A couple that have come up recently in discussions have been ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ by Osttessa Moshfegh and ‘My Beautiful Friend’ by Elena Ferrante, both mentioned by a number of undergraduate students. I’m also struck by the way students are now drawing influence from video game narratives.
OK - so where I teach, Madeline Miller is practically our patron saint but for Achilles rather than Circe which I fear might freak out my undergrads. Chuck Palahniuk also very popular, inevitably with the boys especially. Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are all strong influences. Douglas Adams still features strongly. On craft agree Stephen King, also Atwood again and Jeff van der Meer. My colleagues are still strong on Raymond Carver and Joyce Carol Oates. Yes they've all read Gatsby but don't seem to remember ANYTHING.....I'v eeven had a student who couldnt remember ANY book she'd studied for A level. I've found that putting Doireen ni Griofa on a reading list is like lobbing in a hand-grenade.....
Some good reminders there, thanks. I've taught Annihilation by Jeff van der Meer for quite a few years, so I tend to see that as imposed rather than springing spontaneously. There's clearly a lot in common between our cohorts.
Am trying to think what my answer was in my first Birkbeck workshop: I definitely mentioned Rachel Cusk (specifically The Last Supper for me), Jennifer Egan (Goon Squad) and Jenny Offill (Dept of Speculation). (Mentioning books I would have cited)
As a reader, Toni Morrison would have been in there too (everything).
I’m curious to know the slant between “Writers admired by people who want to write.” and “Writers admired by people who want to have already written something.”
I feel both kinds at war in me and it’s not always clear which one is doing the thinking and planning, but it’s always clear which one is doing the writing.
Leslie Jamison is one I’d expect to start popping up, on the literary non-fiction side. And on memoir more widely I’d expect to see Cheryl Strayed, Deborah Levy, Raynor Winn (all for slightly different types of writer).
I wonder as well whether there’s a bit of a gender split. I’d assume Carver is more cited by male students, and Cusk by female?
I think it is interesting that many of these were cited in my MA, but would not have been obvious choices for my own reading (well not for many years, and if I didn’t teach). I was really annoyed about the emphasis on white male Americans (Carver, Hemingway, Fitzgerald) in the first unit and much preferred more diverse recommendations.
I have a strange feeling of reacting in two opposite directions at the same time. Half of me is concerned about the fact that the list has so many things which I haven't read but half of me is proud of the fact that my reading doesn't follow the latest trends.
I would be surprised if one could whittle such a list down to these 10 writers. I would assume passionate readers ie. those students wanting to write, wouldn't hesitate to mention not only contemporary writers but also some of the well known ‘stars’ found in the colossal range of brilliant lwriters in the English canon - for example; the Modernist ‘Goliath’s’: Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce etc or some of the major poets from Walt Whitman (and before, of crse) to Elizabeth Bishop, Hart Crane, Sylvia Plath, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes etc etc etc (Imagists not even included here). And what about Garcia Marquez? So many brilliant writers, I would think the list would be too long! ;)
A couple that have come up recently in discussions have been ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ by Osttessa Moshfegh and ‘My Beautiful Friend’ by Elena Ferrante, both mentioned by a number of undergraduate students. I’m also struck by the way students are now drawing influence from video game narratives.
OK - so where I teach, Madeline Miller is practically our patron saint but for Achilles rather than Circe which I fear might freak out my undergrads. Chuck Palahniuk also very popular, inevitably with the boys especially. Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are all strong influences. Douglas Adams still features strongly. On craft agree Stephen King, also Atwood again and Jeff van der Meer. My colleagues are still strong on Raymond Carver and Joyce Carol Oates. Yes they've all read Gatsby but don't seem to remember ANYTHING.....I'v eeven had a student who couldnt remember ANY book she'd studied for A level. I've found that putting Doireen ni Griofa on a reading list is like lobbing in a hand-grenade.....
oh, and R F Kuang is going down well too.
Some good reminders there, thanks. I've taught Annihilation by Jeff van der Meer for quite a few years, so I tend to see that as imposed rather than springing spontaneously. There's clearly a lot in common between our cohorts.
Am trying to think what my answer was in my first Birkbeck workshop: I definitely mentioned Rachel Cusk (specifically The Last Supper for me), Jennifer Egan (Goon Squad) and Jenny Offill (Dept of Speculation). (Mentioning books I would have cited)
As a reader, Toni Morrison would have been in there too (everything).
I’m curious to know the slant between “Writers admired by people who want to write.” and “Writers admired by people who want to have already written something.”
I feel both kinds at war in me and it’s not always clear which one is doing the thinking and planning, but it’s always clear which one is doing the writing.
Leslie Jamison is one I’d expect to start popping up, on the literary non-fiction side. And on memoir more widely I’d expect to see Cheryl Strayed, Deborah Levy, Raynor Winn (all for slightly different types of writer).
I wonder as well whether there’s a bit of a gender split. I’d assume Carver is more cited by male students, and Cusk by female?
I think it is interesting that many of these were cited in my MA, but would not have been obvious choices for my own reading (well not for many years, and if I didn’t teach). I was really annoyed about the emphasis on white male Americans (Carver, Hemingway, Fitzgerald) in the first unit and much preferred more diverse recommendations.
I have a strange feeling of reacting in two opposite directions at the same time. Half of me is concerned about the fact that the list has so many things which I haven't read but half of me is proud of the fact that my reading doesn't follow the latest trends.
I would be surprised if one could whittle such a list down to these 10 writers. I would assume passionate readers ie. those students wanting to write, wouldn't hesitate to mention not only contemporary writers but also some of the well known ‘stars’ found in the colossal range of brilliant lwriters in the English canon - for example; the Modernist ‘Goliath’s’: Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce etc or some of the major poets from Walt Whitman (and before, of crse) to Elizabeth Bishop, Hart Crane, Sylvia Plath, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes etc etc etc (Imagists not even included here). And what about Garcia Marquez? So many brilliant writers, I would think the list would be too long! ;)