Friends of Writers has overseen the production of these seven anthologies by faculty from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. All editors and contributors donate 100% of royalties to the Friends of Writers Scholarship Fund.
Malaprop’s bookstore, an Asheville institution since 1982, will donate 10% of sales of MFA faculty anthologies — and any other books or gift items sold through their website to the FOW Scholarship Fund when you enter their web store through any of the buttons below.
100% of Royalties Donated to FOW
The Rag-Picker’s Guide to Poetry: Poems, Poets, Process
Edited by Maurice Manning and Eleanor Wilner
The venture of this inviting collection is to look, from the many vantages that the 35 poets in this eclectic anthology chose to look, at what it was—knowing that a poem can’t be conceived in advance of its creation—that helped their poems to emerge or connected them over time. The Rag-Picker’s Guide to Poetry permits an inside view of how poets outwit internal censors and habits of thought, showing how the meticulous and the spontaneous come together in the process of discovery.
Hammer and Blaze: A Gathering of Contemporary American Poets
Edited by Heather McHugh and Ellen Bryant Voigt
Hammer and Blaze provides a true cross-section of the best contemporary poets writing in North America today. Editors Ellen Bryant Voigt and Heather McHugh have brought together the work of sixty poets who have taught at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, one of the most respected and influential writing programs of its kind.
The stellar group of contributors includes MacArthur fellows Campbell McGrath, Anne Carson, Edward Hirsch, Eleanor Wilner, Susan Stewart, and Lucia Perillo. Also represented here are works by Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn and Louise Glück; Ruth Lilly Prize winner Carl Dennis; and Robert Wrigley, Thomas Lux, and B. H. Fairchild, winners of the Kingsley Tufts Award. From the couplets of Pablo Medina to the neoclassical lyricisms of Carl Phillips, this anthology appropriately reflects the cross-cultural nature of contemporary North American poetry with its most diverse and prestigious voices. A number of the poems are previously unpublished, including work by Joan Aleshire, Stuart Dischell, Stephen Dobyns, Stephen Dunn, Roland Flint, Carol Frost, Barbara Greenberg, Edward Hirsch, Pablo Medina, Steve Orlen, Gregory Orr, Kathleen Peirce, Kenneth Rosen, Daniel Tobin, Alan Williamson, and Eleanor Wilner.
Hammer and Blaze, a gathering of our best poets, should garner attention from the literary world at large as well as from students of contemporary poetry and creative writing.
Poet’s Work, Poet’s Play: Essays on the Practice and the Art
Edited by Daniel Tobin and Pimone Triplett
A follow-up to the highly praised Poets Teaching Poets, Daniel Tobin and Pimone Triplett’s Poet’s Work, Poet’s Play gathers together essays by some of the most important voices in contemporary poetry: Carl Dennis, Stephen Dobyns, Tony Hoagland, Heather McHugh, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Eleanor Wilner, Dean Young, and the late Larry Levis and Agha Shahid Ali.
Lively, accessible, and erudite, the pieces range from discussions on syntax and the syllable to an exploration of the complexities of canon formation under the shadow of imperialism, race, and history. Exploring the work of John Donne, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, Philip Larkin, Charles Olsen, Ezra Pound, Anne Carson, Robert Herrick, Harryette Mullen, and many others, Poet’s Work, Poet’s Play—like its predecessor volume—will be an invaluable tool for teachers, students, and poets at every level.
The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work
Edited by Andrea Barrett and Peter Turchi
This big, beautiful anthology of short fiction is for readers, writers, and anyone curious about the mysterious processes of literary minds. All contributors have been recent faculty members of the prestigious Warren Wilson Low Residency Program, including such literary favorites as Margot Livesey, Charles Baxter, Robert Boswell, Jim Shepard, Antonya Nelson, David Shields, and the editors themselves.
Each writer was asked to submit an original story, accompanied by an essay describing the challenges of the story and how they were met. Since writers resist herding, the editors were happily surprised by the wide range of essays―”fiction writers, when given the space, think about their work very differently.” We learn about the genesis of a story, how story evolves, what was eventually relinquished and why, and how a story―surprisingly―might “insist” on changing.
Arranged alphabetically by author, and beginning with Richard Russo’s cogent introduction, this volume is a treasure throughout.
Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World
Edited by Peter Orr and Ellen Bryant Voigt
Essays on the craft and relevance of poetry by distinguished practitioners and teachers of the art. This book is currently out of print but can be purchased second-hand via Amazon.
A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft
Edited by Andrea Barrett and Peter Turchi
A Kite in the Wind is an anthology of essays by 20 veteran writers and master teachers. While the contributors offer specific, practical advice on such fundamental aspects of craft as characterization, character names, the first person point of view, and unreliable narrators, they also give extended, thoughtful consideration to more sophisticated topics, including “imminence,” or the power of a sense of beginning; creating and maintaining tension; “lushness”; and the deliberate manipulation of information to create particular effects.
Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life
Edited by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi
In Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life, seventeen award-winning writers–all expert teachers–share the secrets of creating compelling, imaginative stories and novels. A combination handbook, writer’s companion, and collection of spirited personal essays, the book is filled with specific examples, hard-won wisdom, and compassionate guidance for the developing or experienced fiction writer.
The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College
701 Warren Wilson Rd. Swannanoa, NC 28778
[email protected] (828) 771-3715