Ten of the Best Books on Writing Poetry

We’ve collated some of the best books on writing poetry – there are a lot of different insights to help with your poetry practice, no matter what stage you’re at.

How to Write it by Anthony Anaxagorou

This book is a masterclass in the craft of writing and poetry, infused with tips, anecdotes and publishing advice for anyone interesting in putting their work into the world. It also details Anthony’s journey into writing, starting out at poetry slams and working his way up to a T.S. Eliot Prize-nominated poet and a vital voice in the literary world.

Anthony teaches an Advanced Workshop with us! Spaces for next year’s iteration of this course open again in July 2025.

On Poetry by Glyn Maxwell

‘This is a book for anyone,’ is how On Poetry begins. It’s a rich and inventive work that is part guide to writing poetry and part defence of poetry as an art. It will be valued by readers who wish to understand why and how poetic technique matters, Maxwell is a fine teacher and he believes that poetic forms originate in human necessities: breath, heartbeat, footsteps, posture – it’s an original and deliciously fun read.

Glyn Maxwell is Head of Studies and a tutor on our MA in Writing Poetry, run in collaboration with Newcastle University. We are currently accepting applications for new students.

The Poets Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux

This book is a compilation of essays on poetry and technique, as well as suggesting subjects for writing. What makes it compelling is that each essay is followed by a writing exercise, to put your learning into practice. The essays also include insights into the ups and downs of writing life, detailing self-doubt, writer’s block, and publishing tips – this book can act as your teacher when you are in between poetry courses.

Kim will be a guest tutor on Rachel Long’s Advanced Weekly Workshop with us this summer! Spaces for next year’s iteration of this course open again in July 2025.

Adventures in Form edited by Tom Chivers

Prepare to be engulfed by a multitude of new forms, these poems will crack open your imagination and show you all that is possible: from tweet to time-splice, and from skinny villanelle to breakbeat sonnet. This is an anthology of over ninety poems written by forty-six contributors. The book also includes writing prompts, so it’s perfect for learning how to experiment.

A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women edited by Annie Finch

This is another anthology focusing on form, this time spotlighting contemporary female poets. It’s great for referencing and peeling through when you’re in need of fresh inspiration. The anthology is compiled of sixty female authors and the works that have transformed and strengthened their literary inheritance.

Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes

This book began as a series of talks, written and delivered by Hughes for a BBC Schools Broadcasting radio show. He later turned the talks into a printed book, adding teacher notes and exercises. It’s an attempt to inspire and guide, as Hughes believes that creative writing courses shouldn’t teach you ‘how to write’ but should instead teach ‘how to say what you really mean’. He stresses that formal manners of poetry are a lot less important than developing the writer’s imagination. For Hughes, the most important artists are visionaries, not craftsmen.

The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner

This is an inventive and lucid essay, beginning with the hatred of poetry and turning into a defence of poetry as an art. Lerner examines poetry’s greatest haters, along with its best and worst practitioners. There are close readings of Keats, Dickinson, McGonagall, Whitman, among others, and he attempts to explain the noble failure at the heart of every great and truly horrible poem. It’s a personal, entertaining, and original examination of poetry.

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

This book bills itself as a ‘prose guide to understanding and writing poetry’. Oliver gifts the reader with expertise from her long and celebrated poetry career. She walks through exactly how a poem is built, from meter to rhyme, to form and diction, to sound and sense. It’s very much a writing handbook, but it also offers a glimpse into Oliver’s unique and prolific mind.

A Transnational Poetics by Jahan Ramazani

This book examines the ocean-straddling magic of transnational poetry, Ramazani uncovers Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance in post-World War II North America and the North Atlantic, as well as exploring ethnic American, postcolonial, and Black-British writing. Cross-cultural exchange and influence are, he argues, among the chief engines of poetic development in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through a variety of transnational templates – globalization, migration, travel, genre, influence, modernity, decolonization, and diaspora – he discovers poetic connection and dialogue across nations and will inspire readers to greatly expand their practice and reading.

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland

This is a robust book for readers who have always felt that properly understanding form would help them to better write and appreciate poetry. It traces the history of forms, devoting each chapter to a specific one, offering close reading, explanation, and a rich selection of poems that demonstrate that form’s power and possibility.

Ten of the Best Books on Writing Poetry Ten of the Best Books Writing Poetry

Ten of the Best Books on Writing Poetry