Books about Language Arts

Insane Devotion: On the Writing of Gerald Stern

Gerald Stern has been a significant presence in the literary constellation of his generation and an impassioned and idiosyncratic voice in twentieth- and twenty-first-century American poetry. In this retrospective of Stern's career, fourteen writers, critics, and poets examine the themes, stylistic traits, and craft of a poet who has shaped and inspired American verse for generations. The essays and interviews that...

Gerald Stern is one of those writers whose style insinuates itself into your consciousness like a catchy tune, so that you find your thoughts echoing its rhythms, bopping... — Philadelphia Inquirer

A Muse and a Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic

Peter Turchi (author)

With his characteristic genius for finding connections between writing and the stuff of our lives, Peter Turchi ventures into new and even more surprising territory. In A Muse and a Maze, Turchi draws out the similarities between writing and puzzle making and its flip side, puzzle solving. As he teases out how mystery lies at the heart of all storytelling, he uncovers the magic—the creation of credible illusion—that...

Although Turchi’s knack for drawing connections can seem like a sleight of hand in itself, his writing is consistently engaging, lively, and thought provoking. The... — Publishers Weekly