The Ultimate Writers Library
Discover The Ultimate Writers Library: a curated collection of must-read books for writers. Elevate your craft with timeless classics, modern masterpieces, and essential guides for every author's journey.
Book
Bird by Bird
by Anne Lamott
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ā¢ An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writerās world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). āSuperb writing adviceā¦. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.ā āThe New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readersāscribes and scribblers of all ages and abilitiesāhave been inspired by Anne Lamottās hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anneās fatherāalso a writerāin the iconic passage that gives the book its title: āThirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that heād had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brotherās shoulder, and said, āBird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.āā
Book
On Writing
by Stephen King
The author shares his insights into the craft of writing and offers a humorous perspective on his own experience as a writer.
Book
Among the Missing
by Dan Chaon
Focusing on the condition of the modern family, a thematically linked collection of short fiction captures the lives, dreams, and fates of men, women, and children who live outside of the American Dream.
Book
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
by Michael Chabon
Chabon's "New York Times"-bestselling first novel is a funny, tender coming-of-age story that introduces Art Bechstein, a Holden Caulfield for the post-Boomer/pre-Gen X-er generation.
Book
The Complete Stories
by Flannery O'Connor
Winner of the National Book Award The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O'Connor's monumental contribution to American fiction. There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O'Connor put together in her short lifetime--Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. O'Connor published her first story, "The Geranium," in 1946, while she was working on her master's degree at the University of Iowa. Arranged chronologically, this collection shows that her last story, "Judgement Day"--sent to her publisher shortly before her deathāis a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of "The Geranium." Taken together, these stories reveal a lively, penetrating talent that has given us some of the most powerful and disturbing fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O'Connor's longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux.
Book
Story
by Robert McKee
Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience. In Story, McKee expands on the concepts he teaches in his $450 seminars (considered a must by industry insiders), providing readers with the most comprehensive, integrated explanation of the craft of writing for the screen. No one better understands how all the elements of a screenplay fit together, and no one is better qualified to explain the "magic" of story construction and the relationship between structure and character than Robert McKee.