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THE CLASSROOM CORNER

We often hear from creative writing instructors that they find CRAFT to be very useful in the classroom. We listened, and we've made this corner as a quick resource, a curated list of some of our favorites. This list is NOT exhaustive—our pages are full of short fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, critical essays, interviews, roundups of all things literary, and more. This is a handy place to start!

We will continually update this list, so check back when making those syllabi, and for quick inspiration anytime.

Image shows the front face of an old cash register with dollar symbols on the buttons; title card for the new craft essay, "Inherited Language," by Nick Almeida.

Inherited Language

March 29, 2023

  By Nick Almeida • If you had grown up in my house, “You’re dollaring me to death” would forever echo in your head. The phrase is one of my mother’s favorites, inextricably linked to any requests for small amounts…

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Image is the book cover for CONVERSATIONS WITH BIRDS; title card for A. D. Carr's new hybrid interview with Priyanka Kumar.

Hybrid Interview: Priyanka Kumar

March 1, 2023

  Essay by A. D. Carr • “Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”  —Priyanka Kumar I didn’t start to have an interest in birds until my midthirties. No doubt this shift coincides with the transition from…

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Photograph depicts grassy hills where cattle stand in a row; title card for the new craft essay, "Belt Buckles and Sad Songs: Manifesting the Past in Annie Proulx’s 'Brokeback Mountain'," by Daniel Abiva Hunt.

Belt Buckles and Sad Songs: Manifesting the Past in Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain”

February 14, 2023

  By Daniel Abiva Hunt • When I first began writing seriously, I was obsessed with character histories. Nothing would make my character feel more real and fully formed than a detail-oriented past, I felt, and I would turn over…

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Image is the book cover for CLEAN AIR; title card for Melanie Pierce's new interview with Sarah Blake.

Interview: Sarah Blake

February 6, 2023

  In Sarah Blake’s sophomore novel, Clean Air, the cause of the climate apocalypse comes as a surprise. It’s not rising oceans or wildfires or air pollution. The trees release enough pollen to suffocate humankind: a drawn-out, mass-casualty event known…

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Image is the book cover for A SUMMONING; title card for Leslie Lindsay's new interview with Nicole McCarthy.

Interview: Nicole McCarthy

February 3, 2023

  All spaces are haunted. In a way, all spaces are about memory. In A Summoning, “a conceptual, psychological experiment focused on memory,” Nicole McCarthy invites readers to sit and feel and think and remember. Throughout this fragmented collection, McCarthy…

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Image is two book covers--THE ART OF BREVITY by Grant Faulkner and BEST MICROFICTION 2022, edited by Meg Pokrass; title card for "Conversations Between Friends: Grant Faulkner and Meg Pokrass."

Conversations Between Friends: Grant Faulkner and Meg Pokrass

January 27, 2023

  CRAFT is delighted to share a triptych of humorous microfictions by Grant Faulkner, previously included in Best Microfiction 2022. The following pieces take on the subject matter of craft and critical essays from the perspectives of three fictional individuals,…

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Image is the book cover for THE BRITTANYS; title card for Charlotte Foreman's interview with Brittany Ackerman.

Interview: Brittany Ackerman

January 3, 2023

  I found Brittany Ackerman’s piece “Mia’s Birthday” in Forever Magazine in the summer of 2021, in the midst of an intolerably painful breakup for which I was wholly to blame. Asked to write an introduction for our conversation, I…

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Image is the book cover for THESE GHOSTS ARE FAMILY; title card for Suzanne Grove's new interview with Maisy Card.

Interview: Maisy Card

December 1, 2022

  CRAFT is ever grateful to award-winning debut novelist Maisy Card, who served as this year’s guest judge for our 2022 First Chapters Contest. Maisy has chosen the three winning excerpts, which will be featured this month, starting tomorrow. To…

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Image is the book cover for THE MAN WHO COULD MOVE CLOUDS; title card for Jacqueline Doyle's new interview with Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

Interview: Ingrid Rojas Contreras

November 18, 2022

  CRAFT is thrilled to welcome Ingrid Rojas Contreras as guest judge for our 2022 Creative Nonfiction Award. Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Hailed as “original, politically daring, and passionately written” by Vogue, her first novel, Fruit of…

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Image is a photograph of a wooden board wall dripping water into a pool, causing ripples; title card for the new critical essay "Crafting Endings in Short Fiction" by Jennifer Murvin.

Crafting Endings in Short Fiction

November 8, 2022

  By Jennifer Murvin • There are two quotations I often turn to when thinking about ending a short story; the first comes from Flannery O’Connor, in her essay, “On Her Own Work,” which reads, “I often ask myself what makes…

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