MEL DONALSON: There have been so many sources of inspiration and role models for me. Very, very privileged in that. Having a background as an English professor, I've had a chance to read a number of writers globally, as well as writers in the United States.
I'd say, if I were to break it down into various genres in which I write, for poetry, for me, Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote from the 1920s to 1967, when he died. And he wrote in so many different genres.
And I think when I discovered Langston Hughes in undergraduate school, he was doing or he had done those things that I wanted to do as a writer. And certainly his poetry possesses those qualities that show you the aesthetics of writing poetry. The artistry, but the content, as well, is there. And he was able to write about so many different kinds of topics and themes.
With nonfiction, creative nonfiction, essays, the memoir that stands out, that I go back and reread quite often, is Elie Wiesel's Night. And for me, what Wiesel does in a very, very short but powerful memoir is that he takes experiences that are so horrific, but he presents them in language that is oftentimes so beautiful.
It seems to be almost a contradiction. But he's able to blend that life experience with a poetic language that makes it commanding and engaging and memorable. It's the kind of writing you don't forget.
In fiction-- I love fiction-- short stories, as well as novels, I'd say Alice Walker has been the most inspirational. She's managed in both the short fiction form, as well as novels, to capture, I think, characters, dialogue, settings, and topics and themes that are very much within the historical framework where she's writing, very representative of the times. But yet, she does manage to connect to ongoing kinds of human experiences that can touch people at any point in time along the historical spectrum.
Playwriting, drama, a number of people I admire, but I would say in terms of my own personal writing there would be two. One would be Tennessee Williams, which again is maybe going back to a more traditional kind of stage playwriting.
But again, his characters and the dialogue that he presents in his plays reach and fulfill a certain kind of realness that works well on the stage. It works well in terms of permeating the skin and getting into the brain and getting into the emotions and seeing characters that maybe we don't particularly like, but at the same time, we have a certain kind of understanding for what they're doing, what motivates them even in their weaknesses.
And then the other playwright would be August Wilson. Wilson, in his collection of plays that have looked at a particular community over certain decades of time, he's managed to create this universe of characters who really fulfill the many different aspects of the African American experience. But also he touches upon some issues of gender, which challenge an audience or reader to reflect upon those ways in which many hurdles have been overcome, but how those kinds of hurdles that have been there can resurface.
And so we have to constantly revisit the way in which we look at manhood, womanhood, race relations in America. We can't let up on the importance of working at being human beings and realizing that as communities, as well as individuals, it's part of our responsibility. And so those writers have all influenced me and inspired me in many, many different kinds of ways.