“Literary influence...is the story of a writer’s deliberate attempt to find and make something like a literary home,” writes the poet, professor, and former director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in the preface to this collection. Writers seeking to make a literary home of their own will be inspired by Collier’s illuminating essays, written over the course of twenty years, which explore how he has been influenced by authors such as Louise Bogan, Jorge Luis Borges, William Meredith, and Walt Whitman. There are also essays on his experience as poet laureate of the state of Maryland and the importance of being a good reader.
