CWRU authors highlight writers who influence them
Three recently published faculty discuss their lessons learned
Thrity Umrigar, PhD
Distinguished University Professor Emerita, English*;
Author of Missing Sam
Algonquin Books, 2026
Stoner by John Edward Williams. This book taught me the power of silence, of leaving things unsaid or understated. A writer has to know that the silence between words is sometimes more important than the words themselves. The Waves by Virginia Woolf. I attempted to read this book when I was 15 and had to give it up because I was so overwhelmed by its beauty. But upon successive readings, I have come to realize how intimately a writer must know her characters and their minds before attempting to write a novel. Jazz by Toni Morrison. This novel taught me to take risks in writing, to be inventive and to seek out the musicality of language—because books are both a visual and an aural medium.
*Became an emerita faculty member in July
Aamaawia John Bickers, PhD
Jesse Hauk Shera Assistant Professor, history;
Author of The Miami Nation: A Middle Path for Indigenous Nationhood
Indiana University Press, 2026
When thinking about which authors have influenced me as a writer, two names come to mind for very different reasons: J.R.R. Tolkien and Tiya Miles. I was introduced to Tolkien as a child, and I have always admired his ability to build literary worlds and connect people and events in unexpected ways. I think there’s a lesson for historians there in how we examine evidence and think about relationships between people and events. Tiya Miles was someone I was introduced to in grad school, and I am in awe of her ability as an historian and fiction writer to create narratives that are brilliant yet easily accessible for readers. That is something I try to emulate in my own work: to write for academic and public audiences.
Caren Beilin, MFA, PhD
Associate professor, English;
Author of Sea, Poison**
New Directions Publishing, 2025
The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo. This book inspired Sea, Poison more than anything. Where Endo, in 1956, wrote about human vivisections of American prisoners of war in World War II Japan, I wrote of contemporary malpractice in the OB-GYN field. Endo showed me a way to write about problems in our for-profit medical system. More than singular villains, he articulates the structure of the machine. Also, We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan, 1961–1991. Sullivan was an activist for transgender rights and a dashing, soulful trans guy. He lived a life of passion and principle. I’m influenced by his grand project—to write (with maximum intimacy) the book of your life!
**Longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction
Illustrations by Oriana Fenwick
