Inspired by the Litquake post Cataloging Your Influences by Christopher Schultz, who was in turn inspired by the post A is for Achebe on BookRiot, I created my own author alphabet. Building an author alphabet allows you to catalog your favorite authors and influences with a twist. I first brainstormed all of my favorite writers, and then used either their first or last initial to place them into my alphabet. It was tricky to place each author so all my favorites would get a place on the list.

Here is my alphabet:

Chris Adrian
Charles Bukowski
Agatha Christie
Don Delillo
Edgar Allen Poe
David Foster Wallace
Italo (Giovanni) Calvino (ha! I had to look up his middle name.)
Ted Hughes
Kazuo Ishiguro
Jorge Luis Borges
Stephen King
Jonathem Lethem
A.M. Holmes
Vladimir Nabokov
Orson Scott Card
Sylvia Plath
David Quammen
Thomas R. Pynchon
Saul Williams
Lynne Tillman
Ellen Ullman
Kurt Vonnegut
Colson Whitehead
X – I couldn’t come up with an ‘X’…
Cormac McCarthy (I cheated here but couldn’t come up with a ‘Y’ fave author)
Mark Z. Danieleweski

I left out but would have liked to include:

Dave Eggers
Chuck Palahniuk
Margaret Atwood
Robert McCammon
Kate Walbert
Victor Lavalle
China Miéville
Phillip K. Dick

Which authors would make your list?