Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief
Fourth Edition ©2022 David Starkey Formats: E-book, Print
As low as C$39.99
As low as C$39.99
Authors
-
David Starkey
David Starkey is Professor of English, Director of the Creative Writing Program, and former Director of the Composition Program at Santa Barbara City College. A frequent collaborator with the late Wendy Bishop, Starkey helped develop a pedagogy focused on the cross-pollination of composition and creative writing. In addition to his work with Bishop, which includes the co-authored Keywords in Creative Writing (2006), he is the editor of two collections of essays on pedagogy, Teaching Writing Creatively (1998) and Genre by Example: Writing What We Teach (2001), and a special issue of Teaching English in the Two-Year College (Dec. 2014). Starkey is a poet (Dance, You Monster, to My Soft Song, 2021; What Just Happened, 2021), a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction (published in American Literary Review, in Cimarron Review, in Living Blue in the Red States,and elsewhere), and a playwright whose plays have been produced across the U.S. Starkey is also a committed practitioner, and his writing on corequisite composition is informed by his participation in SBCC’s Express to Success program, an early-adopter of the ALP/corequisite model. His conference presentations in recent years have emphasized his pedagogy and passion for working with a broad range of student writers. He is currently editing a collection of essays on teaching corequisite composition.
Table of Contents
Preface: A Few Words to Instructors
A Few Things You Should Know about Creative Writing
A Few Words about Revision
1 Writing Poetry
Write before you read
The elements of poetry
The short poem: Three models
Gail White, My Personal Recollections of Not Being Asked to the Prom
*Donika Kelly, Fourth Grade Autobiography
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
Getting started writing poetry
Kick-Starts: Beginning your poems
A few tips for participating in a poetry workshop
An Anthology of Short Poems
2 Writing the Short-Short Story
Write before you read
The elements of fiction
The short-short story: Three models
Isaac Babel, Crossing the River Zbrucz
Donald Barthelme, The Baby
*Jennine Capó Crucet, Animal Control
Structure and design
Creating characters
Writing dialogue
Setting the scene
Deciding on point of view, developing tone and style
Getting started writing the short-short story
Kick-Starts: Beginning your story
A few tips for participating in a short fiction workshop
An Anthology of Short-Short Stories
3 Writing Short Creative Nonfiction
Write before you read
The elements of creative nonfiction
Short creative nonfiction: Three models
Rebecca McClanahan, Liferower
*Ylonda Gault Caviness, We Go Way Back
David Sedaris, Jesus Shaves
Organizing creative nonfiction
Telling the truth
Creative nonfiction as narrative
The poetry of creative nonfiction
Writing yourself into creative nonfiction
Ethics and edicts
Getting started writing short creative nonfiction
Kick-Starts: Beginning your creative nonfiction
A few tips for participating in a creative nonfiction workshop
An Anthology of Short Creative Nonfiction
4 Writing the Ten-Minute Play
Write before you read
The elements of playwriting
The ten-minute play: Three models
David Ives, Sure Thing
Tina Howe, The Divine Fallacy
A. Rey Pamatmat, Some Other Kid
Structuring the ten-minute play
Creating believable characters
Writing convincing dialogue
Crafting a theme
Onstage: The elements of production
Getting started writing the ten-minute play
Kick-Starts: Beginning your play
A few tips for participating in a ten-minute play workshop
Playscript Format: A Model
An Anthology of Ten-Minute Plays
A Few Words about Getting Your Work Published and Produced
A Few Words about Hybrid Creative Writing
Sabrina Orah Mark, It’s Dark in There: Confessions of a Prose Poem
A Few Words about Writing for Social Change
*Claude McKay, If We Must Die
A Few Words of Farewell
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index
*Indicates new selection
Product Updates
Lots of new creative writing including a new model poem for Chapter 1, Donika Kelly’s "Fourth Grade Autobiography"; a new model story for Chapter 2, Jeanine Capó Crucet’s "Animal Control"; and a new model of creative nonfiction for Chapter 3, Ylonda Gault Caviness’s "We Go Way Back." About one-third of the anthologized literary works are new to the fourth edition, including poetry by Franny Choi, Nicole Cooley, Natalie Diaz, David Hernandez, Danusha Laméris, Nathan McClain, Sjohnna McCray, and Solmaz Sharif; short fiction by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya, Langston Hughes, and Nicole VanderLinden; creative nonfiction by Rigoberto González, Clara Oropeza, Margaret Renkl, and Peter Schjeldahl; and drama by Karen JP Howes.
"Write before you read" prompts at the beginning of each chapter invite students to think, in writing, about what they know — and what they may still need to learn — about each of the four genres before they begin studying them.
Brief author biographies and dates of publication following works in the anthologies allows students to place the anthology selections in context and emphasizes how much of the work is by authors who are actively writing and publishing.
New Kick-Starts provide students with the creative spark to get writing.
New guidelines on conducting genre-specific workshops both in-person and online at the end of each chapter will help students share and discuss their work in each genre in a productive fashion, whether it is in face-to-face or virtual settings.
New section on writing for social change builds on the many examples of socially conscious writing already in the book, providing students with a starting point and a guide for the challenging task of responding to the times in which we live.
Authors
-
David Starkey
David Starkey is Professor of English, Director of the Creative Writing Program, and former Director of the Composition Program at Santa Barbara City College. A frequent collaborator with the late Wendy Bishop, Starkey helped develop a pedagogy focused on the cross-pollination of composition and creative writing. In addition to his work with Bishop, which includes the co-authored Keywords in Creative Writing (2006), he is the editor of two collections of essays on pedagogy, Teaching Writing Creatively (1998) and Genre by Example: Writing What We Teach (2001), and a special issue of Teaching English in the Two-Year College (Dec. 2014). Starkey is a poet (Dance, You Monster, to My Soft Song, 2021; What Just Happened, 2021), a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction (published in American Literary Review, in Cimarron Review, in Living Blue in the Red States,and elsewhere), and a playwright whose plays have been produced across the U.S. Starkey is also a committed practitioner, and his writing on corequisite composition is informed by his participation in SBCC’s Express to Success program, an early-adopter of the ALP/corequisite model. His conference presentations in recent years have emphasized his pedagogy and passion for working with a broad range of student writers. He is currently editing a collection of essays on teaching corequisite composition.
Table of Contents
Preface: A Few Words to Instructors
A Few Things You Should Know about Creative Writing
A Few Words about Revision
1 Writing Poetry
Write before you read
The elements of poetry
The short poem: Three models
Gail White, My Personal Recollections of Not Being Asked to the Prom
*Donika Kelly, Fourth Grade Autobiography
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
Getting started writing poetry
Kick-Starts: Beginning your poems
A few tips for participating in a poetry workshop
An Anthology of Short Poems
2 Writing the Short-Short Story
Write before you read
The elements of fiction
The short-short story: Three models
Isaac Babel, Crossing the River Zbrucz
Donald Barthelme, The Baby
*Jennine Capó Crucet, Animal Control
Structure and design
Creating characters
Writing dialogue
Setting the scene
Deciding on point of view, developing tone and style
Getting started writing the short-short story
Kick-Starts: Beginning your story
A few tips for participating in a short fiction workshop
An Anthology of Short-Short Stories
3 Writing Short Creative Nonfiction
Write before you read
The elements of creative nonfiction
Short creative nonfiction: Three models
Rebecca McClanahan, Liferower
*Ylonda Gault Caviness, We Go Way Back
David Sedaris, Jesus Shaves
Organizing creative nonfiction
Telling the truth
Creative nonfiction as narrative
The poetry of creative nonfiction
Writing yourself into creative nonfiction
Ethics and edicts
Getting started writing short creative nonfiction
Kick-Starts: Beginning your creative nonfiction
A few tips for participating in a creative nonfiction workshop
An Anthology of Short Creative Nonfiction
4 Writing the Ten-Minute Play
Write before you read
The elements of playwriting
The ten-minute play: Three models
David Ives, Sure Thing
Tina Howe, The Divine Fallacy
A. Rey Pamatmat, Some Other Kid
Structuring the ten-minute play
Creating believable characters
Writing convincing dialogue
Crafting a theme
Onstage: The elements of production
Getting started writing the ten-minute play
Kick-Starts: Beginning your play
A few tips for participating in a ten-minute play workshop
Playscript Format: A Model
An Anthology of Ten-Minute Plays
A Few Words about Getting Your Work Published and Produced
A Few Words about Hybrid Creative Writing
Sabrina Orah Mark, It’s Dark in There: Confessions of a Prose Poem
A Few Words about Writing for Social Change
*Claude McKay, If We Must Die
A Few Words of Farewell
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index
*Indicates new selection
Product Updates
Lots of new creative writing including a new model poem for Chapter 1, Donika Kelly’s "Fourth Grade Autobiography"; a new model story for Chapter 2, Jeanine Capó Crucet’s "Animal Control"; and a new model of creative nonfiction for Chapter 3, Ylonda Gault Caviness’s "We Go Way Back." About one-third of the anthologized literary works are new to the fourth edition, including poetry by Franny Choi, Nicole Cooley, Natalie Diaz, David Hernandez, Danusha Laméris, Nathan McClain, Sjohnna McCray, and Solmaz Sharif; short fiction by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya, Langston Hughes, and Nicole VanderLinden; creative nonfiction by Rigoberto González, Clara Oropeza, Margaret Renkl, and Peter Schjeldahl; and drama by Karen JP Howes.
"Write before you read" prompts at the beginning of each chapter invite students to think, in writing, about what they know — and what they may still need to learn — about each of the four genres before they begin studying them.
Brief author biographies and dates of publication following works in the anthologies allows students to place the anthology selections in context and emphasizes how much of the work is by authors who are actively writing and publishing.
New Kick-Starts provide students with the creative spark to get writing.
New guidelines on conducting genre-specific workshops both in-person and online at the end of each chapter will help students share and discuss their work in each genre in a productive fashion, whether it is in face-to-face or virtual settings.
New section on writing for social change builds on the many examples of socially conscious writing already in the book, providing students with a starting point and a guide for the challenging task of responding to the times in which we live.
A lively, practical approach to writing in four creative genres.
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 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.
For the fourth edition, in response to reviewer requests, the literature and writing prompts have been significantly refreshed and David Starkey has added "Write Before You Read," prompts at the beginning of each chapter, brief author biographies and dates of publication following works in the anthologies, new guidelines on conducting genre-specific workshops both in-person and online, and a new section on writing for social change.
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Are you a campus bookstore looking for ordering information?
MPS Order Search Tool (MOST) is a web-based purchase order tracking program that allows customers to view and track their purchases. No registration or special codes needed! Just enter your BILL-TO ACCT # and your ZIP CODE to track orders.
Canadian Stores: Please use only the first five digits/letters in your zip code on MOST.
Visit MOST, our online ordering system for booksellers: https://tracking.mpsvirginia.com/Login.aspx
Learn more about our Bookstore programs here: https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/contact-us/booksellers
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Our courses currently integrate with Canvas, Blackboard (Learn and Ultra), Brightspace, D2L, and Moodle. Click on the support documentation below to find out more details about the integration with each LMS.
Integrate Macmillan courses with Blackboard
Integrate Macmillan courses with Canvas
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If you’re a verified instructor, you can request a free sample of our courseware, e-book, or print textbook to consider for use in your courses. Only registered and verified instructors can receive free print and digital samples, and they should not be sold to bookstores or book resellers. If you don't yet have an existing account with Macmillan Learning, it can take up to two business days to verify your status as an instructor. You can request a free sample from the right side of this product page by clicking on the "Request Instructor Sample" button or by contacting your rep. Learn more.
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Sometimes also referred to as a spiral-bound or binder-ready textbook, loose-leaf textbooks are available to purchase. This three-hole punched, unbound version of the book costs less than a hardcover or paperback book.
-
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We can help! Contact your representative to discuss your specific needs for your course. If our off-the-shelf course materials don’t quite hit the mark, we also offer custom solutions made to fit your needs.
-
Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief
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 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.
For the fourth edition, in response to reviewer requests, the literature and writing prompts have been significantly refreshed and David Starkey has added "Write Before You Read," prompts at the beginning of each chapter, brief author biographies and dates of publication following works in the anthologies, new guidelines on conducting genre-specific workshops both in-person and online, and a new section on writing for social change.
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