Fantasy Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology

Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies

by Jennifer Pullen, Sean Prentiss (Series Editor), Joe Wilkins (Series Editor)

The first fantasy-writing textbook to combine a historical genre overview with an anthology and comprehensive craft guide, this book explores the blue prints of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction. The first section will acquaint readers with the vast canon of existing fantasy fiction and outline the many sub-genres encompassed within it before examining the important relationship between fantasy and creative writing, the academy and publishing. A craft guide follows which equips students with the key concepts of storytelling as they are impacted by writing through a fantastical lens. These

- Character and dialogue
- Point of view
- Plot and structure
- Worldbuilding settings, ideologies and cultures
- Style and revision

The third section guides students through the spectrum of styles as they are classified in fantasy fiction from Epic and high fantasy, through Lovecraftian and Weird fiction, to magical realism and hybrid fantasy. An accompanying anthology will provide students with a greater awareness of the range of possibilities open to them as fantasy writers and will feature such writers as Ursula Le Guin, China Miéville, Theodora Goss, Emrys Donaldson, Ken Liu, C.S.E. Cooney, Vandana Singh, Sofia Samatar, Rebecca Roanhorse, Jessie Ulmer, Yxta Maya Murray, and Rachael K. Jones. With writing exercises, prompts, additional online resources and cues for further reading throughout, this is an essential resource for anyone wanting to write fantastical fiction.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

344 pages, Hardcover

First published December 14, 2023

About the author

Jennifer Pullen grew up in Washington State. She got her BA from Whitworth University, her MFA from Eastern Washington University, and her PhD from Ohio University. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio Northern University.

Her fiction and poetry have been published in various journals and anthologies including: Going Down Swinging (AU), Cleaver, Phantom Drift Limited, Clockhouse, Prick of the Spindle, Defenestration, Blink Ink, Gravel, Off the Coast, Corvid Queen, F(r)iction, Psychopomp, Assay, and Behind the Mask (Meerkat Press), among others.

Reviews

[Rosemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a beginners book, maybe bachelors degree level. Could be read by the causal enthusiast. The anthology has an excellent selection of stories and the exercises/discussion points are useful.

There's the odd error an editor should have caught and the author shouldn't have made in the first place.