Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century

by Rishi Dastidar (Editor)

The Craft is an indispensable guide to both the how and why of poetic craft in the 21st century, and essential writing-desk companion for poets at all stages. The book covers practical techniques the nuts of bolts of putting poems together, mastering poetic forms such as sonnets, sestinas, prose poems and golden shovels, how to choose titles for your poems and the art of long sequences. It also explores the idea of craft itself - knowing how pentameters dance is important, but by no way is it the only dimension of craft that the poet starting out today has to consider. What about sound and the skills involved in performing your work? What about truth and fabrication, and the ethics of using real life in your work? What about the politics of the word craft itself? With essays on poetry from Moniza Alvi, Dean Atta, Liz Berry, Caroline Bird, Malika Booker, Debjani Chatterjee, Jane Commane, Rishi Dastidar, Carrie Etter, Will Harris, Tania Hershman, Peter Kahn, Gregory Leadbetter, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Roy McFarlane, Harry Man, Claire Pollard, Peter Raynard, Roger Robinson, Jacqueline Saphra, Joelle Taylor, Marvin Thompson, Julia Webb, and Antosh Wojcik.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Writing, Crafts

220 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2019

About the author

Rishi Dastidar’s poetry has been published by Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC amongst many others. His debut collection Ticker-tape is published by Nine Arches Press, and a poem from it was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2018. A member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, and a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine, he also chairs the London writer development organization Spread The Word, and is editor of the final part of the Nine Arches Press writers’ trilogy, The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century.

Reviews

[Pip ︎ ︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of essay’s for my uni course and, although I usually go about recommended/required reading begrudgingly, I actually found this to be very insightful and engaging. There were some very varied and informative approaches to writing poetry and I couldn’t help making notes & tabbing things I want to come back to in the future—very inspirational!!

Safe to say I really enjoyed my time with it :P

[Apina_lukee_kirjoja · Rating 5 out of 5]

- practical guide to writing poetry
- guide to some common forms
- different perspectives into writing and reading poems
- in the moment without focusing on fads
- short, simple essays so easy to read!

Perfect poetry primer; I really enjoyed the different voices.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of thought provoking ideas and inspiration for when writer's block is thoroughly installed in the brain and pen. Well worth a read!

[Cooch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good and some very good advice

The essays are a real mixture. There should be something for everyone here. There is some excellent advice and a good further reading guide.

[molls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted a book to help me understand the ‘why’ behind certain poetry forms and this is definitely that book. Informative and inspiring, without being too information dense or at all like a textbook.

[Steve Bowbrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read about half of this. So sue me. I've read the parts I need. It's brilliant. How to get started, how to write a Sestina, how to make a prose poem read like a poem and not like, you know, just a bunch of prose, how to write about yourself, about the real world etc... Short essays by actual poets and teachers. Very inspiring.