9781319035334

How can students with widely varied levels of literary experience learn to write poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama — over the course of only one semester? In Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief, David Starkey offers some solutions to the challenges of teaching the introductory creative writing course: (1) concise, accessible instruction in the basics of writing poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama; (2) short models of literature to analyze, admire and emulate; (3) inventive and imaginative assignments that inspire and motivate.

In the third edition, in response to reviewer requests, the literature and writing prompts have been significantly refreshed and expanded, while new treatment of getting published and the growing trend of hybrid creative writing have been added.

David Starkey is Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Barbara City College. He is the editor of two collections of creative writing pedagogy, Teaching Writing Creatively (1998) and Genre by Example: Writing What We Teach (2001), and he has been active in all four genres. His poetry collections include Adventures of the Minor Poet (2007); Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (2006); and Fear of Everything (2000). Several poems from his most recent collection, A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel (2010) were featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. His fiction has appeared in American Literary Review, Rio Grande Review, Sou’wester, and in the anthology Blue Cathedral: Contemporary Fiction for the New Millennium. His creative nonfiction has been published in Cimarron Review, Gulf Stream Magazine, Tampa Review, and in the book Living Blue in the Red States (2007), which he edited. His plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Preface: A Few Words to Instructors
A Few Things You Should Know About Creative Writing
A Few Words About Revision

1       Writing Poetry
A Few Things You Should Know about Poetry
The Elements of Poetry
The Short Poem: Three Models
             Gail White, “My Personal Recollections of Not Being Asked to the Prom”
             Ruth Stone, “Winter”
             Rae Armantrout, “Duration”
Lines and Stanzas
Meter and Rhythm
The Music of Poetry
Images, Symbols and Figurative Language
Diction, Syntax and the Language of Poetry
               Poetic Forms
Sonnet / Villanelle / Rondeau/ Rodelet/ Triolet/ Sestina/ Cinquain/ Haiku / Pantoum / Cento/ Ghazal
                Prose Poetry
Getting Started Writing Poetry
>Kick-Starts: Beginning Your Poems

An Anthology of Short Poems
                 Elizabeth Alexander, “House Party Sonnet:‘66”
                 Sherman Alexie, “Basketball”
                 Agha Shahid Ali, “Postcard from Kashmir”
New          Lucie Brock-Broido, “Posthumous Seduction”
                  Lorna Dee Cervantes, “Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War between Races”
                  Wanda Coleman, “Brute Strength”
                  Billy Collins, “Nostalgia”
                  Elaine Equi, “A Quiet Poem”
New           Joy Harjo, “It’s Raining in Honolulu”
                  Brenda Hillman, “Shadows in Snow”
New          Juan Felipe Herrera, “K’s Mother Speaks of Her Years in Kuwait”
                 Allison Joseph, “On Being Told I Don’t Speak like a Black Person”
New         Joan Naviyuk Kane, “Akkumin Qanituq/Swift Descent”
                Jane Kenyon, “The Blue Bowl”
New         Ted Kooser, “Barn Swallows”
New         Sarah Lindsay, “Origin”
New        Teresa Leo, “My Friend Asks What I’ve Been Doing Lately, and by This She
Means Men”
New          Jane Munro, “Sonoma”
New          Hoa Nguyen, “They Sell You What Disappears”
                 Naomi Shihab Nye, “I Feel Sorry for Jesus”
                 Mary Oliver, “Crossing the Swamp”
                 Deborah Paredez, “Bustillo Drive Grocery”
                 Molly Peacock, “Instead of Her Own”
                  Patricia Smith, “Listening at the Door”
                  Gary Snyder, “I Went into the Maverick Bar”
New           Charles Simic, “My guardian angel…”
                  James Tate, “Teaching the Ape to Write Poems”
                  Gloria Vando, “new shoes and an old flame”
                  David Wojahn, “The Assassination of John Lennon as Depicted by the Madame
Tussaud Wax Museum, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 1987”
New           Kevin Young, “Rosetta”

2 Writing the Short-Short Story

A Few Things You Should Know about the Short-Short Story
The Elements of Fiction
The Short-Short Story: Three Models
                    Isaac Babel, “Crossing the River Zbrucz”
                    Donald Barthelme, “The Baby”
New             Bonnie Jo Campbell, “Rhyme Game”
Structure and Design
Creating Characters
Writing Dialogue
Setting the Scene
Deciding on Point of View, Developing Tone and Style
                     First-Person Point of View / Second-Person Point of View / Third-Person Limited Point of View / Third-Person Omniscient Point of View / Tense / Tone and Style
Getting Started Writing the Short-Short Story
>Kick-Starts: Beginning Your Story

An Anthology of Short-Short Stories
                       Margaret Atwood, “An Angel”
                      Aimee Bender, “Loser”
                       T. Coraghessan Boyle, “The Hit Man”
                       Ron Carlson, “A Kind of Flying”
                        Raymond Carver, “Popular Mechanics”
                       John Cheever, “Reunion”
New                Lydia Davis, “The Strangers”
New                Dagoberto Gilb, “His Birthday”
                        Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”
New                Lorrie Moore, “Referential”
                        Joyce Carol Oates, “Wolf’s Head Lake”
New                Jayne Anne Phillips, “Solo Dance”
New               Ron Rash, “The Harvest”

3  Writing Creative Nonfiction

A Few Things You Should Know about Short Creative Nonfiction

The Elements of Creative Nonfiction
Short Creative Nonfiction: Three Models
                       Rebecca McClanahan, “Liferower”
                       Brian Doyle, “Joyas Voladoras”
                       David Sedaris, “Jesus Shaves”
Organizing Creative Nonfiction
Telling the Truth
Creative Nonfiction as Narrative
                      Character / Dialogue / Scene-Setting
The Poetry of Creative Nonfiction
                         Imagery and Figurative Language / Diction / Sound and Rhythm
Writing Yourself into Creative Nonfiction
Ethics and Edicts
Getting Started Writing Short Creative Nonfiction
>Kick-Starts: Beginning Your Creative Nonfiction

An Anthology of Short Creative Nonfiction
                        Diane Ackerman, “The Mute Sense”
                       James Brown, “My Papa’s Waltz”
                        Edwidge Danticat, “Westbury Court”
                        Joan Didion, “In Bed”
New                 Barry Lopez, “The Raven”
                        Dinty W. Moore, “El Toro Rojo”
                        Aimee Nezhukumatathil, “The Witching Hour”
New                John T. Price, “The Burnt Plane”
New                Gary Soto, “First Love”
                        Alice Walker, “Dreads”

4 Writing the Ten-Minute Play

A Few Things You Should Know about the Ten-Minute Play

The Elements of Playwriting
The Ten-Minute Play: Three Models
                         David Ives, “Sure Thing”
                         Tina Howe, “The Divine Fallacy”
New                 A. Rey Pamatmat, “Some Other Kid”
Structuring the Ten-Minute Play
Creating Believable Characters
Writing Convincing Dialogue
Crafting a Theme
On Stage: The Elements of Production
                            Stage / Sets / Props, Costumes, and Effects / Lights / Sounds / Actors /Audience
Getting Started Writing the Ten-Minute Play
>Kick-Starts: Beginning Your Play
Playscript Format: A Model

An Anthology of Ten-Minute Plays
                            Dan Dietz, “Trash Anthem”
                            Kristina Halvorson, “Now We’re Really Getting Somewhere”
                             Adam Kraar, “Love on the B-Line”
                             K. Alexa Mavromatis, “Bone China”
New                     Tracy Scott Wilson, “Fairy Tale”