LITERARY CRUSHES
Welcome to my reading room, part salon, part crush diary. Each post is a love note to the writers whose words have seduced me. I write about my admiration for their craft of storytelling, but also about who they are/were, and why they inspire me. This section will always be under construction as I am always reading…
Lauren Groff
I am obsessed with Lauren Groff and her versatility as a writer. I’ve been following her short stories published in the New Yorker, which led me to Florida, a collection of weird and haunting stories, then the novel Fates and Furies…
Melissa Febos
Sometimes a book hits you hard. It’s exactly what you need to evolve. As if the writer was reading your soul.
My 2026 journal is filled with quotes from The Dry Season, which spoke to me and profoundly moved me. As if Melissa Febos had written it for my benefit.
PATTI SMITH
My first literary crush was on Patti Smith. Moving to New York in 1982 after graduating from Berkeley was in part a pilgrimage inspired by Patti. I wanted to walk where she had walked in the lower east side, the Chelsea, CBGB, Scribners, and her other haunts.
Anais Nin
I discovered Anais Nin during the early days with Henk, while we were living in a warehouse in downtown LA in 1985. Anais had died in 1977, the year I left Los Angeles to move to Berkeley, so only eight years prior. I passionately read everything Anais wrote - all seven of her published diaries, all her novels, and all the letters she and Henry Miller exchanged…