The purpose of this text is to look at genres--broad and narrow--as they can be recognized in books of the Old Testament in the existing canon with respect to various conventions of genre. Genre becomes a useful tool for helping readers know what to look for, expect, and how to organize their experience in reading the Old Testament. Jeanie C. Crain is professor of English at Missouri Western State University. She is the author of Reading the Bible as Literature: an Introduction (Polity Press 2010).