The Art of Time in Fiction PDF Download

Author: Joan Silber
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 9781555975302
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Fiction imagines for us a stopping point from which life can be seen as intelligible," asserts Joan Silber in The Art of Time in Fiction. The end point of a story determines its meaning, and one of the main tasks a writer faces is to define the duration of a plot. Silber uses wide-ranging examples from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chinua Achebe, and Arundhati Roy, among others, to illustrate five key ways in which time unfolds in fiction. In clear-eyed prose, Silber elucidates a tricky but vital aspect of the art of fiction.

Author: Sven Birkerts
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 1555973396
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
The Art Of series is a new line of books reinvigorating the practice of craft and criticism. Each book will be a brief, witty, and useful exploration of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by a writer impassioned by a singular craft issue. The Art Of volumes will provide a series of sustained examinations of key but sometimes neglected aspects of creative writing by some of contemporary literature's finest practioners. In The Art of Time in Memoir, critic and memoirist Sven Birkerts examines the human impulse to write about the self. By examining memoirs such as Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory; Virginia Woolf's unfinished A Sketch of the Past; and Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, Birkerts describes the memoirist's essential art of assembling patterns of meaning, stirring to life our own sense of past and present.

Author: Joan Silber
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393070727
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Shortlisted for the National Book Award: "Joan Silber writes with wisdom, humor, grace, and wry intelligence. Her characters bear welcome news of how we will survive."—Andrea Barrett Intense in subject yet restrained in tone, these stories are about longings—often held for years—and the ways in which sex and religion can become parallel forms of dedication and comfort. Though the stories stand alone, a minor element in one becomes major in the next. In "My Shape", a woman is taunted by her dance coach, who later suffers his own heartache. A Venetian poet of the 1500s, another storyteller, is introduced to a modern traveler reading Rilke. His story precedes a mesmerizing narrative of missionaries in China. In the final story, Giles, born to a priesthood family, leans toward Buddhism after a grievous loss, and in time falls in love with the dancer of the first story. So deft and subtle is Joan Silber with these various perspectives that we come full circle surprised and enchanted by her myriad worlds. National Book Award finalist. Reading group guide included.

Author: John Gardner
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307756718
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This classic guide, from the renowned novelist and professor, has helped transform generations of aspiring writers into masterful writers—and will continue to do so for many years to come. John Gardner was almost as famous as a teacher of creative writing as he was for his own works. In this practical, instructive handbook, based on the courses and seminars that he gave, he explains, simply and cogently, the principles and techniques of good writing. Gardner’s lessons, exemplified with detailed excerpts from classic works of literature, sweep across a complete range of topics—from the nature of aesthetics to the shape of a refined sentence. Written with passion, precision, and a deep respect for the art of writing, Gardner’s book serves by turns as a critic, mentor, and friend. Anyone who has ever thought of taking the step from reader to writer should begin here.

Author: David Lodge
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448137799
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
In this entertaining and enlightening collection David Lodge considers the art of fiction under a wide range of headings, drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James, Martin Amis, Jane Austen and James Joyce. Looking at ideas such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Magic Realism and Symbolism, and illustrating each topic with a passage taken from a classic or modern novel, David Lodge makes the richness and variety of British and American fiction accessible to the general reader. He provides essential reading for students, aspiring writers and anyone who wants to understand how fiction works.

Author: Walter Besant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Author: Jack M. Bickham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780898799484
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Even if you have great characters, outstanding dialogue and a gripping plot, your story isn't complete without the appropriate setting. Setting is the unifying element in most fiction, working in concert with plot, characterization and point of view. Here you'll explore how to use setting as the basis for creating dramatic, engaging stories. Focusing on detail, language and observation, Jack Bickham's invaluable instruction will not only improve your ability to create a strong setting, but also enhance your writing skills as a whole. You'll learn:- the function of setting within the fiction writing process- how setting works with plot, characterization and point of view- the effect of setting on unity- ways to generate story ideas through setting- techniques for creating setting- how to use setting as a thematic device- methods for using setting to stimulate your reader's senses- how to incorporate factual information for texture and authenticity- exercises for improving your powers of observation- tips for recording ideas, events and descriptions using notebook entriesOver the course of his esteemed career, Jack Bickham published more than 80 novels and instructional books, including Writing Novels That Sell and the 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them). A former creative writing professor, he instructed thousands of writers through his classes, seminars and Writer's Digest magazine articles.

Author: Christopher Bram
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 1555979394
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
One has to look no further than the audiences hungry for the narratives served up by Downton Abbey or Wolf Hall to know that the lure of the past is as seductive as ever. But incorporating historical events and figures into a shapely narrative is no simple task. The acclaimed novelist Christopher Bram examines how writers as disparate as Gabriel García Márquez, David McCullough, Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy, and many others have employed history in their work. Unique among the "Art Of" series, The Art of History engages with both fiction and narrative nonfiction to reveal varied strategies of incorporating and dramatizing historical detail. Bram challenges popular notions about historical narratives as he examines both successful and flawed passages to illustrate how authors from different genres treat subjects that loom large in American history, such as slavery and the Civil War. And he delves deep into the reasons why War and Peace endures as a classic of historical fiction. Bram's keen insight and close reading of a wide array of authors make The Art of History an essential volume for any lover of historical narrative.

Author: Chad Harbach
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316192163
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life. As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment--to oneself and to others.

Author: Tracy Kidder
Publisher: Random House Incorporated
ISBN: 1400069750
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of House and the editor of Atlantic Monthly share stories from their literary friendship and respective careers, offering insight into writing principles and mechanics that they have identified as elementary to quality prose.