Laura van den Berg
“Seek out influence. When I’m stuck on how to do something, I’ll reread a book that accomplishes what I am attempting
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In this online exclusive we ask authors to share books, art, music, writing prompts, films—anything and everything—that has inspired them in their writing. We see this as a place for writers to turn to for ideas that will help feed their creative process.
“Seek out influence. When I’m stuck on how to do something, I’ll reread a book that accomplishes what I am attempting
“I am, for the first time in my writing life, consciously taking a break from writing.
“My childhood location, south of New Orleans, on the banks of the Mississippi River leaned me toward inclinations I think help with poetry’s desires
“Over the years a number of things (film, theater, writing, music, etcetera) have become catalysts and have boosted me in my writing.
“I'm not sure many people think of insomnia as a good thing, but it is. As a ‘sufferer,’ I'm up until five or six in the morning almost daily.
“I wrote The Boy Next Door in Geneva, Switzerland and one of the biggest challenges for me was to capture the essence of life in Zimbabwe, particularly the second largest city, Bulawayo, in the eighties, which was a delicate period: optimism and hope (Zimbabwe was newly independent after a
“When I need poetic inspiration, I return to music. My go-to album these days is the Upsetters’ Super Ape
“Sitting at the desk. Naps. The painting over my desk shows a woman lying on a bed with her eyes closed
“My sense these days is that I’m constantly inspired by all kinds of things
“There’s a studio recording of Nina Simone singing ‘My Father’ that always knocks me out.