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.

Joni Murphy

6.11.25
“When you write your letters your goal is twofold: to communicate with your dear friend, and to form a shared portrait of another entity.
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Tiana Clark

5.28.25
“I try to reject the rote compulsion to plug my ears with wireless earbuds and listen to a podcast or music on my phone, so I can be present to the unspooling scenery daring to be named and noticed outside of my office.
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Sulaiman Addonia

5.14.25
“As I lose myself, the characters in my novels feel more real. It’s as if shedding parts of me allows their humanity to flourish.
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Vinh Nguyen

4.30.25
“A moment of laser focus here and then I can roam in the green pastures of other words elsewhere, which always feels like freedom.
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Felicia Zamora

4.16.25
“Thinking of the longevity of the work—collapsing linearity into the strange and false construct that it is—takes a large amount of pressure off of writing.
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Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

4.2.25
“I find photography archives most useful for jump-starting my writer’s engine in their total dissimilarity to prose—amateur snapshots from remote historical eras feel particularly effective as unofficial writing prompts.
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Mai Der Vang

3.19.25
“Somewhere in that daydream or meditation, I begin to channel ideas, words, phrases, and it often feels as if my ancestors are working with me and through me to say what needs to be said…
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Vidyan Ravinthiran

2.19.25
“If you’re not machinic then standstills and goings-astray are to be lived with and through.
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Tree Abraham

2.5.25
“When I am stuck, I return to these folders until envy thrusts me back to making, their luster still lingering on my fingertips so that my words pass through theirs as I type.
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