Attempt to follow American writer’s verse (6)
I believe the answer is:
poetry
'verse' is the definition.
('poetry' can be a synonym of 'verse')
'attempt to follow american writer's' is the wordplay.
'attempt' becomes 'try' (I've seen this before).
'to follow' says to put letters next to each other.
'american writer' becomes 'poe' (Edgar Allan Poe).
'try' put after 'poe' is 'POETRY'.
(Other definitions for poetry that I've seen before include "Literary genre" , "Literary art" , "Verse" , "Literature in metrical form" , "'The Raven'?" .)