I return to the way authors like Sherwood Anderson and Elizabeth Strout have created characters who are oddballs (Anderson’s people in Winesburg, Ohio) and cranky (Olive Kitteredge in Strout’s stories). As a reader, I care about these characters even though they have flaws, and I think it is bold of these authors to create characters like this and to make them the stars of their stories.

-Lynn Levin, “Amanda the Vigilant,” Volume XXX, 2026

I like writers who break down the norms of what is expected. I like Hemingway and Dostoevsky, and the Oakland-based writer, Alison Luterman.

-Paul Rabinowitz, “The Walk,” Volume XXX, 2026

I love Lauren Groff. She has taught me to be bolder with verbs.

-Susan Melinda Morée, “The Fog Sounds: A Tragedy in Less Than One Act,” Volume XXX, 2026

Frost has been crucial in my effort to make my poetry, if not totally accessible, not deliberately obscurantist either. One can be complex without being merely complicated.

-Sydney Lea, “Orb Weaver at My Writing Cabin,” Volume XXX, 2026