Short Synopsis
From Charles Johnson—a National Book Award winner, Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, and one of America’s preeminent scholars on literature and race—comes an instructive, inspiring guide to the craft and art of writing.

Full Synopsis
An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter, professor, and cartoonist, Charles Johnson has devoted his life to creative pursuit. His 1990 National Book Award–winning novel Middle Passage is a modern classic, revered as much for its daring plot as its philosophical underpinnings. For thirty-three years, Johnson taught and mentored students in the art and craft of creative writing. The Way of the Writer is his record of those years, and the coda to a kaleidoscopic, boundary-shattering career.

Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot, and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer. What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world? And how are philosophy and fiction concomitant?

"A meditation on the daily routines and mental habits of a writer . . . the book radiates warmth . . . a writer’s true education might start in institutions, it seems, but for Johnson it is more a lineage of good, memorable talk.” ---New York Times

“Throughout, Johnson’s voice is generous and warm, even while he is cautioning writers to be their own ruthless editors. A useful writing guide from an experienced practitioner.” ---Kirkus

"Johnson's wonderful prose will engage readers to think more deeply about how to tell a story and consider the truth-telling power of the arts." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"A book that will be appreciated by aspiring writers and everyone who shares Johnson’s delight in the power of words." ---Booklist

"With an immediate sense of the author's considerable intelligence and considered intensity, narrator Mirron Willis reads this thorough, rigorous, and thought-provoking guide to finding one's voice and working in the real world as a writer." ---AudioFile

Library Journal Review