What is "Doom Eager"?

Lorrie Moore, from "Better and Sicker"
"Martha Graham speaks of the Icelandic term "doom eager" to denote that ordeal of isolation, restlessness, caughtness and artistic experiences when he or she is sick with an idea. When a writer is doom eager, the writing won't be sludge on the page; it will give readers -- and the writer, of course, is the very first reader -- an experience they've never had before, or perhaps a little and at last the words for an experience they have."

Thursday, August 5, 2010

books and writers that make us want to write

"Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer. And long after you've become a writer, reading books others write -- and rereading the beloved books of the past -- constitutes an irresistible distraction from writing. Distraction. Consolation. Torment. And, yes, inspiration." - Susan Sontag

A few books that made me want to write (in no particular order):

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Beloved and Paradise - Toni Morrison
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons
Kate Vaiden - Reynolds Price
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursala Le Quin
Romeo & Juliet - William Shakespeare

Add to this list the short stories of Flannery O'Conner, Edgar Alan Poe, Angela Carter, and Ray Bradbury and the poetry of e. e. cummings, Robert Frost, and Sylvia Plath.

Keep reading, keep writing, and keep the literary faith.
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