San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Amanda Gorman shares her reading list
Inaugural poet, who has a new book out, on her inspirations from childhood and today
Q:
What books are on your night stand? A:
“Alexander Hamilton,” by Ron Chernow, and “Othello,” by Shakespeare. I could read those every night.
Q:
What’s the last great book you read? A:
“Postcolonial Love Poem,” by Natalie Diaz.
Q:
Who are your favorite writers — novelists, essayists, critics, memoirists, poets — working today? A:
Oh wow, there’s so many! Some are Ocean Vuong, Clint Smith, Madeline Miller, Tracy K. Smith, Jeremy O. Harris and Roxane Gay.
Q:
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). A: A fireplace is crackling nearby, I have warm tea in my hands, a blanket over my lap and a thick, well-loved book in my hands.
Q:
When did you start reading poetry? What books made you fall in love with poetry? A:
I actually started writing poetry before I started reading it, mostly because at the time poetry wasn’t something that was taught robustly in my classrooms. Around middle school a writing mentor introduced me to the writing of Sonia Sanchez and gave me a book of her new and selected poems, “Shake Loose My Skin.” I fell in love with it and reread it every day. After that I got my hands on a copy of “Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of African American Poetry,” and I just had this feeling of: Oh, these are my people. Q:
Are there poets for whom you’ve gained greater appreciation over time? A:
Shakespeare, hands down, which might seem a bit elementary since he occupies such a center stage in literature. Yet for the longest time I was ambivalent, if not outright dubious, of Shakespeare, for that very same reason. He just felt like another ancient dead White guy that my teachers were trying to shove into my brain when I was desperate to read someone who looked like me. When I was in college, I had this moment of thinking: If you’re going to close yourself off to an author, at least read them to understand why. I owed that to myself and to literature. So I pushed myself to take a course called Global Shakespeare, taught by Dr. Leah Whittington, and I fell in love. I think it was finally being able to read Shakespeare through a global, racial and gendered lens that made me see him anew.
Q:
If you were to write something besides poetry, what would it be? A: Novels. Novel writing was my original love, and I still hope to do it. I just typically can finish writing a single poem faster than I can an entire narrative book!
Q:
Do you count any books as guilty pleasures? A:
Not really. Maybe young adult novels, though I don’t consider this guilty so much as underestimated. I love young adult novels. It’s just a shame that for the longest time they weren’t thought of as great works of literature, which they can be and are. I think we see that among the likes of “The Hate U Give,” “The Giver,” etc.
Q:
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? A:
“The Complete Guide to Watercolor.” “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Journalism.” I’d reread that all the time growing up when I was trying to imagine how to pay bills as a writer.
Q:
Do books serve a moral function, in your view? How so? A:
Yes. Even if we don’t set out for them to have a moral function, they do achieve a moral impact. For example, we generally think of reading as serving primarily an academic capacity. But we know reading also increases children’s emotional intelligence. Books have the power to change how we see ourselves and others. The choice is ours to harness that potential.
“I actually started writing poetry before I started reading it, mostly because at the time poetry wasn’t something that was taught robustly in my classrooms.” Amanda Gorman
Q:
You’re throwing a literary dinner party. What three writers, living or dead, do you invite? A: Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, Lin-manuel Miranda.