The Art of the Essay: Anthropologies of Everyday Life
EGL 238, Summer 2006
Jonah Willihnganz
Stanford University

Recommended Texts
This list is very selective since its goal is just to give you some good places to start further reading. While the essay has been around as long as the novel or short story, I'm afraid the number and quality of craft-oriented books on the essay comes nowhere near the books on the craft of fiction. Since so many of the strategies essayists use are drawn from narrative, I have thefore included books on fiction writing. I have also added here books on the writing process, research guides, and a few scholarly studies of the essay form.

Introductions to the Craft of Creative Nonfiction

Lee Gutkind. The Art Of Creative Nonfiction. Wiley, 1997.
A standard text for creative nonfiction courses. See also the web site of the journal Gutkind founded and edits, Creative Nonfiction.

Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard. Writing Creative Nonfiction. Associated Writing Programs/Story Press, 2001.
Another text frequently used in nonfiction courses. Basic, but useful for the beginner.

Rhodes, Richard. How to Write. Perennial, 1996 (reprint).
Rhodes, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, does a nice job on many fronts—craft, process, and philosophy.  Discusses fiction but the focus here is on non-fiction.

Theodore Rees Cheney. Writing Creative Nonfiction: Fiction Techniques for Crafting Great Nonfiction. Ten Speed Press, 2001.
A well organized discussion of how to apply the techniques of fiction in non-fiction. Good sections on creating telling detail and speech.

Robert L. Root, & Michael Steinberg, eds. The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/On Creative Nonfiction. Longman, 2002.
An nice anthology of short reflective pieces on creative non-fiction. Not a how-to guide.

Atwan, Robert. The Best American Essays. Houghton Mifflin, annually 1986-present.
Each year a prominent American essayist edits this collection and writes an introductory essay that reflects on the nature, purpose, and craft of the non-fiction essay. These introductory essays are almost always entertaining and instructive.  Guest editors include Stephen Jay Gould, Cynthia Ozick, Tracy Kidder, Susan Sontag, Gay Talese, Annie Dillard, and Joyce Carol Oates (who also edited The Best American Essays of the Century).

Texts on the Craft of Fiction

Janet Burroway. Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft. Lomgman, 2003.
Widely used in writing classes and quite good—considered advice, useful exercises, well-written. Covers fiction and non-fiction forms.

Madison Smartt Bell. Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft and Form. W.W. Norton, 2000.
A thoughtful, detailed, and very useful examination of narrative. Analyzes both linear and modular structures by examining in detail a dozen stories by the likes of Peter Taylor, George Garrett, and Mary Gaitskill.

John Gardner. The Art of Fiction. Vintage, 1983.
Grumpy, philosophical and sometimes obsessive but for my money still one of the best books on writing. The subject is fiction, but many of the lessons offered apply equally to creative nonfiction. Some useful exercises at the end.

Jerome Stern. Making Shapely Fiction. W.W. Norton, 2000.
Another standard text in creative writing programs. Coneptualizes elements of craft a bit differently than other authors here do, so if you don't click with Burroway, Bell, Koch or Gardner, try him. Great lists (dos/don'ts, terminology, etc) that are at once useful and funny.

Stephen Koch. The Modern Library Writer's Workshop. Modern Library, 2003.
Presents, as he says in the introduction, the "consensus among writers about the basics of their craft." Well organized and strong on process.

Various. Elements of Writing Fiction. Originally published by F&W, all reissued through Writer's Digest Books.
This is a useful series, with each guide written by a different author: Description, Monica Wood; Plot, Ansen Dibell; Characters and Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card; Scene and Structure, Jack Bickham.

Texts on the Writing Process and the Creative Process

Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird. Doubleday, 1994.
An accomplished local describes the process. Funny, instructive, and heartening.

Stephen King. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Scribner, 2000.
For those who know him only as the King of Horror, you'll be surprised—an inspirational little book on craft and process.

Ray Bradbury. Zen in the Art of Writing. Bantam, 1990.
Like King's book, accessible, inspirational, and reflective about both craft and process. 

Natalie Goldberg. Writing Down the Bones. Random House, 1986.
A Buddhist-inflected take on the creative process. Her later books are also terrific.

Julia Cameron. The Artist’s Way. Putnam, 1992.
A classic on discovering or invigorating creative potential. Her latest Walking in this World is also good.

David Bayles and Tom Orland. Art & Fear. Image Continuum Press, 2000.
An insightful, short book about the stages of the creative process and befriending fear, blocks, and resistance. Used in many art and writing programs.

Some General Texts on Writing and Research

Joseph Williams. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Longman, 2002.
Hands down the best advice on producing clear, graceful prose. The shorter version Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace is also good.

Strunk and White. The Elements of Style. Allyn & Bacon, 2000
The classic that still holds its own.

Wayne Booth et al. The Craft of Research. Chicago, 2003.
The gold standard of its kind.

Robert Berkman. Find it Fast: How to Uncover Expert Information on Any Subject. Harper, 2000.
A good, easy-to-use guide that considers many kinds of sources.

Some Academic Studies of the Essay

Chris Anderson. Style as Argument: Contemporary American Nonfiction. Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Tracy Chevalier, ed. Encyclopedia of the Essay. Fitzroy-Dearborn, 1997.

Alexander J. Butrym, ed. Essays on the Essay: Redefining the Genre. Georgia UP, 1989.