Since 1967, Teachers & Writers Collaborative has published over 80 books dedicated to teaching creative writing. Today, 42 titles are in print. Retailers and educational institutions may order our books directly through Ingram. Individuals may find our books at your local bookseller. Visit our booklist at Word Up Books, an NYC community bookstore, or find an independent bookseller near you Visit Indie Bookstore Finder.
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Featured Books
The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet: 104 Unusual Ways to Write Poetry in the Classroom & the Community
The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet: 104 Unusual Ways to Write Poetry in the Classroom & the Community By Dave Morice 272 pp. Grades: kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school $19.95 paperback There are quite a few creative writing manuals on the market, but there is nothing remotely like The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet, a…
Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry
Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry Edited By Matthew Burgess 240 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry offers a range of exciting ideas to inspire students of all ages to explore their potential as writers and creators. Featuring original lesson by 26 contributors, including Aracelis Girmay, Bianca Stone, Jason Koo, and…
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When Stories Come to School: Telling, Writing, & Performing Stories in the Early Childhood Classroom
When Stories Come to School: Telling, Writing, & Performing Stories in the Early Childhood Classroom By Patsy Cooper, 144pp. Grades: nursery school, kindergarten, elementary school $15.95 paperback Patsy Cooper offers preschool teachers, kindergarten teachers, daycare workers, and parents a wonderful and natural way to help young children begin to read and write: placing stories at the…
What is Poetry: Conversations with the American Avant-Garde
What is Poetry: Conversations with the American Avant-Garde By Daniel Kane 185 pp. Grades: high school, university $18.95 paperback Over a four-year period, Daniel Kane interviewed many of America’s most interesting and daring contemporary poets about their work. What Is Poetry features twelve of the liveliest of these dialogues, accompanied by an in-depth introduction to…
Tolstoy as Teacher: Leo Tolstoy’s Writings on Education
Tolstoy as Teacher: Leo Tolstoy’s Writings on Education Edited with an Introduction by Bob Blaisdell Translated by Christopher Edgar 265 pp. Grades: all ages $18.95 paperback Before he wrote War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy founded his own school on his estate at Yasnaya Polyana. Brimming with progressive and sometimes radical ideas on schooling, Tolstoy…
Third Mind: Creative Writing through Visual Art
Third Mind: Creative Writing through Visual Art Edited by Tonya Foster & Kristin Prevallet 240 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback This anthology of essays about the challenges and rewards of uniting visual art and creative writing not only demonstrates how art can spark wonderful student writing, but goes much further, offering novel insights into…
The Writing Workshop Vol 2: How to Teach Creative Writing
The Writing Workshop Vol 2: How to Teach Creative Writing By Alan Ziegler 274 pp. Grades: all ages $14.95 paperback In The Writing Workshop, Alan Ziegler offers teachers and aspiring writers strategies for developing constructive workshop environments. Volume 2 offers a compendium of writing assignments, with advice on presentation and variations. “No other book on writing…
The Writing Workshop Vol 1: How to Teach Creative Writing
The Writing Workshop Vol 1: How to Teach Creative Writing By Alan Ziegler 175 pp. Grades: all ages $14.95 paperback In The Writing Workshop, Alan Ziegler offers teachers and aspiring writers strategies for developing constructive workshop environments. Volume 1 discusses the writing process and the teacher’s relationship with student writers. “No other book on writing combines…
The T&W Guide to William Carlos Williams
The T&W Guide to William Carlos Williams Edited by Gary Lenhart 200 pp. Grades: all ages $15.95 paperback This T&W guide brings together 17 innovative essays on using the work of William Carlos Williams to inspire writing by students and adults. The book covers a wide range of Williams’s oeuvre—from such classics as “The Red…
The T&W Guide to Walt Whitman
The T&W Guide to Walt Whitman Edited by Ron Padgett 224 pp. Grades: all ages $16.95 paperback Fifteen poets have created this first and only guide to teaching Walt Whitman from kindergarten to the college level. The book features fresh ways to read Whitman and to write poetry and prose inspired by his model. Also…
The T&W Guide to Frederick Douglass
The T&W Guide to Frederick Douglass Edited by Wesley Brown, 122 pp. Grades: all ages $15.95 paperback This T&W Guide provides ways for students to experience Frederick Douglass’ Narrative as an aesthetic achievement as well as a socio-historical document. This book emphasizes writing as a means for students to learn about Douglass, his times, and his…
The T&W Guide to Classic American Literature
The T&W Guide to Classic American Literature Edited by Christopher Edgar and Gary Lenhart, 293 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback In “The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson called for a literature emerging from the particularities of the new nation, and a host of great 19th- and 20th-century American poets, fiction writers, and playwrights responded…
The Story in History: Writing Your Way into the American Experience
The Story in History: Writing Your Way into the American Experience By Margot Fortunato Galt 263 pp. Grades: middle school, high school, university, all ages $19.95 paperback The Story in History gives teachers and students of all levels an entirely new way to learn about American history: by re-experiencing it from the vantage point of the…
The List Poem: A Guide to Teaching & Writing Catalog Verse
The List Poem: A Guide to Teaching & Writing Catalog Verse By Larry Fagin 201 pp. Grades: all ages $16.95 paperback The list poem is one of the simplest ways for beginners to approach the writing of free-verse poetry. Larry Fagin’s seminal guide defines list poetry, traces its lineage from ancient times, offers writing ideas and…
The Dictionary of Wordplay
The Dictionary of Wordplay By Dave Morice 293 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback $5.95 eBook The Dictionary of Wordplay is the first dictionary of wordplay, ever. The more than 1,234 entries in Morice’s Dictionary range from the acrostic and the “exquisite corpse” to palindromes, spoonerisms, and anagrams. From these the reader moves on to such esoteric and fascinating…
The Circuit Writer: Writing with Schools and Communities
The Circuit Writer: Writing with Schools and Communities By Margot Fortunato Galt 147 pp. Grades: all ages $14.95 paperback The Circuit Writer: Writing with Schools and Communities is Margot Fortunato Galt’s compelling account of her 3 decades as a visiting writer in the Upper Midwest, teaching such diverse populations as Somali and Hmong refugees, Dakota…
The Art of Science Writing
The Art of Science Writing By Dale Worsley & Bernadette Mayer 224 pp. Grades: middle school, high school, university $17.95 paperback The Art of Science Writing features innovative advice about science writing, as well as inspiring examples from Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall, Stephen Jay Gould, and others. Topics covered include: essay development; writing…
The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing
The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing Edited by Christian McEwen & Mark Statman 320 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback The Alphabet of the Trees is a superb collection of essays about teaching all aspects and forms of nature writing, including field journals, poems, fiction, and nonfiction. The distinguished contributors to this volume…
The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet: 104 Unusual Ways to Write Poetry in the Classroom & the Community
The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet: 104 Unusual Ways to Write Poetry in the Classroom & the Community By Dave Morice 272 pp. Grades: kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school $19.95 paperback There are quite a few creative writing manuals on the market, but there is nothing remotely like The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet, a…
Teaching & Writing Popular Fiction: Horror, Adventure, Mystery, & Romance in the Classroom
Teaching & Writing Popular Fiction: Horror, Adventure, Mystery, & Romance in the Classroom By Karen Hubert 236 pp. Grades: kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school $15.95 paperback Popular fiction can play an instrumental role in the classroom. This fascinating guide provides ways to help K-12 students write using the popular literature they know and love….
Sweet Illusions: A Young Adult Novel
Sweet Illusions: A Young Adult Novel By Walter Dean Myers 146 pp. Grades: elementary school, middle school, high school $9.95 paperback Sweet Illusions is unusual. It can be used in two different ways. Students can read it as they read any narrative, or they can help to create the story. Walter Dean Myers, the well-known author…
Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns
Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns By Michael Theune 243 pp. Grades: high school, university $19.95 paperback Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns offers a road map for analyzing poetry through examination of poems’ structures, rather than their forms or genres. Michael Theune’s breakthrough concept encourages students, teachers, and writers to use structure as a tool…
Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry
Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry Edited By Matthew Burgess 240 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry offers a range of exciting ideas to inspire students of all ages to explore their potential as writers and creators. Featuring original lesson by 26 contributors, including Aracelis Girmay, Bianca Stone, Jason Koo, and…
Sing the Sun Up: Creative Writing Ideas from African American Literature
Sing the Sun Up: Creative Writing Ideas from African American Literature Edited by Lorenzo Thomas 200 pp. Grades: all ages $16.95 paperback In Sing the Sun Up, 20 writers present new and exciting ways to motivate students to write imaginatively, inspired by African American poetry, prose, and drama. Teachers of English literature, creative writing, and Black…
Secret Writing: Keys to the Mysteries of Reading and Writing
Secret Writing: Keys to the Mysteries of Reading and Writing By Peter Sears 180 pp. Grades: high school, university $14.95 paperback Secret Writing is a fascinating study of the nature of codes. Beginning with the word game Hangman, and proceeding to discuss Egyptian hieroglyphs, prehistoric cave paintings, military codes, the surprising sense of nonsense, and difficult…
Poetry Everywhere: Teaching Poetry Writing in School and in the Community
Poetry Everywhere: Teaching Poetry Writing in School and in the Community By Jack Collom & Sheryl Noethe revised second edition 329 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback The dazzling new edition of this “tremendously valuable resource” (Kliatt) contains 65 writing exercises and more than 400 example poems. It also discusses how to integrate poetry writing into…
Poetry Comics: An Animated Anthology
Poetry Comics: An Animated Anthology By Dave Morice 117 pp. Grades: all ages $17.95 paperback Dave Morice’s Poetry Comics offers literary mavens and students alike a look at the canon in a new and hilarious light. This anthology brings together such classics as Shakespeare’s sonnets, Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” and Emily Dickinson’s “Poem 303” with…
Playmaking: Children Writing and Performing Their Own Plays
Playmaking: Children Writing and Performing Their Own Plays By Daniel Judah Sklar 184 pp. Grades: kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school $16.95 paperback Playmaking is an award-winning, step-by-step account of teaching children to write, direct, and perform their own plays—as staged readings, videotapes, radio plays, and full stage productions. An exciting guide for cultivating the…
Personal Fiction Writing: A Guide to Writing from Real Life for Teachers, Students, & Writers
Personal Fiction Writing: A Guide to Writing from Real Life for Teachers, Students, & Writers By Meredith Sue Willis revised second edition 248 pp. Grades: all ages $18.95 paperback Personal Fiction Writing treats the writing of fiction as a natural process that anyone can do with pleasure. The book includes more than 400 writing assignments based…
Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy, Social Justice in Classroom & Community
Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy, Social Justice in Classroom & Community by Georgia A. Popoff and Quraysh Ali Lansana Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy, & Social Justice in Classroom & Community was nominated for the 2012 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work-Instructional….
Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing Assignments
Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing Assignments Edited by Christopher Edgar & Ron Padgett 160 pp. Grades: all ages $16.95 paperback In this popular book, 18 creative writers describe their single best writing assignment, the one that never fails to inspire their students to tell and dramatize stories; to write autobiographical pieces, fiction,…
Moving Windows: Evaluating the Poetry Children Write
Moving Windows: Evaluating the Poetry Children Write By Jack Collom 179 pp. Grades: all ages $14.95 paperback How do you assess such a personal art as poetry? Basing his discussion on the best poems he has collected from his students over the years, Jack Collom provides a poet’s view of what makes them good. Collom’s approach…
Making Theater: Developing Plays with Young People
Making Theater: Developing Plays with Young People By Herbert Kohl 131 pp. Grades: elementary school, middle school $14.95 paperback Herbert Kohl invites teachers to explore improvisation and dramatic dialogues with their students and provides strategies for transforming young writers into playwrights. He also offers methods for adapting great works of literature into classroom performances. “[Kohl] writes…
Luna, Luna: Creative Writing Ideas from Spanish, Latin American, and Latino Literature
Luna, Luna: Creative Writing Ideas from Spanish, Latin American, and Latino Literature Edited by Julio Marzán 248 pp. Grades: all ages $17.95 paperback In these 21 lively essays, teachers and writers tell how they have used Spanish, Latin American, and Latino literature to inspire their students to create their own poems and stories. The literary models…
Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry
Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry By Mark Statman, Preface by Kenneth Koch 175 pp. Grades: kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school $15.95 paperback In Listener in the Snow, Mark Statman presents practical ideas and assignments to help students reach beyond what they’ve already been doing. His method involves what…
Illuminations: Great Writers on Writing
Illuminations: Great Writers on Writing Edited by Christina Davis & Christopher Edgar 120 pp. Grades: high school, university $18.95 paperback Illuminations is a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at the art of writing, with 55 thought-provoking passages by great writers from around the world and throughout history, including Dante, Sei Shonagon, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, Marina…
I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing to Old People
I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing to Old People This classic guide by the trailblazer of poetry teaching offers ideas and techniques that are useful at all age levels. Kenneth Koch has taken his “thoughtful, giving, resourceful, and patient spirit to quite elderly and often infirm men and women… A poignant and dramatic victory.”—New York…
Handbook of Poetic Forms
Handbook of Poetic Forms Edited by Ron Padgett revised second edition 256 pp. Grades: all ages $19.95 paperback The second edition of this best-selling handbook includes 76 entries on traditional and modern poetic forms, an updated bibliography, and a resource list of current audio and videocassettes. The Handbook succinctly defines the forms, summarizes their histories, quotes…
From Medusa to the Sky: Teaching Writing to Children with Special Needs
From Medusa to the Sky: Teaching Writing to Children with Special Needs Edited by Nicole Callihan and Catherine Barnett eBook edition The exercises in From Medusa to the Sky grew out of Teachers & Writers Collaborative’s long history of providing creative writing programs for students in New York City’s District 75 schools and classrooms, which serve…
Educating the Imagination Volume 2: Essays and Ideas for Teachers and Writers
Educating the Imagination Volume 2: Essays and Ideas for Teachers and Writers Edited by Christopher Edgar & Ron Padgett 320 pp. Grades: all ages $14.95 paperback The essays in Educating the Imagination were selected from the very best articles in Teachers & Writers magazine. Fifty-five creative writers present a multitude of ideas and techniques for…
Educating the Imagination Volume 1: Essays and Ideas for Teachers and Writers
Educating the Imagination Volume 1: Essays and Ideas for Teachers and Writers Edited by Christopher Edgar & Ron Padgett 304 pp. Grades: all ages $14.95 paperback The essays in Educating the Imagination were selected from the very best articles in Teachers & Writers magazine. Fifty-five creative writers present a multitude of ideas and techniques for…
Deep Revision: A Guide for Teachers, Students, and Other Writers
Deep Revision: A Guide for Teachers, Students, and Other Writers By Meredith Sue Willis 192 pp. Grades: all ages $16.95 paperback If you or your students dread the process of revision, this book will prove transformative. Deep Revision covers topics such as: revision as a natural process, learning to revise by editing other people’s writing, changing…
Classics in the Classroom: Using Great Literature to Teach Writing
Classics in the Classroom: Using Great Literature to Teach Writing Edited by Christopher Edgar & Ron Padgett 240 pp. Grades: all ages $17.95 paperback Classics in the Classroom presents fascinating strategies for using great literature to inspire imaginative writing. The literature discussed in this volume includes myths, epics, lyric poems, plays, stories, and novels, from ancient Sumeria, Greece,…
A Slow Flash of Light: An Anthology of Poems about Poetry
A Slow Flash of Light: An Anthology of Poems about Poetry Compiled by Jack Collom eBook edition You might think that an anthology of poems about poetry could not be fascinating—until you read this one. A Slow Flash of Light was assembled by poet-teacher Jack Collom, who over a 25-year period gave his students surprising…