Sparknotes Ultimate Style: How to Write Poetry

by Diane Mehta

This book aims to give students a recipe of sorts to creating excellent creative and academic prose and poetry.

Genres: Nonfiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Diane Mehta is a poet and writer, born in Germany and raised in India and the U.S. She's interested in heritage, faith, serendipity, and reason. Her second poetry collection Tiny Extravaganzas (2023) came out to much acclaim. Her new book Happier Far: Essays is out in March 2025. She writes for the New Yorker, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, A Public Space, Kenyon Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, and American Poetry Review. She was a fellow at Civitella Ranieri and Yaddo, and has been the recipient of a Cafe Royal Foundation award for nonfiction and the Peter Heinegg Foundation award for creative work. She is collaborating with musicians and visual artists and is poet in residence at NYC's New Chamber Ballet.

Reviews

[Solveig Singleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very nice little book and very enjoyable to work through the various exercises while commuting. A good mix of technical information and a sense of the emotional impact of poetry.

Oddly, I feel that reading this helped my ceramic sculpture, too; I became more aware of the emotional power of ambiguity.