Ed Skoog
“‘Go see some live local music’” is the hourly recommendation from New Orleans radio station WWOZ, and it’s good advice, not only true to New Orleans
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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.
“‘Go see some live local music’” is the hourly recommendation from New Orleans radio station WWOZ, and it’s good advice, not only true to New Orleans
“After years of thinking setting didn’t inspire me at all, I have come to realize that it does—but only after I’m gone.
“For some poetic guidance I always find myself going back to books like the Orphan Factory and Selected Early Poems by Charles Simic; also, Reasons for Moving and The Weather of Words by Mark Strand.
“When I first moved to Philadelphia, a friend of mine was very excited to show me Marcel Duchamp’s assemblage Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage... in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“Like most writers—specifically parents who are writers—I don’t have a lot of time to find inspiration.
“It helps me to remember that inspiration needs courting; it won’t come if I wait passively.
“There is phenomenal beauty in the language developed for a particular field—whether it’s architecture, dentistry, tree pruning, or accounting.
“I’m thoroughly inspired, moved, agitated, elevated by music (mostly hip-hop).
“Notes—on Post-its, index cards, scraps of paper—have saved me as a writer.