Your influences?

[Rona]

Hey all! Thanks for joining my first group on Goodreads. Not sure how active I will be with this group but I figure even if we only use it every once in a while we'll have some good discussions nonetheless. And it helps me keep in contact about books/reading/writing with those of you that don't have blogs!

I only ask this because I know you're all writers: who are your major influences in terms of literary fiction writers of color? Who has made you want to write or opened your eyes to the possibilites of writing, either through their own writing or your study with them (or both)? Here are some of mine (alpha by last name):

Chris Abani
James Baldwin
Octavia Butler
Toni Cade Bambara
Kiana Davenport
Samuel Delaney
Junot Diaz
Chitra Divakaruni
Jessica Hagedorn
Maxing Hong Kingston
Nalo Hopkinson
Zora Neale Hurston
Toni Morrison
Salman Rushdie

Hope you're all well and writing (and / or reading) lots!

Peace,
Rona

[Ebony]

I love Langston Hughes. "A Dream Deferred" speaks to me.
I also love Tananarive Due as well as James Patterson. I am a visual person and I appreciate a story that is written so beautifully that I can SEE what is happening in my head as well as hear the voices of the characters.

[Rona]

I've been meaning to get around to Tananarive Due. I've heard good things about her and appreciate the range of topics she's tackled. She and Nalo Hopkinson seem to have both been unofficially designated the heirs to Octavia Butler's formidable status as 'mistress of Black feminist speculative fiction'.

[J.R.]

J.California Cooper's exceptional talent for storytelling does more than influences me... she free's my mind from all negativity. I too, am a fan of Tananarive Due's work.

Others:

Bernice L. McFadden
Jamaica Kincaid(she exposes raw honesty like no author, and I love it!)
James Baldwin
Toni Morrison
Octavia Butler
Zora Neale Hurston
Alice Walker