Writers Recommend

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.

Laura van den Berg

11.18.09

“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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Debra Spark

11.11.09

“I am, for the first time in my writing life, consciously taking a break from writing.

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Dara Wier

11.4.09

“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

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John Haskell

10.28.09

“Over the years a number of things (film, theater, writing, music, etcetera) have become catalysts and have boosted me in my writing.

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Joshua Mohr

10.21.09

“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.

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Irene Sabatini

10.14.09

“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

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Adrian Matejka

10.8.09

“When I need poetic inspiration, I return to music. My go-to album these days is the Upsetters’ Super Ape

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Terese Svoboda

9.30.09

“Sitting at the desk. Naps. The painting over my desk shows a woman lying on a bed with her eyes closed

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Victor Lodato

9.16.09

“There’s a studio recording of Nina Simone singing ‘My Father’ that always knocks me out.

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