10 Craft Book Recommendations

From time to time, I have been asked to give craft book recommendations, especially by and/or for writers of color. Having read ~50 craft books in researching my own book, here are ten volumes that I have found useful in thinking about craft, all written by non-white and/or non-Western authors.

 

Achebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa.

Araki, Hirohiko. Manga in Theory and Practice.

Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie, and Ihechukwu Madubuike. Toward the Decolonization of African Literature.

Cortazar, Julio. Literature Class, Berkeley 1980.

Gu, Ming Dong. Chinese Theories of Fiction: A Non-Western Narrative System.

Jen, Gish. Tiger Writing.

Kim, Sue J., ed. Decolonizing Narrative Theory issue of Journal of Narrative Theory.

King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative.

Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark.

Rhodes, Jewell Parker. Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors.