weird question: do you have a recommended reading list or formative books/works that you return to as a writer? i admire your proses and how you set up scenes so much!
hi anon! not a weird ask at all (i love talking about writing, i miss teaching it!) and therefore a long answer incoming. thank you for your compliment, that means a lot to me.
i will give you some of the works of writing i either return to often or feel have influenced me (separated into short fiction & novels/novellas). this won't be an exhaustive list, and some of these i haven't revisited within the last year. i have not included writing craft books or poetry collections this time, but i recommend reading those as well (though craft books are tricky).
before the list i think there are some helpful things to consider:
oftentimes i read a work, and it touches me deeply. rarely do i know immediately what it is i want to learn from it. i try to do a read through for "enjoyment" and one for "craft." learning to pick out what you like about a piece of writing is a skill and of itself. during grad school, the book recommended to me to help me do so was reading like a writer by francine prose. however, reading that book will do nothing if we don't put it into practice, of course. i have even done this in the past with fanfiction authors i like! if you have specific parts of my writing that have compelled you (this sounds very self-absorbed but since this is the basis of your ask...) i am more than happy to answer questions about how i approach those personally, as well.
typically when i read a book and it stands out to me, it's for one of these reasons:
- "good prose" usually attributed to a great sense of rhythm, immersive detail work, "this just fucking sounds good" and some myriad of other things
- "point of view" or doing anything with it that is interesting and unusual, such as the collective "we", etc. pov that reinforces something about the story
- "structure" such as fiction in verse, short scenes versus long, how a work approaches chapters/sections, epistolary works
- "voice" the definition of which can be argued over and has been for decades. the way i think of voice is--how do all these things, such as diction and point of view and structure, sound together? does the author have specific trends within their writing? how close or far removed is the voice of the narrator (not necessarily the same as the author) to the point of view character? does the writing shift along with pov change?
- i don't like the terms "show versus tell," however, i think there's something to say about "restraint" and authors who know what to include in greater detail, and what can be "summarized" and find a balance between these that helps the story not feel stale or slow.
- "character work" the author is capable of creating characters that feel real and nuanced and make me care.
- and the "something about this compels me, it's just that good" cop out
with all of that said, here is a (incomplete) list of works which i feel have taught me something about writing in the last few years. some of these are available online for free, but not all of them. listed in no particular order. some are translated works.
short/flash fiction
dog days by judy budnitz
silver spaceships by mary o'connell
exotics by dantiel w moniz, but also milk blood heat
the hunter's wife by anthony doerr
the axe handle remembers the tree by emily hancock
playing metal gear solid v by jamil jan kochai
house of cicadas by gabriela lee
good, brother by peter markus
my mother rearranges strangers’ lives in the dark by samanta schweblin
the red fox fur coat by teolinda gersão
blood by zdravka evtimova
story of your life by ted chiang
song for the unraveling of the world by brian evenson
novels/novellas
autobiography of red by anne carson
aura by carlos fuentes
folding beijing by hao jingfang
anil's ghost by michael ondaatje
mongrels by stephen graham jones
someone who isn't me by geoff rickly
my year of meats by ruth ozeki
beartown by fredrik backman
a man called ove by fredrik backman
star by yukio mishima
out stealing horses by per petterson
the clan of the cave bear by jean m. auel
the buddha in the attic by julie otsuka
the hungry tide by amitav ghosh
the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw
the saint of bright doors by vajra chandrasekera
i gave you eyes and you looked toward darkness by irene solà
it lasts forever and then it's over by anne de marcken
our wives under the sea by julia armfield
collections which include some of the short stories mentioned, but that are also good in their entirety:
the best american short stories 2023 edited by min jin lee (also check out the one from 2022! i tend to buy these every year)
new sudden fiction edited by robert shapard & james thomas
like i said, not at all comprehensive, but i have read every work on here at least once. if people have books or stories they like, please send them my way. i could go on but i am exercising some "restraint" here.
i have about 150 unread books at home (trophies from working at a bookstore) i am also slowly making my way through; many of those i expect to end up on this list, even if only for a few years. they have compelled me in the first few pages or chapters, so here is a list of "soon to be reads" which might intrigue you, too. some new, some old:
- ghost roots by pemi aguda
- terrestrial history by joe mungo reed
- the road by cormac mccarthy
- lake like a mirror by ho sok fong
- in the absence of men by philippe besson
- dogs at the perimeter by madeleine thien
- convenience store woman by sayaka murata
- ghachar ghochar by vivek shanbhag
- whereabouts by jhumpa lahiri
- the emissary by yoko tawada
- oh god, the sun goes by david connor
i read a lot of short stories, specifically in online literary magazines. you might notice i am very fond of short stories. books are expensive and we can't always buy all the ones we want, but there is excellent writing available for free, and if you are able to donate to keep those magazines running, even better. some places i turn to frequently when looking for inspiration is: the adroit journal, uncanny magazine, electric literature, and clarkesworld.
hope this helps! thank you.
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
jbbartram-illu
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
titsay
dededos
romaincrisis
