Influential Authors

This exercise is going around Facebook, but I'd rather post it here.

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who have always influenced you and will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes, and they don't have to be listed in order of relevance to you.

1. Madeleine L’Engle
2. Richard Rodriguez
3. Annie Dillard
4. JRR Tolkien
5. Elizabeth Kadetsky (in person)
6. Flannery O’Connor
7. Anne Lamott
8. Kathleen Norris
9. Elizabeth Gilbert (not in a good way)
10. Father Thomas Ryan (in person & in book)
11. Louis L’Amour (influence? maybe not – stick with me? yup)
12. Sister Elaine MacInnes
13. Lila Abu-Lughod
14. Patricia E Wrede & Robin McKinley
15. Maxine Hong Kingston (in person & in book)