The Writer's Notebook offers aspiring authors the most enlightening and engaging seminars and essays from some of Tin House's favorite writers. Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender, Steve Almond, Antonya Nelson and others break down specific elements of craft and share insights into the joys and pains of their own writing.

Tap into your inner writer with this book of practical advice by the bestselling author of How Writers Work and the ALA Notable Book Fig Pudding. Writers are just like everyone else—except for one big difference. Most people go through life experiencing daily thoughts and feelings, noticing and observing the world around them. But writers record these thoughts and observations. They react. And they need a special place to record those reactions. Perfect for classrooms, A Writer’s Notebook gives budding writers a place to keep track of all the little things they notice every day. Young writers will love these useful tips for how to use notes and jottings to create stories and poems of their own.

It contains a series of writing prompts, suggestions on structuring your book, and enough blank pages in which to write it.

Personal reflections on the vital role of the notebook in creative writing, from Dorianne Laux, Sue Grafton, John Dufresne, Kyoko Mori, and more. This collection of essays by established professional writers explores how their notebooks serve as their studios and workshops—places to collect, to play, and to make new discoveries with language, passions, and curiosities. For these diverse writers, the journal also serves as an ideal forum to develop their writing voice, whether crafting fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Some include sample journal entries that have since developed into published pieces. Through their individual approaches to keeping a notebook, the contributors offer valuable advice, personal recollections, and a hearty endorsement of the value of using notebooks to document, develop, and nurture a writer’s creative spark.

This beautiful notebook, illustrated by the author's own paintings, provides the perfect opportunity for would-be writers, as well as those seeking a fresh approach to their work, to learn simple techniques that will help them master the basics of the craft. Inspired by the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, the book provides a complete step-by-step mini-course on how to write clearly and powerfully. Abundant lined pages can be used for writing practice.

A selection of original pages, complete with translation and editorial commentary, reproduced from the writing notebooks of Helene Cixous - iconic figure in French feminist and cultural theory.

Presents tips for elementary and middle school teachers on how to use writing notebooks to help students develop skills and habits associated with good writing.

In this “delicate slow burn of a novel” (Jan Carson), a woman’s marriage and career are threatened by an old indiscretion just as she receives the opportunity of a lifetime—from the award–winning author of the “extraordinary” (Colum McCann) Dinosaurs on Other Planets. Nessa McCormack’s marriage is coming back together again after her husband’s affair. She is excited to be in charge of a retrospective art exhibition for a beloved artist, the renowned late sculptor Robert Locke. But the arrival of two enigmatic outsiders imperils both her personal and professional worlds: A chance encounter with an old friend threatens to expose a betrayal Nessa thought she had long put behind her; and at work, an odd woman comes forward with a mysterious connection to Robert Locke’s life and his most famous work, the Chalk Sculpture. As Nessa finds the past intruding on the present, she realizes she must decide what is the truth, whether she can continue to live with a lie, and what the consequences might be were she to fully unravel the mysteries in both the life of Robert Locke and her own. In this gripping and wonderfully written debut, Danielle McLaughlin reveals profound truths about love, power, and the secrets that define us.

A funny, colorful, fascinating tour through the work and life of one of today’s most influential graphic designers. Esquire. Ford Motors. Burton Snowboards. The Obama Administration. While all of these brands are vastly different, they share at least one thing in com­mon: a teeny little bit of Aaron James Draplin. Draplin is one of the new school of influential graphic designers who combine the power of design, social media, entrepreneurship, and DIY aesthetic to create a successful business and way of life. Pretty Much Everything is a mid-career survey of work, case studies, inspiration, road stories, lists, maps, how-tos, and advice. It includes examples of his work—posters, record covers, logos—and presents the process behind his design with projects like Field Notes and the “Things We Love” State Posters. Draplin also offers valuable advice and hilarious commentary that illustrates how much more goes into design than just what appears on the page. With Draplin’s humor and pointed observations on the contemporary design scene, Pretty Much Everything is the complete package.

The bestselling first edition of Science Notebooks inspired thousands of teachers to use science notebooks as a powerful way to help students reveal and develop their thinking about scientific concepts, engage in the work of scientists and engineers, and exercise language skills. Lori Fulton and Brian Campbell make the Second Edition even more valuable by showing how science notebooks support implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards as well as the Common Core State Standards for ELA. The authors have also added new material to every chapter, including: strategies to scaffold science notebook instruction how science notebooks help students develop explanations and arguments based on evidence strategies for collecting and analyzing science notebooks for formative assessment new interviews with scientists and engineers that spotlight the use of science notebooks in their work. Student samples and classroom vignettes from a variety of settings illustrate the transformative effect of science notebooks on students' scientific thinking as well as their literacy skills. Download a sample chapter