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