Authors who inspire

I’m usually not one for lists or favourites. I can never decide, I always want more options. And if this list, inspired by Christopher Shultz on LitReactor, shows anything, it’s that I’m not good at choices. But a list of authors is a wonderful thing, even if there are some dreadful decisions and gaps. Authors I want to read and haven’t yet (Jo Walton, Doris Lessing) Authors whose books I’ve read and loved, but who I haven’t read enough of. (Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, Russell Hoban, Marilynne Robinson, Nikki Gemmell, Isabel Allende, Susanna Clarke, Kate Griffin, Karen Lord, Lauren Beukes, Paolo Bacigalupi, Lev Grossman, Ben Aaronvitch …) Almost another list in itself. But this, for what it’s worth, is my just-at-this-moment list of authors of profound influence.

Isaac Asimov
Iain Banks
Angela Carter/Arthur C Clarke
Douglas Adams
Jennifer Egan
Frederick Pohl
Neil Gaiman
Haruki Murakami/ Alice Hoffman
Ian Mcdonald
Justina Robson
Kazuo Ishiguro/ Philip K Dick
Margot Lanagan
Margaret Atwood/ China Mieville
Neal Stephenson/Audrey Niffenegger/Nicola Griffith
Ruth Ozeki
Terry Pratchett/Philip Pullman
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ray Bradbury
Shirley Jackson
J R R Tolkein
Ursula K LeGuin
Kurt Vonnegut
William Gibson
Stephen Baxter
Dianna Wynne Jones
Zadie Smith

Who would you include?