The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry - Couverture souple

Nikki Moustaki holds an M.A. in creative writing/poetry from New York University and an MFA in the same from Indiana University. She is the recipient of a 2001 National Endowment for the Arts Grant in poetry. Nikki has taught both poetry and fiction writing at New York University and Indiana University, as well as fiction, memoir, and poetry writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City. Her publishing credits include Quarterly West, Cream City Review, Alaska Quarterly, TriQuarterly, Spoon River Poetry Review, Many Mountains Moving, PIF Magazine, American Literary Review, Yemassee Review, Madison Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, and Yankee Magazine, among others. Nikki hosts the writing Web site http://www.4betteror4words.com, featuring writing services and interviews with contemporary poets. You can e-mail her at betterverse@aol.com for information on upcoming private workshops and poetry critique.

Discover the poet within! You've read poetry that has touched your heart, and you'd like to improve your own writing technique. But even though you have loads of inspiration, you're discovering that good instruction can be as elusive as a good metaphor. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry will help you compose powerful, emotion-packed poems that you can be proud of. You'll learn simple explanations of poetry building blocks such as metaphor, imagery, symbolism and stanzas; steps to the poetic process; easy-to-follow guidelines for writing sonnets, sestinas, narrative poems and more; fun exercises to help you master the basics of poetry writing; cliches and other poetry pitfalls to avoid; advice on writers' conferences and workshops; tips on getting your poetry published; good poems that will inspire your own work; strategies to beat writer's block.