Books by Helen Sword


Stylish Academic Writing
(Harvard University Press, 2012)
Elegant data and ideas deserve elegant expression, argues Helen Sword in this lively guide to academic writing. For scholars frustrated with disciplinary conventions, and for specialists who want to write for a larger audience but are unsure where to begin, here are imaginative, practical, witty pointers that show how to make articles and books a pleasure to read—and to write.

The Writer's Diet
(Pearson Education NZ, 2007)
Is your writing flabby or fit? The Writer's Diet will help you energize your writing, boost your verbal fitness levels, and strip unnecessary padding from your prose. Learn five simple secrets for producing healthier sentences, then take the Wasteline Test at www.writersdiet.com to check out your results.http://www.writersdiet.com


Pacific Rim Modernisms
(co-edited by Mary Ann Gillies and Steven Yao; University of Toronto Press, 2009)
Tracing vectors of appropriation, migration, and exchange, Pacific Rim Modernisms explores how writers, artists, and intellectuals of the Pacific Rim have contributed to modernist culture, literature, and identity. The fourteen essays in the volume reflect a range of scholarly perspectives and methodologies, expressing varied viewpoints, divergent voices, and even contradictory definitions of Modernism itself.

Ghostwriting Modernism
(Cornell University Press, 2002)
Ghostwriting Modernism documents the hitherto unexplored relationship between modernism and spiritualism, offering compelling readings of works by modernist authors and contemporary mediums. Like modernism itself, spiritualism embraces rather than eschews paradox, providing an ideological space where conservative beliefs can coexist with radical, even iconoclastic, thought and action.

Engendering Inspiration
(University of Michigan Press, 1995)
In a culture where passivity and receptivity are stereotypically deemed feminine traits, while authority and power are typically associated with maleness, the idea of poetic inspiration sets up a conflict between traditional gender roles. Engendering Inspiration documents how three modernist poets came to terms with the fundamentally gendered paradoxes of inspiration.
Stylish Academic Writing
The Writer's Diet
Pacific Rim Modernisms
Ghostwriting Modernism
Engendering Inspiration