Dave Morice’s Poetry Comics offers literary mavens and students alike a look at the canon in a new and hilarious light. This anthology brings together such classics as Shakespeare’s sonnets, Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” and Emily Dickinson’s “Poem 303” with renditions of such modern masterpieces as John Ashbery’s “Some Trees,” T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” and Marianne Moore’s “Poetry.”

In addition to Morice’s kaleidoscope of cartoons, the book features a brief history of poetry comics as well as a step-by-step guide to making poetry comics at home or in the classroom.
“Tweaks the nose of poetry.”—Village Voice
“Will surely irk the hell out of professors and self-serious grad students everywhere.”—Boston Globe

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The dazzling new edition of this “tremendously valuable resource” (Kliatt) contains 65 writing exercises and more than 400 example poems. It also discusses how to integrate poetry writing into the English class and essential topics such as sound and rhythm, traditional poetic forms, inventing and adapting exercises, revision, and publishing. “The lessons are presented with clarity, common sense, and sophisticated artistic sensibilities.”—Missoula Independent ”Poetry Everywhere will ease any trepidation [about writing poetry].”—English Journal

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ISBN 0-915924-69-2

Secret Writing is a fascinating study of the nature of codes. Beginning with the word game Hangman, and proceeding to discuss Egyptian hieroglyphs, prehistoric cave paintings, military codes, the surprising sense of nonsense, and difficult literature as a code to crack, Secret Writing brims with excitement. Peter Sears also provides 200 thinking and writing exercises.

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ISBN 0-915924-86-2

In Sing the Sun Up, 20 writers present new and exciting ways to motivate students to write imaginatively, inspired by African American poetry, prose, and drama. Teachers of English literature, creative writing, and Black studies will find this book to be an invaluable source for writing ideas and lessons. Among the authors discussed are James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Rita Dove, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer.
“An excellent resource…well written, instructive, and enjoyable, every essay is a gem in itself.”—Voice of Youth Advocates

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ISBN 0-915924-54-4

The Story in History gives teachers and students of all levels an entirely new way to learn about American history: by re-experiencing it from the vantage point of the imaginative writer. In more than 20 exercises using sources as various as early maps of the Americas, Walt Whitman’s accounts of the Civil War, Sioux oral histories, diaries of the women on the Oregon Trail, ads in 1940s, issues of Life, and poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks and Pablo Neruda, students combine research, imagination, and personal memory to explore both the “big events” and everyday life of earlier times. Visit Margot Fortunato Galt’s website at http://mgalt.com “This is a book that could make a difference.”—Kliatt “A ground-breaking book.”—St. Paul Pioneer Press

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ISBN 0-915924-39-0

Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns offers a road map for analyzing poetry through examination of poems’ structures, rather than their forms or genres. Michael Theune’s breakthrough concept encourages students, teachers, and writers to use structure as a tool to see the fundamental affinities between strikingly different kinds of poetry and radically different literary eras. Visit Michael Theune’s website at http://structureandsurprise.wordpress.com “A smart collection of takes on poetry’s most essential maneuvers.” —Billy Collins

"Michael Theune has come up with an ingenious way of thinking about poetry.” —Ed Hirsch

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ISBN 978-0-915924-27-1

Sweet Illusions is unusual. It can be used in two different ways. Students can read it as they read any narrative, or they can help to create the story. Walter Dean Myers, the well-known author of many young adult novels, presents a story of young people facing the problem of teenage pregnancy. As an additional twist, the reader is given a writing idea for extending each chapter.

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0-915924-15-3

In “The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson called for a literature emerging from the particularities of the new nation, and a host of great 19th- and 20th-century American poets, fiction writers, and playwrights responded to his call. The T&W Guide to Classic American Literature, published in association with The Library of America, provides teachers of writing at all levels with a rich and diverse range of approaches and insights into American literature: from introducing third-graders to Gertrude Stein, to teaching Emily Dickinson to prisoners, to using the paradigm of Henry David Thoreau’s diaries in the college classroom. This is an inspiring collection for anyone who teaches American literature or imaginative writing—or who is passionate about either.

0-915924-71-4 

This T&W Guide provides ways for students to experience Frederick Douglass’ Narrative as an aesthetic achievement as well as a socio-historical document. This book emphasizes writing as a means for students to learn about Douglass, his times, and his legacy, as well as about themselves. Contributors include poets, writers, and teachers from across the country: Lorenzo Thomas, Margot Fortunato Galt, Ron Padgett, and Marv Hoffman. “An impressive collection, well-written…very usable…particularly inspiring.”—Contemporary Education.

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ISBN 0-915924-46-3

Fifteen poets have created this first and only guide to teaching Walt Whitman from kindergarten to the college level. The book features fresh ways to read Whitman and to write poetry and prose inspired by his model. Also included are 3 pieces on education by Whitman and a discussion of Whitman as teacher. Among the contributors are Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Kenneth Koch, and Langston Hughes. “A lively, fun, illuminating book!”—Ed Folsom, The Walt Whitman Quarterly

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ISBN 0-915924-36-6

This T&W guide brings together 17 innovative essays on using the work of William Carlos Williams to inspire writing by students and adults. The book covers a wide range of Williams’s oeuvre—from such classics as “The Red Wheelbarrow” to his epic poem “Paterson,” as well as his short fiction and novels. The guide also includes a comprehensive essay about Williams audiocassettes and videotapes, and an annotated bibliography. Contributors include Julia Alvarez, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Koch. “This book is wonderful—such a thorough and fine job.”—Robert Coles, Harvard University

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ISBN 0-915924-57-9

Popular fiction can play an instrumental role in the classroom. This fascinating guide provides ways to help K-12 students write using the popular literature they know and love. “A remarkable book…consistently intelligent, truly interesting…. Even a beginning teacher will be able to use the genre approach with this book.”—Language Arts

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ISBN 0-915924-04-8

The list poem is one of the simplest ways for beginners to approach the writing of free-verse poetry. Larry Fagin’s seminal guide defines list poetry, traces its lineage from ancient times, offers writing ideas and teaching advice for list poems, and presents more than 200 examples by adults and children. “For anyone who would like to explore a poetic form that is so flexible it can be used by the beginning poet as well as the most sophisticated.”—Wisconsin Bookwatch

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ISBN 0-915924-37-4

This anthology of essays about the challenges and rewards of uniting visual art and creative writing not only demonstrates how art can spark wonderful student writing, but goes much further, offering novel insights into the creative process. The 20 essays in Third Mind—by teachers, poets, writers, artists, and museum educators—provide ideas on a diverse array of artistic disciplines, among them, quilt-making, Chinese calligraphy, abstract painting, and photographic portraiture. The collection also features 18 gorgeous color plates and an extensive bibliography of works on visual art and creative writing.

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ISBN 0-915924-94-3

Before he wrote War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy founded his own school on his estate at Yasnaya Polyana. Brimming with progressive and sometimes radical ideas on schooling, Tolstoy undertook to teach the peasant children many subjects—including imaginative writing—and published a number of essays about what he learned. This is a book for anyone who cares about education, children, the imagination, and Tolstoy.
“Teachers of writing at all levels will enjoy this reading experience and all teachers should be renewed by the message.”—Language, Literacy, and Literature

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ISBN 0-915924-96-X

Over a four-year period, Daniel Kane interviewed many of America’s most interesting and daring contemporary poets about their work. What Is Poetry features twelve of the liveliest of these dialogues, accompanied by an in-depth introduction to the American “avant-garde tradition,” a series of personable biographies, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

The poets interviewed are Rae Armantrout, John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, Fanny Howe, Lisa Jarnot, Kenneth Koch, Ann Lauterbach, Bernadette Mayer, Harryette Mullen, Michael Palmer, Lewis Warsh, and Marjorie Welish. "The poets...open up about their individual approaches to poetry and about teaching creative writing in a way that many aspiring poets, writing instructors, and even lay readers will find revealing and inspiring." --Library Journal "If you are a reader of any kind of poetry, you should get this book." --Teacher, Rhinebeck, NY

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ISBN 0-915924-64-1

Patsy Cooper offers preschool teachers, kindergarten teachers, daycare workers, and parents a wonderful and natural way to help young children begin to read and write: placing stories at the very core of the early childhood curriculum. The book includes an in-depth discussion of the crucial pedagogical and developmental roles that stories can play in early childhood, as well as a practical guide to having children tell their own stories and perform them with their classmates. Cooper discusses the uses and misuses of Whole Language, Invented Spelling, and the Writing Process. “Will inspire as well as inform.”—Dimensions of Early Childhood.

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ISBN 0-915924-77-3

In The Writing Workshop, Alan Ziegler offers teachers and aspiring writers strategies for developing constructive workshop environments. Volume 1 discusses the writing process and the teacher’s relationship with student writers. “No other book on writing combines theory and practice so well. Useful, even indispensable, at every grade level, for teaching writing.”—Herbert Kohl

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ISBN 0-915924-11-0

In The Writing Workshop, Alan Ziegler offers teachers and aspiring writers strategies for developing constructive workshop environments. Volume 2 offers a compendium of writing assignments, with advice on presentation and variations. “No other book on writing combines theory and practice so well. Useful, even indispensable, at every grade level, for teaching writing.”—Herbert Kohl

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ISBN 0-915924-07-2