I believe deeply in the importance of community as a way to bolster our creativity and to ask better questions. As such, I get inspired by a great many people and a great many things, and I’ve compiled an incomplete but relatively comprehensive list here of folks who inspire me, as well as books, films, and artwork that have long informed my work and my approach to process. My hope in sharing these muses with you is to give you a better understanding of what drives my work and where my words find kin.
... books
E.J. Koh's The Magical Language of Others
Jen Soriano's Nervous
Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Sarah Manguso's Ongoingness
Julie Otsuka's The Swimmers
Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams
Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Sigrid Nunez's A Feather on the Breath of God
... films
Celine Song's Past Lives
Lulu Wang's The Farewell
Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind