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Tables of Contents for Imaginative Writing
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Preface to the Instructor
xv
Invitation to the Writer
xx
You...
xx
...and writing...
xxi
...and reading...
xxii
...and this book...
xxii
...and your journal...
xxiii
...and your workshop
xxvi
PART I The Elements of Chart
Image
2
40
Image and Imagination
3
4
Concrete, Significant Details
7
4
Metaphor and Simile
11
3
Essays
14
5
``The Giant Water Bug''
14
1
Annie Dillard
from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
15
4
Dave Eggers
Fiction
19
12
``Sister Godzilla''
19
7
Louise Erdrich
``Car Crash While Hitchhiking''
26
5
Denis Johnson
Poems
``The Hawk in the Rain''
31
1
Ted Hughes
``The Haunted Ruin''
32
1
Robert Pinsky
``Facing It''
33
1
Yusef Komunyakaa
``The Surface''
34
1
May Swenson
``How to Use This Body''
35
1
David Kirby
``Why Regret?''
36
1
Calway Kinnell
Drama
37
5
Act Without Words
37
3
Samuel Beckett
The Drummer
40
2
Athol Fugard
Voice
42
44
Your Voice
44
1
Persona
45
2
Character Voice
47
2
Point of View
49
6
Essays
55
9
from Angela's Ashes
55
8
Frank McCourt
``Invitation to a Transformation''
63
1
Vladimir Nabokov
Fiction
64
10
``In the Kindergarten''
64
8
Ha Jin
``The School''
72
2
Donald Barthelme
Poems
74
8
``Order in the Streets''
74
1
Donald Justice
``Black Hair''
75
1
Gary Soto
``Hawk Roosting''
76
1
Ted Hawks
``Kong Looks Back on His Tryout with the Bears''
77
1
William Trowbridge
``Father''
78
1
Hilda Raz
``A Mown Lawn''
79
1
Lydia Davis
``The Language of Bees''
80
2
Barbara Hamby
Drama
82
4
from Talking With . . . Handler and French Fries
82
4
Jane Martin
Character
86
42
As Desire
87
2
As Image
89
2
As Voice
91
3
As Action
94
2
As Thought
96
1
As Presented by the Author
97
1
As Conflict
98
1
Essay
99
7
``The Inheritance of Tools''
99
7
Scott Russell Sanders
Fiction
106
9
``Ysrael''
Junot Diaz
Poems
115
6
``I Knew a Woman''
115
1
Theodore Roethke
``Stonecarver''
116
1
Carole Simmons Oles
``My Brother's Work''
116
1
Stephen Dunn
``Old man Hansen comes in at ten to''
117
1
Fred Wah
``One Flesh''
118
1
Elizabeth Jennings
``Old Men Playing Basketball''
118
1
B.H. Fairchild
``Portrait of a Writer''
119
2
Edward Hursch
Drama
121
7
Brother
121
7
Mary Gallagher
Setting
128
50
As the World
130
3
As a Camera
133
3
As Mood and Symbol
136
1
As Action
137
2
Essays
139
8
``At the Dam''
139
2
Joan Didion
``Landscape and Narrative''
141
6
Barry Lopez
Fiction
147
9
``Snow''
147
9
Charles Baxter
Poems
156
5
``Deer Ghost''
156
1
Joy Harjo
``Earthmoving Malediction''
157
1
Heather McHugh
``Vacation''
158
1
Rita Dove
``Nude Interrogation''
158
1
Yusef Komunyakaa
``Advice From the Extractor''
159
2
George MaBbeth
Drama
161
17
Dutchman
161
17
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Story
178
38
As a Journey
179
2
As a Power Struggle
181
2
As Connection/Disconnection
183
7
Essay
190
4
``Red Sky in the Morning''
190
4
Patricia Hempl
Fiction
194
8
``Missing''
194
7
Robert Olen Butler
``Worry''
201
1
Ron Wallace
Poems
202
6
``A Story About the Body''
202
1
Robert Hass
``Digging for China''
202
1
Richard Wilbur
``Short Story''
203
1
Ellen Bryant Voigt
``Woodchucks''
204
1
Maxine Kumin
``The Hammock''
205
1
Li-Young Lee
``Vita Nova''
206
2
Louise Gluck
Drama
208
8
The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry
208
8
Carole Real
Development and Revision
216
26
Developing a Draft
218
4
Revision and Editing
222
4
The Workshop
226
3
Examples
229
8
First and final drafts of ``One Art''
229
2
Elizabeth Bishop
``The Opening of Time Lapse: a revision narrative''
231
6
Janet Burroway
Developing Scene
237
1
Undrafting
238
1
Line Editing
239
3
PART II The Genres
Essay
242
30
Kinds of Essay
244
3
Essay Techniques
247
4
Fact and Truth
251
3
Readings
254
18
``The Female Body''
254
3
Margaret Atwood
``Those Words That Echo . . . Echo . . . Echo Through Life''
257
4
Jamaica Kincaid
``The Knife''
261
7
Richard Selzer
``Belongings''
268
4
Susan Lester
Fiction
272
34
Story and Plot
273
3
Scene and Summary
276
2
Backstory and Flashback
278
3
Text and Subtext
281
2
Readings
283
23
``The Diamond Mine''
283
6
Nadine Gordimer
``Your Fears Are Justified''
289
1
Rick De Marinis
``Mockingbird''
290
1
Laurie Berry
``It's Water, It's Not Going to Kill You''
291
11
Heather Sellers
``Tomorrow's Bird''
302
4
Ian Frazier
Poetry
306
30
Free Verse and Formal Verse
308
2
Imagery, Connotation, and Metaphor
310
2
Density and Intensity
312
4
Prosody, Rhythm, and Rhyme
316
6
Readings
322
14
``Stillborn''
322
1
Sylvia Plath
``The Grammar Lesson''
323
1
Steve Kowtt
``The Poet, Trying to Surprise God''
323
1
Peter Meinke
``Like This Together''
324
2
Adrienne Rich
``Romantic, at Horseshoe Key''
326
1
Enid Shomer
``Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In''
327
1
Raymond Carver
``Prose Poem''
328
1
James Tate
``Black Silhouettes of Shrimpers''
329
1
Dave Smith
``Repetition''
330
1
Ruth Stone
``Ghazal''
331
1
Agha Shahid Ali
``The Language of the Brag''
332
1
Sharon Olds
``Dream Song 14''
333
1
John Berryman
``My Uncle Guillermo Speaks at His Own Funeral''
334
2
Yvonne Sapia
Drama
336
43
The Difference Between Drama and Fiction
337
2
Sight: Sets, Action, Costumes, Props
339
3
Sound: Nonverbal and Verbal
342
5
Some Notes on Screenwriting
347
2
Readings
349
30
The Road to Ruin
349
8
Richard Dresser
Duet for Bear and Dog
357
5
Sybil Rosen
Gas
362
5
Jose Rivera
Eukiah
367
4
Lanford Wilson
The Philadelphia
371
8
David Ives
APPENDIX A Collaborative Exercises
379
8
APPENDIX B Formats
387
6
1. Prose fiction and nonfiction
387
1
2. Poetry
387
1
3. Drama
387
6
APPENDIX C A Basic Prosody
393
8
Glossary
401
6
Index
407