I started to respond to this meme asking for a list of 15 writers that have inspired you. I began to write out the list in hopes of remembering just why it is that I write at all. I got halfway down when I realized that I hate lists like this.
While I was writing out the names of my literary heroes, I kept referring back to the original meme that I saw on the Facebook. This is going to sound a little crazy, but, I felt an immense amount of pressure to have a list that was "respectable". By that I mean, a list filled with literary giants.
Those kinds of lists are fine. In fact, they are great. It's a sign that good writing, good stories, last a lifetime. But here's the thing. I'm not necessarily inspired by the "greats". I read them, I admire them, I enjoy them, but they are not always the thing that pushes me to write.
Here are a few writers who do inspire me (and yes, you know many of them already from previous blog posts).
1. Andrea Lee author of Interesting Women, Sarah Phillips, Russian Journal, and Lost Hearts In Italy. I don't typically own first editions of every book a writer has ever written, but I have a first edition of every book this woman has every written. She is perhaps the writer who inspires me the most. When I sit in a cafe and prepare to write, I have a copy of Interesting Women. I also think I keep writing about her in the hopes that one day she will google herself and find my blog and we can be friends and parlare un po d'italiano insieme.
2. James Alan McPherson. Okay, I have almost every book he's ever written. I'm missing one. I have one first edition, and multiple copies of the same book in paperback, just in case someone I know needs one. Jim is a natural storyteller. You see it in his writing but if you ever get the chance to sit with him for any amount of time, he'll tell you a story like you've never heard. He might even tell you the same story a second time, but it'll be just as good, or better than the first. Elbow Room. You should own it.
3. Ryan Boudinot. I've said it before, I really like this dude. His stories kick ass. They stretch the imagination, they take you to places that don't exist and some that kind of do. When I read his stories (over and over sometimes) I'm never, ever bored. And that's what a real writer does. The Littlest Hitler.
4. ZZ Packer. Phenomenal. The stories in Drinking Coffee Elsewhere are biting, funny, intense, and plain old awesome. If you get the chance to hear her read out loud--you're lucky. When ZZ reads she fills the room with her words. This list has no order but if it did, she'd be closer to the top.
5. Jane Austen. I could read Pride and Prejudice over and over again. I have. I read it every couple of months so it can make me smile.
6. Joan Didion is my non fiction Queen. I used to pass out On Keeping a Notebook to all my students in Iowa in the hope that it would inspire them as it had inspired me. I think it worked occasionally.
7. Amy Bloom. I don't know what else to say. She's my Alice Munro. A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You is one of the best story collections I have ever read. Ever. I gave the title story to one of my classes a couple of years ago and a student (think 18 year old football fan from middle of nowhere Iowa) says, "I like stories like this because they're unsafe." He surprised the shit out of me but he was absolutely right.
8. Jhumpa Lahiri. The last time I came to the end of a book and all I felt was a tightening in my chest and my breath caught in my throat...was when I finished Crime and Punishment....and then I came to the last story in Unaccustomed Earth. Anis Shivani called Ms. Lahiri overrated. Anis Shivani is an ass.
9. Jonathan Franzen. How do I love thee? Let me count the many ways. I know, there's a lot of talk about his being overrated. And maybe there was no need to put him on the cover of Time or Newsweek or whatever. However, he tells a good story. They're never over written or underwritten. They're complex and still easy to follow. He makes it look seamless. The Twenty-Seventh City is one of my favorite books, The Corrections deserved all the praise it received. Freedom, broke my heart, put it back together and then had the nerve to break it again before righting itself once more. His essays are also captivating. So yes, I adore Jonathan Franzen. And this makes me just like Oprah (minus the money and international fame but I'm convinced that's coming too).
10. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Remember when I said there was a book that made my heart tighten in my chest and my breath catch in my throat? Well, it was Crime and Punishment. I read it the year I decided I wanted to become a writer. Even though I read a lot as a child, enough that I've always considered myself big reader, I don't remember ever feeling so deeply for a character in a book, especially not a character that was so vile. 2011 is the year I finish the Brothers K. This year, I'll settle for Notes from the Underground.
I'll probably add a few more to this list.
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