Growing up and in college, the books I enjoyed reading were pretty straightforward novels.

JAIME GREEN writer, host of the Catapult Podcast Writing a story or a novel that’s capable of capturing a mood, place, and time of life like that is something I’m still hoping to attain, but this was the book that made me thing I could try to do it. It’s a coming of age story, I guess, about a girl who goes to live in Japan as a teenager and goes to a strict all-girls school and realizes she’s gay. Something about its mysterious, sad, sexy mood still haunts me all these years later. I first read The Cutmouth Lady by Romy Ashby when I was around 20 years old.

It opened my eyes to what a novel could make possible.ĮMILY GOULD author of Friendship, co-founder of Emily Books

It brought all the magic of mythology and folklore, a childhood obsession of mine, into a modern context with so much stark, painful weight and power. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon was the book that made me want to work in the arts.

CONNOR GOLDSMITH literary agent at Fuse Literary

Miriam tor books