Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem

In Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem, Donald Murray demonstrates the craft that has been his discipline and joy for more than half a century. He describes how the writing act has allowed him to live his life twice--once in experience and once again as the evolving draft illuminates the texture and meaning of that experience.

Murray takes the reader into his private writer's workshop and not only reveals the basic techniques of writing essays, stories, and poems, but also discusses the attitudes--emotional and mental--that determine the effectiveness of his craft. Beginning and experienced writers will work beside this Pulitzer Prize winning craftsperson, catching ideas from life, developing them in language, shaping them into publishable forms. In the first section of the book, Murray talks about attitudes and skills that encourage and initiate writing. Then he deals with specific techniques of writing the personal essay, fiction, and poetry. In the final section, he explains the skills of revision and editing as well as ways to develop a writing community and submit work for publication.

Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem is both a celebration of the writing process and a practical manual on how to explore the world with the written line. It is a book that every teacher and every student of writing should own.

For nearly 60 years Donald Murray was a tireless explorer, chronicler, and advocate of writers, writing, and the teaching of writing. "We are coaches, encouragers, developers, creators of environments in which our students can experience the writing process for themselves," he wrote in 1972. Through the years and over numerous books, academic articles, newspaper columns, classroom handouts, writing conferences, and warm collegial conversations, thousands of students, writers, and teachers benefited from Don's work. Millions more continue to benefit by the wide circle of his influence over the fields of writing, writing instruction, journalism. Some of Don's most important insights about writing and teaching writing are collected in the Heinemann's The Essential Don Murray (edited by Thomas Newkirk and Lisa Miller). A Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, Don was a columnist for The Boston Globe and Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. He was also a writing coach for several national newspapers, wrote poetry for many journals, including Poetry, and authored several books on the craft of writing and teaching writing, including Learning by Teaching, Expecting the Unexpected, Shoptalk, and Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem, and Writing to Deadline. Read article on seacoastonline.com featuring Don Murray >>