“‘Go see some live local music’” is the hourly recommendation from New Orleans radio station WWOZ, and it’s good advice, not only true to New Orleans
—where I recommend all writers live (although I moved away)—but also wherever you live. Cover the typewriter and leave the house; see what’s happening. Go to Joshua Tree to see Noah Purifoy’s sculptures decaying in the desert, then to L.A.’s Museum of Jurassic Technology. As for books, I think one is likely to find courage in Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives; the novels of Peter Handke; and the poets Roque Dalton, Evgeny Rein, and Adélia Prado.”
—Ed Skoog, author of Mister Skylight (Copper Canyon Press, 2009)