Author and poet Jenni Fagan on finding her love of reading as a child, being inspired by Alice Walker and the book she always recommends.
The first book I remember reading:
I was reading from a really early age, I remember being in class when I was five years old and being so annoyed that I couldn’t recognise all letters, or words, I worked so hard at going over and over them so that I could learn faster. I read early books like the brilliant Maurice Sendak with Where the Wild Things Are, or all the books by Roald Dahl but the first writers to really stop me in my tracks were CS Lewis and Tolkien. All of the CS Lewis chronicles caught me but the one book that really changed things for me as a kid was The Hobbit by Tolkien. I remember reading that first line and then the book and thinking, this is a game changer, I didn’t know what the game was or how it had changed but I knew I would judge other books by how that one pulled me in.
A book I recommend to everyone:
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. I recommend everything she has written but I do thing that book is an iconic classic work of American literature and in that way follows on in the great traditions of originality, authenticity, brilliant storytelling and not adhering to the rules or limitations of form, content or delivery. I think she is one of the greatest living American writers.
The best book I have read in this year:
Kafka’s Metamorphosis which is ridiculous because I’ve read it so many times and it is often the best book I’ve read in any year.
The book I am most looking forward to:
I actually never know exactly what is coming out or when but there are writers I am always hopeful to hear might be doing something new.
A book I didn’t finish:
You know there is a tradition of criticism around literature that I think personally, is often best left to critics, at least the good ones, who really know what they are talking about. I don’t dismiss other writers’ work, never have done, if I don’t like it, I just don’t read it. It’s an achievement to write a book, and it is a hard thing to do so I have a very let it be attitude where other writers’ works are concerned, which is probably a good thing because in my reading life, I’m pretty critical. I figure I’ll only live for so long so I may as well stick to the really good stuff where I can.
An author that has inspired me:
Alice Walker partly because I found her at a really pivotal moment in my reading life, I was 15 years old and living in a children’s home when I discovered The Color Purple. Celie as a character just blew me away, the writing had me ‘in’ every single moment, it did something for me psychically and as one of those moments where you get to really feel the power of literature. I have been inspired by so many authors though, and I am always finding more.
The book I am reading now:
I am always reading four or five things, then maybe research texts (if I’m writing a novel or screenplay), so there may be history, science, religious texts, poetry, all sorts on the side of that too. I am currently having a wee moment where I get to read just what I want though and so I have a few on the go – two books by the poet Gboyega Odubanjo, Adam and While I Yet Live, a brilliant talent and mind, I am very sad that I won’t get the chance to see more of his work. Two books by a playwright called Jeremy O Harris, Slave Play and Daddy, an extraordinary and original playwright. I’m reading Therese and Isabelle by Voiletta Leduc, and Poor by Katriona O’Sullivan who I had a great conversation with recently, also about to start going through the Foucault and Jeremy Bentham archives, back in the witchcraft texts too, Daemonologie and the Malleus Maleficarum.
Dr Jenni Fagan is an award-winning poet, novelist, screenwriter and Doctor of Philosophy. In 2022 Polygon published Hex as well as her sixth poetry collection, The Bone Library, written during her time as Writer in Residence at the Dick Vet Bone Library. She lives in Edinburgh. Her latest book A Swan’s Neck on the Butcher’s Block, is out this month.
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