My Favorite Writers:

I have too many favorites!

Daphne DeMaurier, George Elliot, Thomas Hardy, Louisa May Alcott, and Charlotte Bronte, just to name a few who kept me company in the old abandoned Ford, my hiding place in the corn field as a young girl. I want to read them all again! And then I found the books of Herman Hesse and D.H. Lawrence while I was a high school student. I like reading short stories that can either be akin to a refreshing summer shower or being in a frightening thunderstorm. Raymond Carver can be minimalist and stark, but his characters are so real that I think I am reading about people I've known throughout my life, mostly the unpleasant ones, I have to admit. Nevertheless, his writing about these suburban slugs offers them a little dignity. James Thurber writes about the laughable and pathetic eccentricities of his characters, especially in the story, The Night the Bed Fell. Flannery O'Connor's stories take me on a roller coaster ride, my heart beating out of my chest as I am privy to the sacred and scarred souls of her characters. Contemporary writers such as Sena Jeter Naslund, Regina McBride, Susan Vreeland, and Sue Monk Kidd are writers that keep me looking for their new books at Barnes & Noble bookstores. There are the Irish writers, which are also too many to mention. Some of the ones I especially like are the short stories of Liam O'Flaherty, Sean O'Faolain, and Frank O'Connor. The contemporary Celtic theologian and poet, John O'Donohue's books have been my church over the last few years. My favorite Irish poets are William Butler Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh. I also treasure the poems of Mary Oliver and Robert Frost. I can't forget to mention all the children's books from Charlotte's Web to The Wind in the Willows, as well as the children's writers, Lois Lowry, Karen Hesse, and Cynthia Rylant.

Return to Reflections On Writing.