Though it’s long since faded, James confesses his grad school-era jealousy of Matt. Once they clear that up, they discuss how Matt arrived at his voice and how he learned to write his marvelous sentences. They celebrate writing as work and the spaces in their lives that stories occupy. Then, Stephanie Appell from Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, discusses the history of YA books and makes some recommendations.

Matt and James Discuss: 

Aimee Bender

Kurt Vonnegut

Amy Hempel

Raymond Carver

JESUS’ SON by Denis Johnson

REEL by Tobias Carroll

“The Sentence is a Lonely Place” by Gary Lutz

“The Geography of Sentences” by Emily Brisse

ARTFUL SENTENCES: SYNTAX AS STYLE by Virginia Tufte

Gordon Lish

Sam Lipsyte

Christine Schutt

Brian Evenson

Michael Kimball

Diane Williams

“Human Behavior” by Bjork, dir by Michel Gondry

Kate Bernheimer

Joyelle McSweeney

Laird Hunt

FENCE

“Where’s Iago?” by Susan Neville

Laura van den Berg

 

Stephanie and James Discuss:  

LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK dir by Ron Howard

THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton

Horatio Alger

PREP by Curtis Sittenfeld

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak

James Patterson

SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson

I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson

THE ASTONISHING TALE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING by M.T. Anderson

A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly

Marcus Sedgwick

Nova Ren Suma

Ashley Herring Blake

SEX AND VIOLENCE by Carrie Mesrobian

Siobban Vivian

THE RAVEN CYCLE series by Maggie Stiefvater