Summer Reading List
Anthony Ditter on May 2, 2011 in College OnlineHello and congratulations to all the incoming MFA Creative Writing students!
Now that you’ve been accepted, I’m sure you have a very busy summer ahead of you making the transition into Boston and graduate school. Of course, you’ll need plenty of breaks between the phone calls, errands, and packing to keep everything in perspective, and what better way to do that than to pick up a good book?
The best place to start is to look at the work published by the Writing, Literature, and Publishing faculty here at Emerson, many of whom you’ll be working with next fall. Graduate Program Director Rick Reiken’s novel Day for Night showcases a vibrant cast of characters through their unique voices and perspectives. Associate professor Jabari Asim’s collection of short stories A Taste of Honey: Stories ingeniously portrays the adventures of young Crispus Jones, his friends, and family in the fictional town of Gateway City.
On the non-fiction side, Associate Professor Jerald Walker’s Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption garnered wide critical acclaim for its raw and powerful narrative voice when published last year. And then there’s Writer-in-Residence William Orem’s Killer of Crying Deer, a historical fiction novel that chronicles a young boy’s captivity on a slave ship, and Associate Professor Jessica Treadway’s collection of short stories Please Come Back to Me, which won the Flannery O’Connor award for Short Fiction in 2010.
I also recommend closely reading work by your favorite authors, the benefits of which can be two-fold. Not only will it guarantee you an enjoyable reading experience, but it’s also a great way for you to learn about the sensibilities of language and form in writing, as well as how a writer makes use of them to tell their stories. Pay close attention to how characters work alongside plot and setting to develop meaning in a story and the way that a writer uses voice to portray conflict or tension in a situation or a person.
And if you’re eager to touch your pen to the page but need some support along the way, there are a number of self-help writing books out there that can be great resources. My personal favorite is Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, which emphasizes how important it is to allow yourself to engage in the writing process, an extensive but fulfilling experience.
Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is also an excellent choice that offers personal writing advice from Lamott’s own experience, along with some immensely helpful exercises to get the ideas flowing.
With so many good titles to choose from, now’s the time to get a head start!
Happy reading—we’ll see you in the fall!
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