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.

Lydia Millet

10.19.11

“Typically my writing prompt is nothing fancy—just your basic same old, same old. Fear of death.

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Christian Wiman

10.11.11

“I never try to write. If the work isn’t urgent enough to make me sit down and work, I don’t want it.

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Christina Shea

10.5.11

“Maybe the one good thing about having ADD, as I do, is that you tend to draw inspiration from whatever you are focused on at the moment. 

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Joshua Baldwin

9.28.11

“Without fail, I am inspired to start writing a story in any hotel lobby, but particularly one with marble floors

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Leah Hager Cohen

9.21.11

“Humble labors help when my mind becomes overwrought, when my thoughts stop being good company

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Susan Daitch

9.14.11

“Sometimes inspiration comes from unpredictable sources that I wish were more easily and predictably harnessed.

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Alexander Maksik

9.7.11

“Before I was a writer, I tried to live like a writer and that was my great adolescent mistake.

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Bonnie Nadzam

8.31.11

“I honestly have no idea what it is that inspires me, but there have definitely been days and even years when it seemed nowhere to be found, because I was crowding it out. 

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Jim Daniels

8.24.11

“I treasure personal totems. The J. Geils Band’s album Bloodshot came out on red vinyl in 1973, and when I slide that bright record out of the sleeve, it takes me back

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Lee Martin

8.17.11

“The raw honesty and the gritty lyricism of any song by Lucinda Williams hotwires me to the ugly beauty of hearts in conflict.

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