"Everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say."
~ Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book on Art, Independence and Spirit
"These dark sounds are the mystery, the roots thrusting into the fertile loam known to all of us, ignored by all of us, but from which we get what is real in art. . . .
"Thus duende is a power and not a behavior, it is a struggle and not a concept. I have heard an old master guitarist say: ‘Duende is not in the throat; duende surges up from the soles of the feet.’ Which means it is not a matter of ability, but of real live form; of blood; of ancient culture; of creative action."
~ More on duende: https://www.duendedrama.org/?s=duende
"This mysterious thing we call Inspiration isn’t that easy to pinpoint. But it’s the strange and wonderful thing about writing poetry – you can never predict where or when or even why something moves you to write a poem. That’s what I mean when I said a poem comes in many guises. A poem may be inspired by something that happened 20 years ago but until I’ve written it, I may not have realized that at the time I was greatly moved. I think you have to trust that the eye and mind are constantly recording, and be patient enough for them to reveal what they have observed."
~Elizabeth Bishop, Conversations with Elizabeth Bishop, 100
"To make a poem, we must make sounds. Not random sounds, but chosen sounds.
Language is rich, and malleable. It is a living, vibrant material, and every part of a poem works in conjunction with every other part – the content, the pace, the diction, the rhythm, the tone – as well as the very sliding, floating, thumping, rapping sounds of it."
~ Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook
"Touch Me" by Stanley Kunitz
Stanley Kunitz on Poetry and Life
"The Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes
"Learning to Love America" by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim
"Love for this Book" by Pablo Neruda
"Ode to the Book II" by Pablo Neruda
If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence, and Spirit
You can also preview this book in Books.google.com.
"the best book ever written about how to write" (Carl Sandburg)
Mary Oliver
Tina Welling
Bartleby.com
A premier internet site for poetry, prose, and reference sources.
Writing English as a Second Language
A talk to incoming international students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
On Writing Well
A legendary and classic guide to writing nonfiction by the master writer, writing teacher and journalist.
Also see this New York Times article, with links to additional sources.
10 Writing Tips from Legendary Writing Teacher William Zinsser.
From Open Culture.
The Complete Zinnser on Friday.
From The American Scholar.
William Zinsser's collected essays -- spanning writing, the arts, and popular culture-- won the 2002 National Magazine Award in the category of Digital Commentary.
Amy Tan
"Mother Tongue"
The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, Guardian First Book Award, and California Book Award for first fiction.
George Orwell
Yiyun Li
Jhumpa Lahiri
Interpreter of Maladies: Stories
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, 1999.