i’ve gotten this question a few times and there’s a general mix of things under the book recs tag here, but otherwise, as a general rule, i don’t believe in ‘must read’; what i do believe in is reading as widely, openly and diversely as possible and following your own instincts and impulses throughout it all. where classics are concerned, given how ridiculously limited the canon has been for so long, i like to supplement each work with something from a different perspective, just to hear it spoken from the other side because that’s what’s important to me.

so if you’ve read tropic of cancer by henry miller, read paris when it’s naked by etel adnan.

if you love the expansive, multi-layered poetry of t.s. eliot then read the selected poems of adonis (or the pages of day and night as an introduction),

for classic works focused on war and strife and the devastation of it all: maus by art spiegelman, persepolis by marjane satrapi, the war works hard by dunya mikhail, death and the maiden by ariel dorfman, a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini. for the things they carried by tim o’brien try: the sympathizer by viet thanh nguyen, on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong.

for the gothic imagination of edgar allen poe and bram stoker add: angela carter, daphne du maurier, shirley jackson, or, if you’re more contemporarily inclined: carmen maria machado & kelly link

magical realism that isn’t gabriel garcía márquez: ben okri, amos tutuola, isabel allende, laura esquivel.

epic poetry / classical texts that aren’t roman or greek: the ramayana, the epic of gilgamesh, the tale of genji.

i hate bukowski and am not the biggest fan of the beats but if they’re your thing try: erica jong, kim addonizio, dorianne laux, diane di prima, elise cowen – or you can broaden even further: the dub poetry of michael smith or linton kwesi johnson - and while we’re on that: louise bennet, or edward kamau brathwaite (multi-layered, pushing the boundaries of language with a post-colonial perspective)

if you like e.e. cummings and pushing the boundaries of language and form with writers like aram saroyan, try ca conrad,

love dickens? try elizabeth gaskell or zadie smith.

love 1984? read we by yevgeny zemyatin who not only inspired it, but lived it.

for every walden or book like it, try basho’s narrow road to the deep north or rebecca solnit’s wanderlust.

love tolkien, asimov, bradbury? try: ursula k. le guin, octavia e. butler

want intense, challenging reads on the often violent mires of identity and ideas of self-hood? try toni morrison. want it mingled with kafka-esque absurdity? try invisible man by ralph ellison. 

want breathless interiority or philosophical examinations à la camus’ the stranger? try clarice lispector’s the apple in the dark (other female writers also worth the look: sarah kane, forugh farrokhazad, alejandra pizarnik, see also: norah lange’s the people in the room)

i’m also not the biggest fan of rupi kaur (at. all.) but if you like her: maram al-massri’s barefoot souls is hauntingly beautiful and concise.

also this goes without saying but even so: you can’t ever read conrad’s heart of darkness, and not read: chinua achebe, aime cesaire, ngũgĩ wa thiong'o

read simone de beauvoir? then read nawal el saadawi & arundhati roy

love pablo neruda? try nizar qabbani, mahmoud darwish, saadi youssef (and while we’re on them: as gorgeous as their love poems are, they write just as beautifully on exile as any eastern european / soviet writer, to which i’ll add nathalie handal’s the neverfield)

Exist slowly, softly like the trees

*GROSS SOBBING AT HOW UNBEARABLY BEAUTIFUL THESE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE*