Announcing two indispensable books by Nina Schuyler for your writer’s shelf

“ ... like a Kama Sutra for sentences: it describes the positions and passions of her artful love, and through sharp analyses and generous prompts suggests how you too, writer, may become such an artful lover… — Aaron Shurin, author of King of Shadows and The Skin of Meaning

How to Write Stunning Sentences: 100 Simple Exercises from Beloved Authors to Improve Your Sentence Writing Style ​
​2nd Edition | ISBN: 9798897400003 | $19

You’ve got a great story, but do you have great sentences?

Stylish sentences have their own powerful energy that mesmerizes and even rearranges a reader’s world. Think of this book as a private lesson with Nina Schuyler—award-winning author and professor of creative writing— featuring guest appearances by the masters, including James Baldwin, Grace Paley, Anne Carson, Justin Torres, and Toni Morrison, each showing you the mechanics of their magic.

Featuring 31 essays and over 100 writing prompts, How to Write Stunning Sentences is the best way to practice writing sentences with style. The first edition was a resounding bestseller and now the second edition includes seven new essays and more prompts.

And wait, there’s more …

“ This workbook is a roadmap to hone skills and will give writers tools to effectively inject imagery and rhythm in their own work. — Devi S. Laskar, author of Circa and The Atlas of Reds and Blues

Stunning Sentences: A Creative Writing Journal with 80 Prompts from Beloved Authors to Improve Your Style ​
​ISBN: 9798897400027 | $18

Sentences are alive. Done well, they can help us see the world anew. To create such sentences you need fresh, varied rhythms and imagery. In this creative writing journal, Nina Schuyler, award-winning author of the bestseller How to Write Stunning Sentences, presents 80 new prompts that show the breathtaking stretch of language. With stunning sentences from beloved writers like Toni Morrison, Lauren Groff, Virginia Woolf, and Jesmyn Ward, coupled with Nina’s precise analysis, you will be propelled to create your own striking sentences. This journal will renew your writing skills and allow you to see through any sentence to the bones of style.

“Nina Schuyler’s book is a creative antidote for anyone experiencing stuckedness, malaise, bad news, the doldrums. And just as useful for those who aren’t feeling stuck but just want fresh, new ways to charge their writing.”

— Toni Mirosevich, author of Spell Heaven

Available in bookstores, online retailers, and at shop.sibyllinepress.com​

It begins and ends with a sentence.

Revered writing instructor, Nina Schuyler is the author of How to Write Stunning Sentences. Formerly a professor at University of San Francisco, she currently teaches creative writing for Stanford Continuing Studies, the independent bookstore, Book Passage, and Sibyl Writing Craft. She also facilitates the popular Stunning Sentences Substack.

Her fiction has received accolades as well and includes, In This Ravishing World, and the novels, Afterword, The Translator, and The Painting. Her short stories have been published by Zyzzyva, Chicago Quarterly Review, Fugue, Nashville Review, and elsewhere, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and won Best Microfiction 2025 and 2025 Best Small Fictions.

Want to work with Nina?

You can at Sibyl Writing Craft. Her intensive course on sentences spans the spring with six sessions taking you as deep as you can go into the sentence. Your sentences will never be the same. Learn more.

6 SESSION WORKSHOP ​February, April, June 2026 How to Write Stunning Sentences with Nina Schuyler In this six-session workshop, discover how syntax, rhythm, diction, and imagery transform words into music. Learn from literary masters, practice in class, and craft stylish, powerful sentences that elevate your fiction, nonfiction, or memoir. Learn more