Books

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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