So…choosing your author is really important. Like, really, really important. Your only homework this weekend is to browse and sample authors that you may want to study for this next, upcoming, projecty thing. That’s intentional. You need to spend time on this. To help you get started on this path, I’m giving you this list of authors. You’re welcome. Worth noting: this list is in no particular order other then how these authors’ books were arranged on my bookshelves and/or in my brain. There’s no dewey decimal system in either of those places. Some of them we’ve read, some of them have written in lots of genres — you’ll need to pick up their nonfiction works: essay, memoir, biography. Some are funny some are not. You need to browse. Sample. Read excerpts. Â Choose an author whose work you enjoy and understand. Choose an author you can spend time studying. You will have some class time before break to read and dig in. This will be due shortly after break. More details to come.
- Cynthia Kaplan
- George Orwell
- Barbara Ehrenreich
- Dave Eggers
- John McPhee
- Augusten Burroughs
- Jenny Lawson
- Chuck Klosterman
- David Foster Wallace
- Joseph Mitchell
- David Rakoff
- Sarah Vowell
- George Saunders
- Eula Biss
- Laurie Notaro
- Pam Houston
- Deborah Blum
- Tom Wolfe
- Joan Didion
- David Sedaris
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Bill Bryson
- Dave Barry
- Michael Pollan
- Bernard Cooper
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Mary Roach
- Rachel Carson
- Richard Dawkins
- Annie Dillard
- Jack El-Hai
- Tracy Kidder
- Bell Hooks
- Toure
- Sloane Crosley
- Nora Ephron
- Meghan Daum
- Steve Martin
- Gore Vidal
- Anna Quindlen
- William Hazlitt
- Phillip Lopate
- Adam Gopnik
- Anne Lamott
- Pico Iyer
- E. B. White
- Susan Sontag
- Shirley Jackson
- Charles Dickens
- Nick Hornby
- Nick Flynn
- Jo Ann Beard
Check out goodreads.com for some quick bios.
Some other names appear on this list. I have not read everything ever written so I don’t know lots of these names, but still…you can explore.
Yeah, Write. 
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