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    Crafting The Personal Essay

    A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction

    Author Dinty W. Moore
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $17.99 US
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Writer's Digest Books
    5.54"W x 8.37"H x 0.68"D   | 9 oz | 36 per carton
    On sale Sep 08, 2010 | 272 Pages | 9781582977966
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    Award winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders once compared the art of essay writing to "the pursuit of mental rabbits"—a rambling through thickets of thought in search of some brief glimmer of fuzzy truth. While some people persist in the belief that essays are stuffy and antiquated, the truth is that the personal essay is an ever-changing creative medium that provides an ideal vehicle for satisfying the human urge to document truths as we experience them and share them with others—to capture a bit of life on paper.

    Crafting the Personal Essay is designed to help you explore the flexibility and power of the personal essay in your own writing. This hands-on, creativity-expanding guide will help you infuse your nonfiction with honesty, personality, and energy. You'll discover:

       • An exploration of the basics of essay writing
       • Ways to step back and scrutinize your experiences in order to separate out what may be fresh, powerful, surprising or fascinating to a reader
       • How to move past private "journaling" and write for an audience
       • How to write eight different types of essays including memoir, travel, humor, and nature essays among others
       • Instruction for revision and strategies for getting published
    Brimming with helpful examples, exercises, and sample essays, this indispensable guide will help your personal essays transcend the merely private to become powerfully universal.
    Dinty W. Moore is the director of Ohio University's BA, MA, and PhD in creative writing programs. He has authored various books of literary nonfiction as well as textbooks and craft guides, most notably Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy, and his memoir, Between Panic and Desire, won the GrubStreet National Book Prize. Moore has been published in Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Utne Reader, Salon, Okey-Panky, the Southern Review, the Georgia Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He is the founder and editor of Brevity and is a frequent speaker and teacher at writers' conferences. View titles by Dinty W. Moore

    About

    Award winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders once compared the art of essay writing to "the pursuit of mental rabbits"—a rambling through thickets of thought in search of some brief glimmer of fuzzy truth. While some people persist in the belief that essays are stuffy and antiquated, the truth is that the personal essay is an ever-changing creative medium that provides an ideal vehicle for satisfying the human urge to document truths as we experience them and share them with others—to capture a bit of life on paper.

    Crafting the Personal Essay is designed to help you explore the flexibility and power of the personal essay in your own writing. This hands-on, creativity-expanding guide will help you infuse your nonfiction with honesty, personality, and energy. You'll discover:

       • An exploration of the basics of essay writing
       • Ways to step back and scrutinize your experiences in order to separate out what may be fresh, powerful, surprising or fascinating to a reader
       • How to move past private "journaling" and write for an audience
       • How to write eight different types of essays including memoir, travel, humor, and nature essays among others
       • Instruction for revision and strategies for getting published
    Brimming with helpful examples, exercises, and sample essays, this indispensable guide will help your personal essays transcend the merely private to become powerfully universal.

    Author

    Dinty W. Moore is the director of Ohio University's BA, MA, and PhD in creative writing programs. He has authored various books of literary nonfiction as well as textbooks and craft guides, most notably Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy, and his memoir, Between Panic and Desire, won the GrubStreet National Book Prize. Moore has been published in Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Utne Reader, Salon, Okey-Panky, the Southern Review, the Georgia Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He is the founder and editor of Brevity and is a frequent speaker and teacher at writers' conferences. View titles by Dinty W. Moore

    Other Books by this Author

    • The Story Cure
      The Story Cure
      A Book Doctor's Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir
      Dinty W. Moore
      9780399578809
      $20.00 US
      Paperback
      Ten Speed Press
      May 02, 2017
    • Accidental Buddhist
      Accidental Buddhist
      Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still, American Style
      Dinty W. Moore
      9780385492676
      $21.00 US
      Paperback
      Harmony
      Feb 16, 1999
    • The Story Cure
      The Story Cure
      A Book Doctor's Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir
      Dinty W. Moore
      9780399578809
      $20.00 US
      Paperback
      Ten Speed Press
      May 02, 2017
    • Accidental Buddhist
      Accidental Buddhist
      Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still, American Style
      Dinty W. Moore
      9780385492676
      $21.00 US
      Paperback
      Harmony
      Feb 16, 1999

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