Eileen Chang. I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately, probably because I’m trying to make sense of my own writing and where it fits into the world. Chang’s work has always fascinated me – not just because of its…
I’ve always been fascinated by Nikolaus Copernicus, but not for the reasons you might think. It’s not his groundbreaking heliocentric model that sparks my interest – although I do appreciate how it challenged the conventional thinking of his time. No,…
Dorothy Richardson has been a constant companion of mine for what feels like an eternity, yet I’m still not entirely sure why she fascinates me so deeply. Maybe it’s the way her words dance across the page, weaving intricate narratives…
I’ve always been drawn to the enigmatic figure of Stéphane Mallarmé, a poet who defies easy comprehension. His writing is like a maze I find myself getting lost in, yet somehow it’s exactly where I want to be. As I…
I’ve been reading about Ernst Junger for weeks now, and I’m still not sure what to make of him. At first, it was the words that caught my attention – his writing is like a puzzle I want to solve.…
I have always admired Jane Addams, but not because she fits neatly into the familiar image of a historical hero. What draws me to her is something quieter and, perhaps, more difficult to explain. She possessed an uncommon willingness to…
I remember stumbling upon his book “The Divine Milieu” in a used bookstore during my junior year of college. The title itself was what caught my eye – it sounded both obscure and familiar at the same time. As I…
I’ve always been fascinated by Gwendolyn Brooks’ unflinching gaze at the world around her. As a writer, I know that observation is key to crafting compelling stories – but it’s one thing to observe life, and another to bear witness…
I’ve always been drawn to Frederick Douglass, but it’s his humanity that really gets me. His life was a litany of horrors, and yet he wrote about them with such elegance, precision, and compassion. I find myself wondering how someone…
Johannes Brahms. I’ve always been fascinated by him, but it’s not just his music that draws me in – it’s the contradictions and complexities that surround his life. As someone who’s struggled with perfectionism and self-doubt, I find myself drawn…
I’ve been thinking about Simone Signoret a lot lately, ever since I stumbled upon her name while scrolling through an old film database. Something about it resonated with me – the way she spoke about her life, her relationships, and…
Henry James. Where do I even begin? It’s not that he’s a household name for me, but somehow his work has seeped into my consciousness over the years. Maybe it’s because my English lit professor, Dr. Thompson, had an obsession…
I’ve been thinking a lot about Peter Handke lately, trying to understand what draws me to him. It’s not just his writing – though that’s certainly a big part of it. I mean, have you read “Offending the Audience”? The…
I’ve been fascinated by Georges Perec for a while now, but it’s only recently that I started to grasp why he holds such a peculiar allure for me. It began with his novel “A Void”, which I stumbled upon in…
Elaine Scarry’s name keeps popping up in my writing workshops, always in the context of her work on pain and its relationship to language. At first, I found it fascinating – who wouldn’t want to explore the intricate dance between…
I still remember the day I stumbled upon Paul Valéry’s poetry in a dusty corner of the university library. I was browsing through a collection of modernist works, searching for something that resonated with me, and his name kept popping…
Natalie Zemon Davis – the name has a way of sticking with me long after I’ve finished reading about her work on historical events like the French Renaissance and the witch trials. As an English major, I was initially drawn…
I’ve always been fascinated by E.M. Forster’s life, but not in the way you’d expect. I don’t get caught up in his literary successes or the scandal of his relationships – although, I have to admit, those things do pique…
Marguerite Duras. Her name has been lingering in my mind for a while now, like a fragment of a sentence that refuses to be forgotten. I think it started when I stumbled upon her novel “The Lover” in a used…
I still remember stumbling upon Werner Heisenberg’s name while reading about the development of quantum mechanics. At first, I was drawn to the abstract concepts – wave-particle duality, uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger’s cat. But as I delved deeper into his…
