By far and away, the woman author who has inspired me more than anyone else is Anne Rice. Reading her Vampire Chronicles as a child and then a teenager taught me so much about conveying beauty through prose, and sensuality independent of sexuality, and a lot about certain slices of history in Europe and New Orleans. If reading Ernest Hemingway is like eating beef jerky, reading Anne Rice is like having a beautiful Italian merengue–too rich, too thick, too descriptive, but beautiful all the same.

Who’s your favorite female author, dear reader?