The Influences Project:Lauren Cerand

What book/writer/publisher has most influenced your own writing/publishing efforts?

Lauren Cerand, Cupcake Reading Series Co-Founder: I am continually influenced by the incredible artistic uproar of the last hundred years: Black Mountain College, The Evergreen Review, and The Beats (Gary Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth and Jack Kerouac, in particular, as well as their equally talented and lesser-known female peers -- Women of the Beat Generation is one of my most favorite books) spring immediately to mind. In terms of publishers, Softskull and Akashic Books really seem to have struck a balance between supporting often risky creative endeavors and maintaining a reasonable bottom line. There are so many books that inspire me, but I often return to The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell and The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, by Whistler, which shouldn't surprise anyone. DV, (Diana Vreeland's autobiography, edited by George Plimpton), definitely made me grateful for my own fabulously independent streak, even if it has made me feel like a bit of an outsider now and then. She's an eternal inspiration, and so is Fleur Cowles, the brilliant mind behind the short-lived Flair magazine. And, of course, I also adore that other short-lived magazine, The Smart Set. [11/15/04]