Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

Just as musicians credit their musical influences, writers, too, have literary inspirations who help them discover and shape their unique voice. At a White House event for poets in 2011, Billy Collins said to students about finding your voice: You’re searching for the poets who make you jealous...you're looking to get influenced by people who make you furiously jealous…And then copy them.1 Billy himself was influenced by the work of Wallace Stevens—I suppose he would say he was furiously jealous of him. Anne Lamott's Seemingly Effortless Prose Author Shauna Niequist openly mentions the influence of Anne Lamott on her work. The first time I read Anne Lamott, I thought, “Is this allowed? People can write like this and it gets published?” I laughed at her sometimes-crass and often sarcastic style. She opened the door to a whole new way of writing, with honesty and sass. While hers was not exactly my style, I admired the conversational tone—the seemingly stream-of-consciousness flow of idea