Do you have an author whose work you can read over and over? At Supanova in Melbourne, this March, we asked our amazing Literary Legends who their favourite authors are.
Alan Baxter
Served Cold, Devouring Dark, the Alex Caine series
“Clive Barker. I get asked this a lot, so I know. There are so many different authors I dig and that I’ve been inspired by, but Clive Barker is my favourite. He probably influenced my work more than anyone else. I just love what he does. The magic he spins in stories is what I aspire to do, what I try to do as well.”
Maria Lewis
The Witch Who Courted Death, The Wailing Woman
“My favourite author is this man called Shea Serrano. He’s best known for a lot of articles he did at The Ringer, which is an American sports and pop culture website. He also did this incredible book called Movies (and Other Things), Basketball (and Other Things), and The Rap Yearbook. He’s an amazing Latino writer who just has an incredible ability to talk about pop culture and the way it intersects with our everyday lives in a way that’s really hilarious but engaging and meaningful, and really sticks with me. I find myself returning to a lot of his work over and over again, which might be surprising for some people considering that I write fiction and he mainly writes non-fiction. But I’ve been a massive fan of Shea Serrano for years and I just love his work.”
Alison Evans
Euphoria Kids, Ida, Highway Bodies
“My favourite author is Jorge Luis Borges. He was a short fiction writer and he will write a massive idea with so much world-building in two pages, and then that’s the end of the story. I really like his conciseness. His ideas are really large.”
Alison Goodman
Lady Helen trilogy, Eon and Eona
“I read across a lot of genres and I have favourite authors in a lot of genres. The one closest to my heart, and the one who inspired my Lady Helen series is Georgette Heyer. She writes really fun, regency romps. I read those when I was a kid, from 13 upwards, and I just loved them.”
James Islington
The Licanius trilogy
“Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan. I grew up reading Wheel of Time. And they had a huge influence on me. It’s a massive series. I read them as a teenager: all of us at school were waiting on the next book and discussing the books. That was my experience growing up, so that obviously left a really big impact on me. When I wanted to write, basically I had in my head that I wanted to write Wheel of Time, so that was my starting point. A lot of people have noticed that, especially with the first book, it’s got a very Wheel of Time vibe to it. Then obviously as the series goes on it becomes its own thing.”
Christina Henry
Looking Glass, Alice, the Black Wings series
“I would not say I have one favourite author. I have a lot of influences: Angela Carter, Daphne du Maurier, J.R.R. Tolkien, Robin McKinley, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King. I could just keep listing.”
Jodi McAlister
Valentine, Ironheart, Misrule
“Growing up it was always Isobelle Carmody, and I cannot betray her now. I love her. She did a launch for Ironheart for me a couple of years ago and, I don’t get starstruck very easily, but she would ask me a question and I would be like, ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear that, I was too busy loving you.'”
Lead Image: Christina Henry, Alison Evans and Jodi McAlister at Supanova 2020 – Melbourne. Photo by Steven Yee.
