Book - Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight....

Paperback, 472 pages, published 2009. Bought new, still in great used condition. There is a crease in the spine that I shored up with clear tape (see pics), and I've left a sticky note for myself saying I erased some pencil marks, but overall this copy is very gently used. "Edited by David Jauss, an anthology of craft essays on prose and poetry, by past and present faculty members of the Writing Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Includes instruction from Mary Ruefle, Mark Doty, Xu Xi, Robin Hemley, Sydney Lea, Bret Lott, Sue William Silverman, David Wojahn, and others. This comprehensive resource covers a wide variety of topics, including the creative process, beginnings, voice, point of view, structure, the role of dreams and fantasy in fiction, the often-blurry borderline between fiction and creative nonfiction, music and time in poetry, image patterning, "saying the unsayable," multiculturalism, the art of revision, and much more. Both provocative and practical, these essays distill many of the lessons that have made the graduates of Vermont College of Fine Arts so successful." My favorite of these essays is Mary Ruefle's (which is also in another of her books that I revisit every couple of years, Madness Rack and Honey--really good stuff), but there's a lot of solid advice here throughout from VCFA faculty--not only on the intricacies and subtleties of writing, but also on the many struggles that arise when pursuing any creative process). 🫠✏️✨