[December meme] three favorite authors
ravenela prompted: Tell me about your three favorite authors.
I don't have just three favorite authors; I love the work of lots of different authors for lots of different reasons. But I can tell you about three of my many favorite authors.
Jenny Crusie is one of my favorite romance writers. I mostly read historicals, but I make an exception for her. Her characters are fun, her dialogue snappy, her perspective unabashedly feminist. These are not romances where the only two people who really matter are The Couple; the female lead, in particular, always has strong connections with other people -- friends, relatives -- and that sense that the characters have lives and commitments outside each other is part of what makes Crusie's books so appealing to me. Plus: hot.
bell hooks is one of my favorite feminist theorists and cultural critics. She has written a staggering number of books at this point, and I haven't been able to keep up with them all, but I've learned something from each of the ones I've read. Teaching to Transgress is my favorite, not just because it's brilliant, though it is, but because I read it at exactly the right time in my life and career; it transformed my understanding of my work and my reasons for doing it. Talking Back and Feminist Theory are also really important to me, and her recent-ish work on love as well.
Mark Doty writes better in two genres (poetry and nonfiction) than most people can hope to write in one. I've posted a number of his poems over the years, and will let them speak for themselves. His first memoir, Heaven's Coast, is the single most beautiful book about love and grief that I have ever read.
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