33 Writers Share The Books That Inspired Them To Write
"I thought, 'you can do that?!'"
Andrea Hickey / BuzzFeed
We asked writers at the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference which book inspired them to write. Here are their answers.
1. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
2. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
"I already knew, but she confirmed it."
3. Skin by Dorothy Allison
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
4. Under a Soprano Sky by Sonia Sanchez
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
5. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
6. And Her Soul Out Of Nothing by Olena Kalytiak Davis
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
7. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
8. The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
"Made writing seem possible."
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
10. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
11. Samuel Johnson Is Indignant by Lydia Davis
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
12. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
13. Dispatches by Michael Herr
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
14. Light in August by William Faulkner
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
"I thought, 'you can do that?!'"
15. Red Under the Skin by Natasha Sajé
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
16. Little Savage by Emily Fragos
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
17. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
18. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
19. The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
20. Punching Out by Jim Daniels
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
21. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
"Made me want to infuse every story with magic."
22. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
23. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
24. The World Doesn't End by Charles Simic
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
25. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
26. A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
27. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
28. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
29. Jane: A Murder by Maggie Nelson
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
"Gave me permission to be a weird girl. ♥"
30. Middlemarch by George Eliot
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
31. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
32. Sphere by Michael Crichton
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
33. Matilda by Roald Dahl
Isaac Fitzgerald / BuzzFeed
Are you a writer? Tell us which book inspired you to write in the comments below!
♥📚♥