Imaginative Writing (4th Edition)

The book came really fast! I loved the delivery speed. The book itself has some great prompts and at a great price. The only thing I was worried about with the package it came in. It was torn so wide the book could of fell out. Other than that, it was good.

Needed the book for class. I savedmoney and got the book quickly (in the condition stated) from seller. The book is a wonderful overview of creative writing. It's a great one book compilation about the craft.

This book is probably my favorite book of the semester! It has so many useful tips in it to help you on your journey to becomming a creative writer! If you enjoy writing and want to gain some new skill, I definately recommend this book :)

This book probably gets great reviews, but for me it wasn't that thrilling at all. The selections are often socially out of date - anyone who uses google would probably notice that they often reflect a basic ignorance of the subject matter compared to the more sophisticated audience of today. The directions as to writing practice are so commonplace I could have easily thought them up myself. It has a nice variety but just not that inspiring. Would be better just to read literature itself and dispense with self-help gurus like this.

I received the item in a timely manner. However, upon opening the box, I was disappointed to find that this gently used book was actually loved to pieces. The cover was almost torn off and the book was missing several pages. Not Cool!

Imaginative Writing (The fourth edition), is an outstanding text on the elements of craft, and it includes a wonderful selection of sample works from authors like Annie Dillard, David Sedaris, Jamaica Kincaid,Theodore Roethke, and many more. As a creative writing professor, I have been seeking a strong text that does it all--provides craft readings, prompts, and an anthology that are all consistently good. I have not found that book until now.

I will break my review into sections: organization, accessibility, and usefulness.

Organization: It is unique. Broken into two main sections, Part I: The Elements of Craft, is dedicated to the elements of craft for each genre (fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama). What is unique is that Part I is broken down by craft elements, NOT by genre. For example, the "Image" chapter discusses image as related to all genres, and follows the craft discussion with selections in each genre that demonstrate strong use of imagery. Part II: The Genres, follows the more traditional breakdown genre-specific discussion, following up with readings in that genre. This dual structure allows instructors to teach either the elements or the genres--or both, with a specific focus that suits the class.

Accessibility: Very accessible, though Intro to Creative Writing students might find it overwhelming. I am currently using it for Creative Writing I, which has a prerequisite intro class. The students are mostly college freshmen. Some find it dense, but the strong readers benefit from the thorough craft discussion. The book is dense, with pages full of small text that offers little relief to the eye. It does seem to be overwhelming and "boring" to some of my weaker students. I would say that this book would work great in small doses for beginning creative writing classes all the way up to graduate craft courses. I find its main weakness to be its density without relief. For more advanced students, they might be used to textbook formats, but it is unusual to find in creative writing books. In contrast, what I like is that the book's format is unapologetic--creative writing is not frivolous, and this book supports that. Burroway does not insult creative writing by feeling compelled to make the book look "fun" so that we can further undermine the liberal arts. But that's just me :)

Usefulness: Following up with accessibility, I do find the table of contents and the page layouts to be visually challenging to navigate. I feel like it could benefit from a stronger page design that allows the reader to navigate intuitively. Instead, the fonts, headers, and page numbers are either hard to find or intrusive--but never helpful. Also on usefulness: As a teacher, I LOVE the thoughtful, dynamic, and varied writing prompts provided throughout the book. They are by far the best I've seen in a craft book. Furthermore, the prompts will benefit any creative writer looking for an interesting idea or a way to get through writer's block.

Overall, I am thrilled with this book, and I think creative writers and instructors alike should grab a copy. I never saw the previous editions, so I cannot offer a comparison, but it looks like other reviewers have done that. Final note : the editing could be stronger in places--I found two typos just in Aleksandar Hemon's essay, "The Book of My Life." Growing pains, I suppose. Nevertheless, it's hard to teach students that grammar and clean drafts are important when published books don't model that message! Besides a few typos and formatting unfriendliness, I say its worth every penny.

I very much enjoyed this book. Burroway is a great author, and she does a fantastic job of making literature easy to understand. She doesn't over-analyze literature, she just makes it easier to look at it from a different lens. Great selections of literature, too.