Preface.
PART I. POETRY.
1. Getting Started.
2. Imagery.
“Laying Bare the Bones” by Lisa Chavez
3. Lines and Stanzas.
“Hey, Good Lookin’, Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before?” by Beckian Fritz Goldberg.
4. Sound and the Poem.
“Degas in Vegas: Some Thoughts on Sound in Poetry” by Alberto Rios.
5. Rhyme and Meter, the Music of Poems.
“Meter and Rhyme” by James Hoggard.
6. Voice and How We Create It in Poems.
“Voice: What You Say and How Readers Hear It” by Kevin Stein.
7. Point of View in Poems.
“Point of View in Poetry” by James Hoggard.
8. Fixed Forms: Creating Our Poetic World.
“Form in Poetry” by Lynn Hoggard.
9. Putting It All Together: The Whole Poem.
“Lorca’s Duende, The Art of Zingers in Poetry Workshops, or How to Teach Students to Energize Their Poems” by Virgil Suarez.
10. Revision.
“Moonsheen and Porchlight: Revision as Illumination” by Gary Thompson.
11. The Poetry Workshop.
12. Workshopping a Free Verse Poem.
13. Workshopping a Fixed Form Poem.
Poems for Further Reading.
The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Because I Could not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson.
I think I could Turn and Live with Animals by Walt Whitman.
On Being Brought from Africa… by Phyllis Wheatley.
She’s Free by Frances Harper.
Killers by Carl Sandburg.
Sonnet 14 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
In Which She Satisfies a Fear… by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
The Movies by Florence Kiper Frank.
A Winter Ride by Amy Lowell.
The Fathers by Gary Thompson.
An American Tale of Sex and Death by Kevin Stein.
The Passing House by Beckian Fritz Goldberg.
At A Wedding in Mexico City by Lisa Chavez.
Nureyev’s Feet by Scott Hightower.
Found Map of Spain by Gaylord Brewer.
Anniversary by Teresa Leo.
Waking by Albert Garcia.
Unsent Message to My Brother… by Leon Stokesbury.
Sermon of the Fallen by David Bottoms.
Those Riches by Robert Wrigley.
Funeral by Harry Hume.
Song of Napalm by Bruce Weigle.
Fish by Tom Crawford.
Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me… by Lorne Dee Cervantes.
PART II. FICTION.
14. Surrounded by Stories: Where Our Stories Come From.
“The Second Story: How a Promising Single Episode Might Find Its Fullest Use in Our Fiction” by Ron Carlson.
15. Point of View.
“Touching the Elephant” by Melissa Pritchard.
16. Plot.
“Fairy Tales Always Come True: Plot and Imagination” by H. Lee Barnes.
17. Character.
“A Character’s Skin” by Tracy Daugherty.
18. Setting.
“Take Place” by Valerie Miner.
19. Dialogue.
“On Dialogue” by Diana Abu-Jaber.
20. Style, Tone, and Voice.
“Voice in Fiction” by Amy Sage Webb.
21. Credible Surprise on the Path to Resonance.
“Mystery and Surprise” by Craig Lesley.
22. Theme.
23. Revision.
24. Participating in the Workshop.
25. Workshopping a Story in the First Person.
26. Workshopping a Story in the Third Person.
Stories for Further Reading.
The Ordinary Son by Ron Carlson.
Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver.
Araby by James Joyce.Port de Bras by Melissa Pritchard.
Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck.
The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich.
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara.
Yours by Mary Robison.
Glossary.
Contributor’s Biographies.
Index.
A print text