BRAINARD’S HOW-TO-WRITE CREATIVE WRITING BOOK RELEASED

CREATIVE WRITING BOOK RELEASED 

PALH (Philippine American Literary House) announces the release of Fundamentals of Creative Writing,  Revised and Expanded Edition by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. 

Fundamentals of Creative Writing, Revised and Expanded Edition is a practical how-to-write book that  can be used as a text book or it can be read by those interested in learning how to write. The author  Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, an award-winning fiction writer, who taught for over 25 years at UCLA  Extension’s Writers Program and other universities, shares all the tools needed to write fiction and  creative non-fiction. She breaks down the basic elements of creative writing such as setting, scene,  character, conflict, dialogue, plot, and so on into sections. Each section starts with a concept, followed by  related exercises, and a story or two to illustrate the creative writing component just discussed.  

This book includes the author’s advice to beginning writers, and a lengthy interview of the author, in  which the author discusses her background, what got her started in writing, the struggles she faced, her  development as a writer. She also discusses the genesis of some of her stories including her three novels.  

The author’s no-nonsense approach makes this book useful to many instructors of Creative Writing who  will appreciate the straightforward guidance, writing activities, and complementary stories in the book.  This book, Fundamentals of Creative Writing, Revised and Expanded Edition offers more information to  demystify and explain the writing process thus enhancing the learning experience of the beginning writer. 

An earlier edition of this book was published in 2009 by Anvil in the Philippines, now out of print. The  book was used by many teachers in their classrooms. During the time of Covid, and to help teachers and students, the author made the first edition Fundamentals of Creative Writing available online for free.  Thousands availed of this pandemic free offer.  

The author, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, is the author and editor of over twenty books, the recent ones  being: her Selected Short Stories, which won the 40th National Book Award, Growing Up Filipino 3,  which was nominated for the 41st National Book Award.  

The publisher PALH has published writings by noted fictionist Linda Ty-Casper, Veronica Montes, and  several anthologies of Filipino, Filipino-American, and Asian American topics.  

For more information, please contact palh@aol.com or palhbooks@gmail.com.