Sheila Bender is a poet, essayist, and esteemed author of over ten books on writing. She has taught English Literature, composition, and creative writing at community colleges as well as universities around the country for more than thirty years. Bender writes instructional articles for magazines such as Writer's Digest and The Writer. She is the founder of Writing It Real, an online magazine for those who write from personal experience, as well as director of the annual Writing It Real writers' conferences. She offers individual and group writing instruction through her website www.writingitreal.com.

Preface: Clearing the Fog, Savoring the Mystery; Introduction: About Creative Writing; Chapter 1. On What Beginning Feels Like; Chapter 2. What is Creative Writing; Part One. Building Your Creative Writing Muscle; Chapter 3. What are the Elements of Good Creative Writing; Chapter 4. Receiving and Using First Reader Response to Work-in-Progress; Chapter 5. Exercises to Build Your "Good Writing" Muscles; Part Two: Poetry; Chapter 6. What is Poetry; Chapter 7. Why Do People Write Poetry; Chapter 8. The Three Main Subgenres of Poetry: Lyric, Narrative, and Prose; Chapter 9. A Few More Contemporary Poetry Subgenres: Language, Performance, Cowboy Poetry; Chapter 10. Practice for Writing Poetry; Part Three. Creative Nonfiction; Chapter 11. What is Creative Nonfiction; Chapter 12. Why Do People Write Creative Nonfiction; Chapter 13. Creative Nonfiction Subgenres; Chapter 14. Practice for Writing Creative Nonfiction; Part Four: Fiction; Chapter 15. What is Fiction; Chapter 16. Why do People Write Fiction; Chapter 17. Literary Versus Genre Fiction - What Do the Labels Mean; Chapter 18. Fiction Subgenres; Chapter 19. Practice for Writing Fiction; Epilogue: A Juncture! More Travel Ahead!; Contributors' Notes; About the Author