including work by: John Daniel, Camille T. Dungy, David Gessner, Jennifer Lunden, Erik Reece, David Treuer, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Alyson Hagy, Bonnie Nadzam, Lydia Peelle, Benjamin Percy, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Nikky Finney, Juan Felipe Herrera, Major Jackson, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, G.E. Patterson, Natasha Trethewey, and many more.

Regardless of what genre they've chosen, suspense remains one of the writer's most powerful tools for making readers sweat and keeping them on the edges of their seats. Suspense, Structure, and Plot features thirteen practical, targeted techniques for building suspense in every story. Readers will be able to quicken their story's pace, tighten its structure, add complexity to the plot, enhance character motivation, choose words for sensual specificity, balance narrative with action and dialogue, and improve both their productivity and their professionalism. In short, they'll learn how to craft captivating, complex stories that sell. Complete with examples, case studies, checklists, exercises, and FAQs to help writers make the tools and techniques their own, Suspense, Structure, and Plot provides everything needed to craft a make-'em-sweat page-turner.

'The best book on the subject I've read. Quite brilliant' Tony Jordan, creator/writer, Life on Mars, Hustle We all love stories. But why do we tell them? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way? John Yorke, creator of the BBC Writers' Academy, has brought a vast array of drama to British screens. Here he takes us on a journey to the heart of storytelling, revealing that there truly is a unifying shape to narrative forms - one that echoes the fairytale journey into the woods and, like any great art, comes from deep within. From ancient myths to big-budget blockbusters, he gets to the root of the stories that are all around us, every day. 'Marvellous' Julian Fellowes 'Terrifyingly clever ... Packed with intelligent argument' Evening Standard 'The most important book about scriptwriting since William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade' Peter Bowker, writer, Blackpool, Occupation, Eric and Ernie

Prewriting Your Screenplay cements all the bricks of a story's foundations together and forms a single, organic story-growing technique, starting with a blank slate. It shows writers how to design each element so that they perfectly interlock together like pieces of a puzzle, creating a stronger story foundation that does not leave gaps and holes for readers to find. This construction process is performed one piece at a time, one character at a time, building and incorporating each element into the whole. The book provides a clear-cut set of lessons that teaches how to construct that story base around concepts as individual as the writer's personal opinions, helping to foster an individual writer's voice. It also features end-of-chapter exercises that offer step-by-step guidance in applying each lesson, providing screenwriters with a concrete approach to building a strong foundation for a screenplay. This is the quintessential book for all writers taking their first steps towards developing a screenplay from nothing, getting them over that first monumental hump, resulting in a well-formulated story concept that is cohesive and professional.

Winner of the 2022 Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play Nominated for the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Play "A man should never turn down two things. Sex, and appearing on television." 1968 - a year of protest that divided America. As two men fight to become the next President, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and the iconoclastic liberal Gore Vidal. Beliefs are challenged and slurs slung as these political idols feud nightly in a new television format, debating the moral landscape of a shattered nation. Little do they know they're about to open up a new frontier in American politics, and transform television news forever... Best of Enemies is the electric new play by James Graham (Quiz, Labour of Love), directed by Jeremy Herrin, inspired by the documentary by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon. This revised and updated edition was published to coincide with the West End transfer to the Noel Coward Theatre in November 2022.

This book describes an alternative way to teach Creative Writing, one that replaces the silent writer taking criticism and advice from the teacher-led workshop with an active writer who reflects upon and publically questions the work-in-progress in order to solicit response, from a writers' group as well as from the teacher. Both accompany the writer, first as readers and fellow writers, only later as critics. Because writers ask, they listen, and dialogues with responders become an inner dialogue that guides later writing and revision. But when teachers accompany writers, teaching CW becomes even more a negotiation of the personal because this teacher who is listener and mentor is also a model for some students of the writer and even the person they would like to become - and still the Authority who gives the grades.

Short story publishing is flourishing in the 21st century and is no longer seen as a poor relation of the novel. But what is a short story? And how do you write one? Robert Graham takes you through everything you need to know, from how a writer works to crafting and editing your own fiction. This heavily revised edition features new chapters by contemporary fiction writers. Stressing the importance of reading broadly and deeply, the book includes a wide range of prompts and writing exercises. It teaches you how to read as a writer and write like somebody who has read. You will learn the elements of craft you need to produce short stories, and one of the key writer's disciplines: reflecting on your own work. Whether you are a student or an experienced author, this book will teach you how to write short stories - and reflect on the creative processes involved. The book features chapters from writer-teachers James Friel, Rodge Glass, Ursula Hurley, Heather Leach, Helen Newall, Jenny Newman, James Rice and Tom Vowler.

From one of America's most influential writing teachers, a collection of 50 of the best writing strategies distilled from 50 writing and language books -- from Aristotle to Strunk and White. With so many excellent writing guides lining bookstore shelves, it can be hard to know where to look for the best advice. Should you go with Natalie Goldberg or Anne Lamott? Maybe William Zinsser or Donald Murray would be more appropriate. Then again, what about the classics -- Strunk and White, or even Aristotle himself? Thankfully, your search is over. In Murder Your Darlings, Roy Peter Clark, who for more than 30 years has been a beloved and revered writing teacher to children and Pulitzer prize-winners alike, has compiled a remarkable collection of 50 of the best writing tips from 50 of the best writing books of all time. With a chapter devoted to each piece of advice, Clark expands and contextualizes the original author's suggestions, and offers anecdotes about how each one helped him or other writers sharpen their skills. An invaluable resource for scribblers of all kinds, Murder Your Darlings is an inspiring and edifying ode to the craft of writing.

Provides consolidation and extension for language, grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, and fluency

Rhetorics for Community Action: Public Writing and Writing Publics, by Phyllis Mentzell Ryder, offers theory and pedagogy to introduce public writing as a complex political and creative action. To write public texts, we have to invent the public we wish to address. Such invention is a complex task, with many components to consider: exigency that brings people together; a sense of agency and capacity; a sense of how the world is and what it can become. All these components constantly compete against texts that put forward other public ideals opposing ideas about who really has power and who really can create change. Teachers of public writing must adopt a generous response to those who venture into this arena. Some scholars believe that to prepare students for public life, university classes should partner with grassroots community organizations, rather than nonprofits that serve food or tutor students. They worry that a service-related focus will create more passive citizens who do not rally and resist or grab the attention of government leaders or corporations. With carefully contextualized study of an after-school arts program, an area soup kitchen, and parks organizations, among others, Ryder shows that many so-called "service" organizations are not passive places at all, and she argues that the main challenge of public work is precisely that it has to take place among all of these compelling definitions of democracy. Ryder proposes teaching public writing by partnering with multiple community nonprofits. She develops a framework to help students analyze how their community partners inspire people to action, and offers a course design that support them as they convey those public ideals in community texts. But composing public texts is only part of the challenge. Traditional newspapers and magazines, through their business models and writing styles, reinforce a dominant role for citizens as thinking and reading, but not necessarily acting. This civic role is also professed"

Writing in the Disciplines (WiD) is a growing field in which discipline-based academics, writing developers, and learning technologists collaborate to help students succeed as subject specialists. This book places WiD in its theoretical and cultural contexts and reports on initiatives taking place at a range of UK higher education institutions. Also includes surveys of current developments and scholarship in the US, Australia, Europe and elsewhere, making it of interest to both a UK and an international audience.

This book begins with the observation that contemporary artists have embraced and employed gravity as an immaterial readymade. Necessarily focusing on material practices - chiefly sculpture, installation, performance, and film - this discussion takes account of how and why artists have used gravity and explores the similarities between their work and the popular cultural forms of circus, vaudeville, burlesque, and film. Works by Rodney Graham, Stan Douglas, and Robert Smithson are mediated through ideas of Gnostic doubt, atomism, and new materialism. In other examples - by John Wood and Paul Harrison, Gordon Matta-Clark, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Trisha Brown, and Bas Jan Ader - mass and momentum, falling objects, and falling bodies are examined in relation to architecture, sculpture, and dance. In performances, projects and events curated by Bruce Nauman, Santiago Sierra, and Catherine Yass, gravity is resisted in Sisyphean ordeals and death-defying stunts. This account of contemporary art and performance, read through the invisible membrane of gravity, exposes new and distinctive approaches to agency reduction, authorial doubt, and redemptive failure.

Noted literary agent and author Donald Maass has done it again! His previous book, Writing the Breakout Novel, offered novelists of all skill levels and genres insider advice on how to make their books rise above the competition and succeed in a crowded marketplace.

Now, building on the success of its predecessor, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook calls that advice into action! This powerful book presents the patented techniques and writing exercises from Maass's popular writing workshops to offer novelists first-class instruction and practical guidance. You'll learn to develop and strengthen aspects of your prose with sections on:

• Building plot layers
• Creating inner conflict
• Strengthening voice and point of view
• Discovering and heightening larger-than-life character qualities
• Strengthening theme
• And much more!

Maass also carefully dissects examples from real-life breakout novels so you'll lean how to read and analyze fiction like a writer. With authoritative instruction and hands-on workbook exercises, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook is one of the most accessible novel-writing guides available.

Set your work-in progress apart from the competition and write your own breakout novel today!

Create the next very hungry caterpillar, big red dog, or cat in the hat with a hand from this trusted guide In Writing Children's Books For Dummies, you'll learn what to write between "Once upon a time . . ." and "The End" as you dive into chapters about getting started writing, how to build great characters, and how to design a dramatic plot. On top of the technical writing advice, you'll discover how talented illustrators work and how to find an agent. The newest edition of this popular For Dummies title even shows you how to choose a publisher--or self-publish--and how to use social media and other marketing and PR to get the word out about your new masterpiece. In the book, you'll learn about: The fundamentals of writing for children, including common book formats and genres, and the structure of the children's book market Creating a spellbinding story with scene description, engaging dialogue, and a child-friendly tone Polishing your story to a radiant shine with careful editing and rewriting Making the choice between a traditional publisher, a hybrid publisher, or self-publishing Using the most-effective marketing and publicity techniques to get your book noticed Perfect for anyone who's ever dreamed of creating the next Ferdinand the Bull or Grinch, Writing Children's Books For Dummies is an essential, easy-to-read guide for budding children's authors everywhere.

This book explores the effectiveness of the workshop in the Creative Writing classroom, and looks beyond the question of whether or not the workshop works to address the issue of what an altered pedagogical model might look like. In visualising what else is possible in the workshop space, the sixteen chapters collected in 'Does the Writing Workshop Still Work?' cover a range of theoretical and pedagogical topics and explore the inner workings and conflicts of the workshop model. The needs of a growing and diverse student population are central to the chapter authors' consideration of non-normative pedagogies. The book is a must-read for all teachers of Creative Writing, as well as for researchers in Creative Writing Studies.

remixthecontext is a cunning and satirical collection of "theoretical fictions" composed by artist, novelist and media theorist Mark Amerika. A compelling riff on the classic Platonic dialogue, Amerika's remixthecontext features Walt Whitman Benjamin, a Professor of Creative Urgency who intellectually jams with an assemblage of characters that resemble the actual artists, poets, and scholars who populate the university cafe culture depicted in the book. Each chapter is enlivened by Amerika's provocative mash-up of literary metafiction, new media rhetoric and witty repartee setting the stage for a series of freewheeling exchanges that playfully investigate a multitude of themes including remix culture, psychic automatism, gender fluidity, social media dystopia, MOOCs as performance art, and the challenges presented by cutting-edge digital arts and humanities curricula within a sclerotic academic environment.

What is Creative Writing? Millions of people do it, but how do we do it, really? What evidence of its human undertaking does Creative Writing produce? How do we explore Creative Writing, as both an art form and a mode of communication? How do we come to understand Creative Writing, creatively and critically? Posing questions about the nature of Creative Writing, On Creative Writing asks us to consider what Creative Writing actually is, and in doing so encourages us to reflect on how our knowledge of Creative Writing can be increased. Emphasizing Creative Writing as an act and actions, On Creative Writing considers what lies at the core of the activity called Creative Writing.

What is Creative Writing? Millions of people do it, but how do we do it, really? What evidence of its human undertaking does Creative Writing produce? How do we explore Creative Writing, as both an art form and a mode of communication? How do we come to understand Creative Writing, creatively and critically? Posing questions about the nature of Creative Writing, On Creative Writing asks us to consider what Creative Writing actually is, and in doing so encourages us to reflect on how our knowledge of Creative Writing can be increased. Emphasizing Creative Writing as an act and actions, On Creative Writing considers what lies at the core of the activity called Creative Writing.

An industry professional's insider's look at the craft, practice, and business of screenwriting, exploding some of the most popular myths about writing for the movies by showing how little relevance they have to actual working conditions. Analytical essays stand side by side with not only the author's own in-the-field experiences, but commentary offered by veteran industry pros including Josh Sapan, CEO of AMC Networks; bestselling author and writer/director Adriana Trigiani; and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas (Goodfellas) Pileggi.

From Dani Shapiro, bestselling author of Devotion and Slow Motion, comes a witty, heartfelt, and practical look at the exhilarating and challenging process of storytelling.

At once a memoir, a meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Still Writing is an intimate companion to living a creative life. Writers—and anyone with an artistic temperament—will find inspiration and comfort in these pages.

Offering lessons learned over twenty years of teaching and writing, Shapiro shares her own revealing insights to weave an indispensable almanac for modern writers.

This introductory creative writing text uses a unique, multi-genre approach to provide students with a broad-based knowledge of their craft, treating them as professional writers. Beginning by discussing elements common to all genres, this book underscores the importance of learning good writing habits before committing to a genre, encouraging writers to look beyond their genre expectations and learn from other forms. The book then devotes one chapter to each of the major literary genres: fiction, poetry, drama and creative nonfiction. These style-specific sections provide depth as they compare the different genres, furnishing students with a comprehensive understanding of creative writing as a discipline and fostering creativity. The discussion concludes with a chapter on digital media and an appendix on literary citizenship and publishing. With exercises at the end of each chapter, a glossary of literary terms, and a list of resources for further study, A Writer's Craft is the ideal companion to an introductory creative writing class. It has been listed as one of the 'Best Books for Writers' by Poets and Writers magazine.

Scholarly engagement with the magazine form has, in the last two decades, produced a substantial amount of valuable research. Authored by leading academic authorities in the study of magazines, the chapters in The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research not only create an architecture to organize and archive the developing field of magazine research, but also suggest new avenues of future investigation. Each of 33 chapters surveys the last 20 years of scholarship in its subject area, identifying the major research themes, theoretical developments and interpretive breakthroughs. Exploration of the digital challenges and opportunities which currently face the magazine world are woven throughout, offering readers a deeper understanding of the magazine form, as well as of the sociocultural realities it both mirrors and influences. The book includes six sections: -Methodologies and structures presents theories and models for magazine research in an evolving, global context. -Magazine publishing: the people and the work introduces the roles and practices of those involved in the editorial and business sides of magazine publishing. -Magazines as textual communication surveys the field of contemporary magazines across a range of theoretical perspectives, subjects, genre and format questions. -Magazines as visual communication explores cover design, photography, illustrations and interactivity. -Pedagogical and curricular perspectives offers insights on undergraduate and graduate teaching topics in magazine research. -The future of the magazine form speculates on the changing nature of magazine research via its environmental effects, audience, and transforming platforms.