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Ten Breaths of Inspiration for the Writing Life
BY MAGAZINE COLUMNIST CORINNA BARSAN
Throughout the past year all the wonderful authors who stopped by the Lit Mat gave us their must-read books that shouldn’t be missed. With the holidays just around the bend, here are those titles compiled in one nifty list along with some of my favorite quotes of 2011.
We know you still have gifts to buy and stockings to stuff—so why not give the gift of literature. Fruit cake lasts a week, a book lasts a lifetime. And don’t forget a little something, something for yourself (after all you have to take care of number one).
Happy Holidays!
Belle Yang
author of Forget Sorrow
Writing can make you crazy and then it goes on to make you whole. It can give you backbone. It can make you more courageous in the world, because your words can cause emperors on their thrones to tremble.”
Read the rest of Belle’s interview: On The Lit Mat: Belle Yang
Belle recommends:
The Complete Short Novels by Anton Chekhov
Emma Straub
author of Other People We Married
Keep your butt in the chair. I am a twitchy person by nature, and find it nearly impossible to sit still for longer than five minutes, but if I stay put long enough, work magically gets done. A stronger woman than I would also say that turning off the internet works wonders, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.”
Read the rest of Emma’s interview On The Lit Mat: Emma Straub
Emma recommends:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser
Stoner by John Williams
Claire Dederer
author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses
There’s an old quote from Woody Allen: ‘Is sex dirty? Only if you’re doing it right.’ Here’s what I’ve learned about writing: ‘Does writing make you crazy? Only if you’re doing it right.’”
Read the rest of Claire’s interview On The Lit Mat: Claire Dederer
Claire recommends:
“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, Where I’m Calling From: Selected Stories
Jeffrey Rotter
author of The Unknown Knowns
Ideas operate in an atomistic, clustering way. I think of those molecular models with the balls and sticks. You get new ideas when memories, sensations, reading—whatever—connect in unexpected ways. If I think of inspiration in those terms, as long as I’m putting something in, something will come out.”
Read the rest of Jeffrey’s interview On The Lit Mat: Jeffrey Rotter
Jeffrey recommends:
The Literary Conference by Cèsar Aira
Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser
Joanna Smith Rakoff
author of A Fortunate Age
Both yoga and writing are, of course, practices: Activities in which one needs to engage with less focus on accomplishment and end product and more on the actual moment . . . Writing is often like being in an uncomfortable pose for a long, long time and I sometimes have to tell myself to just be here now.”
Read the rest of Joanna’s interview On The Lit Mat: Joanna Smith Rakoff
Joanna recommends:
A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell
Ada Limón
author of Sharks in the Rivers
I suppose ‘listen’ is the word that defines that act of writing for me. It’s this very odd thing to listen to the sounds the world makes, the sound you make in the world. But it’s absolutely necessary to do so if you’re interested in writing work that is honest and uniquely your own.”
Read the rest of Ada’s interview On The Lit Mat: Ada Limón
Ada recommends:
The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White
Alan Heathcock
author of Volt
Do not look beyond yourself for validation. Be brave enough to take yourself seriously. The moment you decide to look fearlessly inward, to take yourself seriously, you will stop imitating others and will become original.”
Read the rest of Alan’s interview On The Lit Mat: Alan Heathcock
Alan recommends:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Marcy Dermansky
author of Bad Marie
I don’t believe in inspiration. Like a bell dinging. I believe in sitting in front of my computer and forcing myself to work. And then, when I am working, almost always, that is when the inspiration comes.”
Read the restof Marcy’s interview On The Lit Mat: Marc Dermansky
Marcy recommends:
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson
Seth Fried
author of The Great Frustration
The most important thing I’ve learned is that failure is an essential part of the creative process. After you’ve finished something, you’re always going to feel like you didn’t completely express yourself. And that’s a good thing.”
Read the rest of Seth’s interview On The Lit Mat: Seth Fried
Seth recommends:
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Helon Habila
author of Oil on Water
Earlier in life stories made me realize that the world is not as random and formless as it may seem, there is always a story, a logic, if you care to look for it. When I sit down to write I am trying to find for myself, and for the reader, the story of how my characters got to where they ended up.”
Read the rest of Helon’s interview On The Lit Mat: Helon Habila
Helon recommends
Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera
Lisa Brackmann
author of Rock Paper Tiger
Sometimes it’s really necessary to go to a painful place to make the writing work. No matter what you do, you can’t just hide behind craft.”
Read the rest of Lisa’s interview On The Lit Mat: Lisa Brackmann
Lisa recommends
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Eleanor Henderson
author of Ten Thousand Saints
If you spend weeks away from a writing project, you have to relearn the world every time you return to it, finding your way back to the characters. So this is why I find it important to keep a story alive in my mind in some way, even if I’m not actually writing every day.”
Read the rest of Eleanor’s interview On The Lit Mat: Eleanor Henderson
Eleanor recommends:
The Walking People by Mary Beth Keane
Rikki Ducornet
author of Netsuke
Writing is all about thinking and it is about deep living. It is about autonomy and eros and fearlessness.”
Read the rest of Rikki’s interview On The Lit Mat: Rikki Ducornet
Rikki recommends
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Jesse Ball
author of The Curfew
Careful making is something I adore and encourage. But the work must be let go. If you believe your cache is limited, it will be. If you feel you can always create, it is more likely to be so.”
Read the rest of Jesse’s interview On The Lit Mat: Jesse Ball
Jesse recommends:
Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow
Danzy Senna
author of You Are Free
I practice yoga. It has taught me an enormous amount about living and about writing. It has taught me humility. It has taught me about commitment to a practice.”
Read the rest of Danzy’s interview On The Lit Mat: Danzy Senna
Danzy recommends:
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Katharine Weber
author of The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family’s Legacy of Infidelities
Each time I write a novel I have to learn (which is to say I have to teach myself) how to write that novel.”
Read the rest of Katharine’s interview On The Lit Mat: Katharine Weber
Katharine recommends:
Puddnhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Stuart Nadler
author of The Book of Life
So much of a writer’s life happens away from the page. All of my best ideas come when I’m not at the computer. All of them.”
Read the rest of Stuart’s interview On The Lit Mat: Stuart Nadler
Stuart recommends:
Cloud, Atlas by David Mitchell
Lauren Shockey
author of Four Kitchens: My Life Behind the Burner in New York, Hanoi, Tel Aviv, and Paris
Your work will be rejected many, many, many times before it’s accepted. But remember that just because one person doesn’t like your book doesn’t mean that thousands of other readers won’t love it.”
Read the rest of Lauren’s interview On The Lit Mat: Lauren Shockey
Lauren recommends:
Immortality by Milan Kundera
Kirsten Kaschock
author of Sleight
I have more mental stamina when I am doing regular yoga practice or ballet. I have more tools to work through issues that come up in the writing. I get less frustrated.”
Read the rest of Kirsten’s interview On The Lit Mat: Kirsten Kaschock
Kirsten recommends:
The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
Jesse Browner
author of Everything Happens Today
Nothing in writing is indispensable, and every word and every sentence have to justify themselves; if they cannot, they must be sacrificed. The writing is not about your ego; it is about the words on the page.”
Read the rest of Jesse’s interview On The Lit Mat: Jesse Browner
Jesse recommends:
Skylark by Dezso Kosztolanyi
Terese Svoboda
author of Bohemian Girl
Free-write—really free-write, no crossing your T’s, dotting I’s—as fast as you can for ten minutes without stopping totally eliminates the terror of the blank page. Can you talk? You can write. Edit later.”
Read the rest of Terese’s interview On The Lit Mat: Terese Svoboda
Terese recommends:
If on a Winters Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Everyone’s Pretty by Lydia Millet
Erin Byers Murray
author of Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm
My yoga will either sing or suffer depending on where I put my mind at the beginning of a practice; the same goes for my writing.”
Read the rest of Erin’s interview On The Lit Mat: Erin Byers Murray
Erin recommends:
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Carmela Ciuraru
author of Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms
It has also come to my attention that eating a bit of dark chocolate during the writing process can significantly improve the quality of your prose — or at least your own perception of your prose, which is what matters.”
Read the rest of Carmela’s interview On The Lit Mat: Carmela Ciuraru
Carmela recommends:
To the Lighthouse
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Lucky Jim
Scoop
Exercises in Style
The Book of Disquiet
Wild Iris
Revolutionary Road
The Silent Woman
Housekeeping
The Dream of the Unified Field
Days of Abandonment
The Beauty of the Husband
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
The pause that refreshes! You can find Corinna Barsan’s musings and discoveries on her blog at Shiny White Page.
We may publish any content, comments or ideas sent to us.
Name may be withheld by request.
© 2011, The Magazine of Yoga, LLC.
