The Story I Want To Tell: Explorations in the Art of Writing


Book Description

The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, Maine, dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers. THE STORY I WANT TO TELL pairs the work of 20 aspiring young writers—including immigrants from war-ravaged countries—with original stories, essays, and poems from Richard Blanco, Richard Russo, Elizabeth Gilbert, Dave Eggers, Lily King, Jonathan Lethem, Bill Roorbach, Monica Wood, and other top writers in a call-and-response anthology. The book’s supplemental materials make it a perfect tool for writers’ groups and writing teachers.




The Art of Exploration


Book Description

'Forget routine; now is the time to embrace the unknown, step out of your comfort zone and open the gateway to the Art of Exploration.' 'Britain's best loved adventurer' (The Times) talks about his secrets of discovery for the first time in this revealing manual of what it means to be an explorer in the modern age. The man who has walked the Nile, the Himalayas and the Americas discusses his lessons from a life on the road, how he managed to turn a passion into a lifestyle, and what inspired and motivated him along the way. Wood explains how he and other explorers face up to life's challenges, often in extraordinary circumstances and demonstrate resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. He shares examples of pioneers in many fields, using their work to show how we can all develop our own explorers mindset and how these lessons can be applied in daily life. With chapters on curiosity, teamwork, resilience and positivity this is a book that provides a tool kit - no matter your age or profession. As Levison says, 'these lessons can help you to fulfil your potential for living a happy life, regardless of your circumstances'.




The Art of Writing


Book Description

Rediscover the lost art of excellent writing—a valuable skill through the ages, and even more so in the twenty-first century. Since the invention of writing, the written word has fueled humanity’s astonishing progress. Thus, the ability to write effectively and beautifully has long been revered and rewarded. And yet in the digital age, people have begun to believe that this talent is somehow obsolete: that writing is something unworthy of study beyond the basic mechanics of vocabulary and syntax and grammar, that mediocre prose is acceptable in a world crying out for clear and precise communication. Peter Yang believes otherwise. The Art of Writing is Yang’s highly practical treatise on the four key principles of dazzling, effective writing—economy, transparency, variety, and harmony. Far from your garden-variety style guide, this book offers principles that apply to everyone, whether you’re writing an inauguration speech, a novel, or a letter home to Mom. Great writing is a skill, and this book gives you the tools to make your words shimmer on the page (or the screen). Packed with real-world insights and advice, The Art of Writing is your ultimate guide to transforming your writing and unleashing your inner artist.




The Parasol Flower


Book Description

In contemporary Paris, Nancy Roach is fed up with her flagging dissertation research and flees to the English countryside to escape the mounting pressure from her dissertation advisor. There, she stumbles upon an illustration of "The Parasol Flower" in a nineteenth-century treatise, which draws her into the life of Hannah Inglis, a talented artist who slipped out of art history and into the Malaysian wilderness. Working from Hannah's letters and a cache of paintings, Nancy attempts to reconstruct a pivotal year in Hannah's life. The year is 1896 and Hannah Inglis, a painter, is pushing back against her husband and their circle of ex-patriot friends in British Malaysia, who see her art as an uncivilizing influence. She finds support from two unlikely sources--the intimidating Eva Peterborough, an evolutionary biologist, and the Sikh police sergeant Darshan Singh who assists on treks to paint en plein air. With their help, she embarks on a search for a rare and legendary specimen--a flower that blooms as big as a lady's parasol. The Parasol Flower traces the borders of science, art, race, and class and establishes new boundaries.




Tropic of Violence


Book Description




Apple


Book Description

National Book Award Longlist TIME's 10 Best YA and Children's Books of 2020 NPR's Best Book of 2020 Shelf Awareness's Best Books of 2020 Publishers Weekly's Big Indie Books of Fall Amazon's Best Book of the Month AICL Best YA Books of 2020 CSMCL Best Multicultural Children's Books of 2020 PRAISE "Stirring.... Raw and moving." —TIME "Beautiful imagery and with words that soar and scald." —The Buffalo News "Easily one of the best books to be published in 2020. The kind of book bound to save lives." —LitHub "A powerful narrative about identity and belonging." —Paste Magazine FOUR STARRED REVIEWS ★ "Timely and important." —Booklist, starred review ★ "Searing yet dryly funny." —The Bulletin, starred review ★ "Exceptional." —Shelf-Awareness, starred review ★ "Captivating." —School Library Journal, starred review The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside." In APPLE (SKIN TO THE CORE), Eric Gansworth tells his story, the story of his family—of Onondaga among Tuscaroras—of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.




The Great Man


Book Description

National Bestseller and Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Oscar Feldman, the renowned figurative painter, has passed away. As his obituary notes, Oscar is survived by his wife, Abigail, their son, Ethan, and his sister, the well-known abstract painter Maxine Feldman. What the obituary does not note, however, is that Oscar is also survived by his longtime mistress, Teddy St. Cloud, and their daughters. As two biographers interview the women in an attempt to set the record straight, the open secret of his affair reaches a boiling point and a devastating skeleton threatens to come to light. From the acclaimed author of The Epicure's Lament, a scintillating novel of secrets, love, and legacy in the New York art world. "Mischievous...funny, astute...As unexpectedly generous as it is entertaining.... Christensen is a witty observer of the art universe." —The New York Times




The Art of the Short Story


Book Description

"52 great authors, their best short fiction, and their insights on writing"--Cover.




The Art of Perspective


Book Description

A writer may have a story to tell, a sense of plot, and strong characters, but for all of these to come together some key questions must be answered. What form should the narrator take? An omniscient, invisible force, or one--or more--of the characters? But in what voice, and from what vantage point? How to decide? Avoiding prescriptive instructions or arbitrary rules, Christopher Castellani brilliantly examines the various ways writers have solved the crucial point-of-view problem. By unpacking the narrative strategies at play in the work of writers as different as E. M. Forster, Grace Paley, and Tayeb Salih, among many others, he illustrates how the author's careful manipulation of distance between narrator and character drives the story. An insightful work by an award-winning novelist and the artistic director of GrubStreet, The Art of Perspective is a fascinating discussion on a subject of perpetual interest to any writer.




Why Write?


Book Description

From one of America's great professors, author of Why Teach? and Why Read?--an inspiring exploration of the importance of writing well, for creators, educators, students, and anyone who writes. Why write when it sometimes feels that so few people really read--read as if their lives might be changed by what they're reading? Why write, when the world wants to be informed, not enlightened; to be entertained, not inspired? Writing is backbreaking, mindbreaking, lonely work. So why? Because writing, as celebrated professor Mark Edmundson explains, is one of the greatest human goods. Real writing can do what critic R. P. Blackmur said it could: add to the stock of available reality. Writing teaches us to think; it can bring our minds to birth. And once we're at home with words, there are few more pleasurable human activities than writing. Because this is something he believes everyone ought to know, Edmundson offers us Why Write?, essential reading--both practical and inspiring--for anyone who yearns to be a writer, anyone who simply needs to know how to get an idea across, and anyone in between--in short, everyone.