Gabriela Escobar asked Zeyn Joukhadar:

Congratulations on your novel The Map of Salt and Stars! I heard about it a month ago, here, in Brazil, and I was very excited to read it. When I finally did, every single page met my expectations! Thanks for writing this work of art. Travelling with Nur and seeing the world through her eyes was an unique experience. You are such a great writer! Who are the authors that inspired you to become one?

Zeyn Joukhadar Thank you very much for reading and for your kind words! I've been inspired by many authors over the years. When I was young, I loved Tamora Pierce's The Song of the Lioness books, about a girl who dresses as a boy and runs away to become a knight; I was also a big fan of Tolkien's The Hobbit and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. The authors who have had the biggest influence on my work as an adult are probably Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, Gabriel García Márquez, Toni Morrison, Rabih Alameddine, and Randa Jarrar, because they (among many others) have expanded (& continue to expand) my sense of what is possible, over and over again.

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