There are quite a few creative writing manuals on the market, but there is nothing remotely like The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet, a compendium of 104 poetry-writing methods that have excited and challenged students and writers for the past two decades. Among the exercises are poetry mobiles, poetry robots, postage stamp poems, rolodex poems, shadow poems, chopstick quatrains, and other inventive exercises. “Teachers and parents will treasure this collection.”—School Enrichment Model Network News

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ISBN 0-915924-44-7

The Alphabet of the Trees is a superb collection of essays about teaching all aspects and forms of nature writing, including field journals, poems, fiction, and nonfiction. The distinguished contributors to this volume include Gary Snyder, Joseph Bruchac, Mary Oliver, Clare Walker Leslie, Barbara Bash, William J. Higginson, and Jack Collom. Their essays present inspiring models from Tu Fu, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, Basho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda, Muriel Rukeyser, and many others.

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ISBN 0-915924-63-3

The Art of Science Writing features innovative advice about science writing, as well as inspiring examples from Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall, Stephen Jay Gould, and others. Topics covered include: essay development; writing experiments; and an annotated bibliography with more than 150 books useful in the teaching of this unique genre.
“What a treasure this ‘how to do it’ book is!”—American Biology Teacher

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ISBN 0-915924-20-X

The Circuit Writer: Writing with Schools and Communities is Margot Fortunato Galt’s compelling account of her 3 decades as a visiting writer in the Upper Midwest, teaching such diverse populations as Somali and Hmong refugees, Dakota Indians, Hispanic and Spanish Immersion students, and the Nordic children of Minnesota farmers. As she evokes the great tradition of pioneering educators, she also grapples with the enduring tensions between encouraging assimilation and fluency and respecting native traditions and wisdom. Each chapter focuses on particular cases from Galt’s teaching, and highlights writing exercises and the teachers and students who transformed real-life escapes and escapades into literary art. Visit Margot Fortunato Galt’s website at http://mgalt.com

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ISBN 0-915924-26-9

Classics in the Classroom presents fascinating strategies for using great literature to inspire imaginative writing. The literature discussed in this volume includes myths, epics, lyric poems, plays, stories, and novels, from ancient Sumeria, Greece, Rome, and Persia, and from Europe, Japan, Africa, and the United States. Authors presented include Homer, Sappho, Aristophanes, Ovid, Catullus, Rumi, Shakespeare, Basho, Shelley, Charlotte Brontë, Mark Twain, and Hermann Hesse. “English teachers at any level will find ideas and approaches that will liven up their classes.”—Kliatt

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ISBN 0-915924-58-7

If you or your students dread the process of revision, this book will prove transformative. Deep Revision covers topics such as: revision as a natural process, learning to revise by editing other people’s writing, changing media to revise, and revising nonfiction with fiction techniques. Meredith Sue Willis offers a wide array of specific revision exercises for fiction and nonfiction. “Hundreds of ideas on how to enjoy the work of making writing fresher, richer, and more authentic.”—Kliatt

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ISBN 0-915924-41-2

The Dictionary of Wordplay is the first dictionary of wordplay, ever. The more than 1,234 entries in Morice’s Dictionary range from the acrostic and the “exquisite corpse” to palindromes, spoonerisms, and anagrams. From these the reader moves on to such esoteric and fascinating forms as the timely neologism, the Goldwynism, the backward multiple charade, the Tom Swiftie, and the Seven Seas. An invaluable reference for teachers, writers, librarians, and language lovers everywhere, The Dictionary of Wordplay is also an endlessly enjoyable read. “Dave [Morice] is a word-wizard who invests the universe of puzzledom with a Newtonian elegance and dazzle.”—Richard Lederer, author of Anguished English

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ISBN 0-915-924-97-8

The essays in Educating the Imagination were selected from the very best articles in Teachers & Writers magazine. Fifty-five creative writers present a multitude of ideas and techniques for writing in the classroom: poetry, fiction, writing across cultures, bookmaking, creative reading, the history of punctuation, and that great, alluring mystery known as the imagination.

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ISBN 0-915924-42-0

The essays in Educating the Imagination were selected from the very best articles in Teachers & Writers magazine. Fifty-five creative writers present a multitude of ideas and techniques for writing in the classroom: poetry, fiction, writing across cultures, bookmaking, creative reading, the history of punctuation, and that great, alluring mystery known as the imagination.

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ISBN 0-915924-43-9

The second edition of this best-selling handbook includes 76 entries on traditional and modern poetic forms, an updated bibliography, and a resource list of current audio and videocassettes. The Handbook succinctly defines the forms, summarizes their histories, quotes good examples (ancient and modern), and offers professional tricks of the trade on how to use each form. “This colorful, graphically pleasing, and entertaining reference work is what can happen when those who actually practice and preach poetry present their knowledge.”—Teaching English in the Two-Year College

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ISBN 0-915924-60-9

This classic guide by the trailblazer of poetry teaching offers ideas and techniques that are useful at all age levels. Kenneth Koch has taken his “thoughtful, giving, resourceful, and patient spirit to quite elderly and often infirm men and women… A poignant and dramatic victory.”—New York Times Book Review

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ISBN 0-915924-53-6

Illuminations is a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at the art of writing, with 55 thought-provoking passages by great writers from around the world and throughout history, including Dante, Sei Shonagon, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, Marina Tsvetaeva, Jorge Luis Borges, Edith Wharton, John Keats, Leo Tolstoy, and Virginia Woolf. Each passage is accompanied by a stunning (and seldom seen) image of the author. Inspired by the popular “Illuminations” series in Teachers & Writers magazine, this is a great book to motivate students with; to give to those who share a passion for writing; or to keep close at hand, just for yourself. Includes a complete list of sources.

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ISBN 0-915924-68-4

In Listener in the Snow, Mark Statman presents practical ideas and assignments to help students reach beyond what they’ve already been doing. His method involves what might be called the art of wondering. The assignments encourage students to think creatively about time, family, silence, loss, society, travel, and the nature of dreams. “Statman’s artful and wise essays guide those who choose the path of practicing poetry.”—Vanity Fair.

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ISBN 0-915924-59-5

In these 21 lively essays, teachers and writers tell how they have used Spanish, Latin American, and Latino literature to inspire their students to create their own poems and stories. The literary models are drawn from both Spain and the Americas, and range from such early 20th century masters as Federico García Lorca and Pablo Neruda to contemporary writers like Sandra Cisneros. Among the distinguished contributors are Julia Alvarez, Martin Espada, and Naomi Shihab Nye.

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ISBN 0-915924-52-8

Herbert Kohl invites teachers to explore improvisation and dramatic dialogues with their students and provides strategies for transforming young writers into playwrights. He also offers methods for adapting great works of literature into classroom performances.
“[Kohl] writes with humor, sensitivity, and dedication to the challenge of making a children’s theater that exists for the sake of the children who are part of it.”—Harvard University’s Portfolio

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ISBN 0-915924-17-X

How do you assess such a personal art as poetry? Basing his discussion on the best poems he has collected from his students over the years, Jack Collom provides a poet’s view of what makes them good. Collom’s approach is friendly, specific, perceptive, and delightful, affording the reader the opportunity to understand the nature of creative evaluation.

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ISBN 0-915924-55-2

In this popular book, 18 creative writers describe their single best writing assignment, the one that never fails to inspire their students to tell and dramatize stories; to write autobiographical pieces, fiction, poetry, and plays; or to become interested in wordplay and oral history. The essays fully describe strategies for adaption with students of all ages and abilities. The variety of approaches is unified by the respectful, engaged, and sympathetic attitude of the contributors—and by the enthusiastic response of their students. “Highly recommended.”—Kliatt

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ISBN 0-915924-45-5

Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy, & Social Justice in Classroom & Community was nominated for the 2012 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work-Instructional.

The book includes best practices, exercises, and anecdotes rooted in the authors’ diverse experiences as a Chicago-based, African American poet/professor and a Caucasian poet/educator from upstate New York.Our Difficult Sunlight offers insights into how poetry can break down barriers to learning, aid exploration of critical issues, and foster connections among students and teachers from very different backgrounds.

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978-0915924288

Personal Fiction Writing treats the writing of fiction as a natural process that anyone can do with pleasure. The book includes more than 400 writing assignments based on such essential topics as: describing place, people, and action; writing dialogues and monologues; and developing structure. Each chapter has numerous examples by student and adult writers. For this edition, Willis has added a new chapter, “Shaping Longer Works.” “A terrific resource for the classroom teacher as well as the novice writer.”—Harvard Educational Review

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ISBN 0-915924-62-5

Playmaking is an award-winning, step-by-step account of teaching children to write, direct, and perform their own plays—as staged readings, videotapes, radio plays, and full stage productions. An exciting guide for cultivating the dramatic imagination, the book includes lesson plans, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary of theater terms. “I love this book. It’s a great read, and it taught me a lot about playwriting, theater, and young people.”—Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides

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ISBN 0-915924-35-8