Crafting Poems and Stories: A Guide to Creative Writing - Paperback

by Ethel Rackin (Author)

Back Jacket

Crafting Poems and Stories is an inspiring new guide to creative writing. Comprehensive in its treatment of poetry and fiction, this book offers the features that students most often request, including concise definitions of basic terms of poetry and short fiction, focused discussion of craft, exciting literary models, and engaging hands-on exercises. It is an accessible guide that renders the material of introductory creative-writing courses more readily engaging, so that beginning writers can see greater progress reflected in their poems and short stories over the course of a single semester.

• - Includes 60 poems and 9 complete stories, ranging from classic to contemporary
• - Each chapter includes craft-focused discussion questions and writing prompts and exercises
• - Includes appendices on workshopping poetry and fiction and on resources for writers seeking publication

Author Biography

Ethel Rackin Professor of Language and Literature at Bucks County Community College, has been teaching creative writing for over twenty years. She is the author of the poetry collections The Forever Notes (Parlor Press, 2013), Go On (Parlor Press, 2016), Evening (Furniture Press, 2017), and In Time (Word Works Books, 2025). Her writing has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry East, Verse Daily, and many other journals.