The Writer's Notebook II continues in the tradition of The Writer's Notebook, featuring essays based on craft seminars from the Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop, as well as a variety of craft essays from Tin House magazine contributors and Tin House Books authors. The collection includes essays that not only examine important craft aspects such as humor, suspense, and research but that also explore creating fractured and nonrealist narratives and the role of dream in fiction. An engaging and enlightening read, The Writer's Notebook II is both a toolkit and an inspiration for any writer. The Writer’s Notebook II offers aspiring authors sixteen insightful essays about the craft of writing by Tin House authors and summer workshop faculty members, including Aimee Bender, Steve Almond, Maggie Nelson, Karen Russell, Benjamin Percy, and others. Contents: Introduction / Francise Prose—Beginnings / Ann Hood—Don't write what you know / Bret Anthony Johnston—Funny is the new deep: an exploration of the comic impulse / Steve Almond—Research in fiction / Andrea Barrett—The sword of Damocles: on suspense, shower murders, and shooting people on the beach / Anthony Doerr — "A sort of leaning against": writing with, from, and for others / Maggie Nelson—The experience in between: thoughts on nonlinear narrative / Adam Braver—On the making of orchards / Aimee Bender—Get a job: the importance of work in prose and poetry / Benjamin Percy—Short story: a process of revision / Antonya Nelson—There interposed a few considerations of poetic drama / Mary Szybist—Story & dream / Jim Krusoe—Do something / Christopher R. Beha—Engineering impossible architectures / Karen Russell—Endings: parting is such sweet sorrow / Elissa Schappell.