The MFA Student Community at Whidbey Writers’ Workshop

The below listed books are our primary texts for the upcoming MFA semester. They are also, we think, of value to all practicing writers. Purchasing books through this page gives financial support to the WWW MFA program.

The Teaching of Creative Writing: Booklist 

Colors of a Different Horse:Rethinking Creative Writing Theory and Pedagogy. Wendy Bishop and Hans Ostrom, editors. 

The Elephants Teach:Creative Writing Since 1880. David Gershom Myers. 

The Triggering Town:Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing. Richard Hugo.  

• In Poetry: 

 The Poet’s Companion. Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux.

The Practice of Poetry. Robin Behn and Chase Twichell.

Thirteen Ways of Looking For a Poem Wendy Bishop.

• In Fiction:

What If?. Ann Bernays and Pamela Painter.

Writing Fiction. Janet Burroway.

 The Fiction Writer’s Workshop. Josip Novakovich.

• In Creative Nonfiction:

 Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art. Judith Barrington.

 Writing Creative Nonfiction. Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard.

Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction. Judith Kitchen.

• In Children’s/Young Adult:

Blood on the Forehead: What I Know About Writing. M.E. Kerr.

Picture Writing. Anastasia Suen.

• Recommended, But Not Required:

Luna, Luna: Creative Writing Ideas from Spanish, Latin American, & Latino Literature. Julio Marzán.
 
Sing the Sun Up: Creative Writing Ideas from African American Literature. Lorenzo Thomas.

The Craft of Poetry

Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry,  Nims and Mason published by McGraw-Hill

Directed Reading in C/YA

• Short stories:

Santa Claus in Baghdad: Stories About Teens in the Arab World, Elsa Marston

The Blue Skin of the Sea, Graham Salisbury

Birthday Surprises: Ten Great Stories to Unwrap, Johanna Hurwitz

• Episodic Novels:

Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, Laura Amy Schlitz

• Verse Novels:

Hugging the Rock, Susan Taylor Brown

Oh Theodore, Susan Katz

• Graphic novels:

Little Vampire, Joann Sfar

American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang 

• Magazine stories, poems, etc:

Subscription Cricket, Carus Publishing

• Non-fiction magazine stories:

Subscription to Ranger Rick, National Wildlife Federation

• Non-fiction picture books

What Do You Do with a Tail Like This, Steve Jenkins (illustrator) and Robin Page

A Million Dots Andrew Clements and Mike Reed (illustrator)

Craft of Writing for Children and Young Adults

• Required for Residency and MFA students:

Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books, Uri Shulevitz Watson-Guptill

• Picture Books:

A Visitor for Bear,  Bonny Becker and Kady Denton McDonald (illustrator)

One Monday Morning, Uri Shulevitz

Millions of Cats, Wanda Gag

The Last Puppy, Frank Ash

• Required for MFA students only:
• Early Readers:

Houndsley and Catina, James Howe

Houndsley and Catina and the Birthday Surprise, James Howe

The Flat Stanley Collection Box Set, Jeff Brown

• Poetry

Flashy, Clashy, and Oh-So Splashy: Poems about Color, Laura Purdie Salas

This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness, Joyce Sidman

On the Farm,David Elliott and Holly Meade (illustrator)

• Short stories:

Up All Night, Peter Abrahams

Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence, Marion Dane Bauer

The Haunted House: A Collection of Original Stories, Jane Yolen

 

Children’s Writing Workshop, C/YA 580 Fall and Winter of 2008

Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, Elizabeth George

Directed Reading in Short Forms

• Abbreviated non-fiction:

Short Takes,  Judith Kitchen

In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal, Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones

• Prose poetry:

Models of the Universe : An Anthology of the Prose Poem, Stuart Friebert and David Young

The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson, Russell Edson

Sentence, a journal of prose poetics, number 5

• Flash fiction

Palm of the Hand Stories, Yasunari Kawabata

Wearing Dad’s Head, Barry Yourgrau

You Have Time for This, Mark Budman & Tom Hazuka

Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories, Jerome Stern

Poetry Workshop

• No Required Text, but Recommended Perennially Useful Texts Include:

The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach, Robin Behn & Chase Twichell

Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem: A Guide to Writing Poetry, Wendy Bishop

Poetry Dictionary, John Drury

An Exaltation of Forms, Annie Finch & Katherine Varnes

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, Mark Strand and Eavan Boland

The New Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Lewis Turco

Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes, Ryan Van Cleave

Graduate Fiction Workshop

On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays, A. S. Byatt

For Afternoon Sessions of the Residency

Mars Being Red, Marvin Bell

Craft of Nonfiction

• Residency Use 

Writing Creative Nonfiction, Carolyn ForchÈ and Philip Gerard

The Eloquent Essay: An Anthology of Classic and Creative Nonfiction,  Loughery, John

Cross-Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry, Gary Paul Nabhan

Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, William Zinsser

Craft of Fiction 

Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers, Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren

Theory of the Novel, Philip Stevick

The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 7th edition, Cassill & Bausch

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Becoming a Writer, Dorothea Brande

Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster