We don’t know about you, but we’re always in the market for a new literary discovery. And when you’re on the hunt for a new book or a new writer to delve into, who better to ask than the folks who make their livings reading and writing themselves? With that in mind, we asked a few of the most important living New York authors to name-drop some of their favorite living New York authors — and what do you know? We have a few in common. After the jump, find out who 35 amazing NYC-based authors keep on their nightstands, and let us know your own favorite NYC writers in the comments.
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Emma Straub
“Jennifer Egan, though Lorrie Moore will be teaching at NYU this spring, so that could get a little dicey. Let’s call it a tie so that the twin goddesses’ feelings don’t get hurt.”
Jami Attenberg
“Tough question! I have so many favorites and also a fear of intimacy, so it will be difficult for me to declare my love for just one. I know Auster and Gaitskill have felt important to me in my life, but there are just so many more. Also, people leave town — Kate Christensen comes to mind — but I will think of them as New Yorkers forever.”
Darin Strauss
“E.L. Doctorow/DeLillo, if Bronxville counts.”
Amy Hempel
“Sharon Olds.”
Téa Obreht
“I remember reading Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children at a turning point in my relationship to fiction — it blew me away, of course, but it was also the first book that made me aware writers could be living and significant at the same time. This sounds ridiculous, but for a teenager making the jump from thinking about writing as something people did to something people do, it made a great deal of difference.”
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