The American author on falling in love with The Great Gatsby, being inspired by Dylan Thomas – and the memoir of a canoe trip in Texas he comes back to
My earliest reading memory
The deaths of Old Dan and Little Ann in Wilson Rawls’s Where the Red Fern Grows were etched into my being as a first grader in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
My favourite book growing up
Stephen King’s The Stand. I completely lost myself in the story. I don’t think I realised at the time what a rare gift it is to have that experience.