This list is part of the celebration of the tenth anniversary of The Margins, which highlights portions of the magazine’s archive organized around a theme.

Every artist engages with fellow artists, alive and dead, in their practice. Among the numerous interviews, reading lists, and craft essays published in The Margins during its first ten years, many artists cite common writers, activists, artists, and organizers that have shaped them.

Below is a daisy-chain of such pieces, with each piece linked to the previous one by an author or text mentioned or featured in both conversations. For example, Laleh Khadivi and Viet Thanh Nguyen are linked by Toni Morrison, who they both cite in their respective interviews as shaping their thinking about writing. Gina Apostol, in turn, is linked to Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose ideas about storytelling she mentions in an interview with Paul Nadal.

These lineages can remind us that our art is not made in complete isolation—our influences and literary traditions bring us together—and push us to think who still is outside these circuits of connection.

See the full list below.

“Into the Hornet’s Nest: An Interview with Laleh Khadivi”
by Kirin Khan (2017)

Toni Morrison →

“Viet Thanh Nguyen: Anger in the Asian American Novel”
by Paul Tran (2015)

Viet Thanh Nguyen →

“The Novel and Technologies of Empire: A Conversation with Gina Apostol”
by Paul Nadal (2020)

Gina Apostol →

“Up to the Challenge: A Conversation with Ricco Villanueva Siasoco”
by YZ Chin (2020)

Mia Alvar →

“The Fiction of Our Experiences: An Interview with Mia Alvar”
by Melissa Sipin (2016)

Junot Díaz’s Drown →

“A Little Bit Like Worship: An Interview with Elaine Castillo”
by Yasmin Adele Majeed (2018)

Jamaica Kincaid →

“Woman Warrior for the 21st Century: An Interview with K-Ming Chang”
by Jennifer Tseng (2020)

Marilyn Chin →

“Wild Girls Seek Justice Through Writing Poetry: A Conversation with Marilyn Chin”
by Jane Wong (2018)

Jane Wong →

“Ghosts in the War Machine: Jane Wong’s Overpour”
by Sally Wen Mao (2017)

Sally Wen Mao →

“Giving Up the Gaze: A Conversation with Sally Wen Mao”
by Jenny Xie (2019)

Jenny Xie →

“How to Dismantle an American Myth: An Interview with C Pam Zhang”
by Mimi Lok (2020)

Cathy Park Hong →

“My Computer Asks a Question: David Mura”
by David Mura and Ed Bok Lee (2015)

Frantz Fanon →

“Break the Silence: An Interview with Vijay Prashad”
by Azia Rana (2014)

Vijay Prashad →

“Unsettling the Nation from the Land: A Conversation with Manu Karuka”
by Vivek Bald (2019)

W.E.B DuBois →

“All That We Can’t Leave Behind: An Interview with Daphne Palasi Andreades”
by Vina Orden (2022)

Claudia Rankine →

“The Silence Between Our Words: An Interview with Alexandra Chang”
by Michael Prior (2022)

Alexandra Chang →

“Brilliant Women: A Conversation with Catherine Chung”
by Pik-Shuen Fung (2020)

Catherine Chung →

“High-Wire Acts: An Interview with Alexander Chee”
by Catherine Chung (2016)

Justin Chin →

“Writing the Families We Want: An Interview with Chen Chen”
by Yanyi (2017)

Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club →

“From Plate to Page: An Interview with Lillian Li”
by Crystal Hana Kim (2018)

Lillian Li →

“We Are Family: An Interview with Min Jin Lee”
by Lillian Li (2018)

Min Jin Lee →

“Creating as You Go: An Interview with Mira T. Lee”
by Angie Kim (2018)

Raymond Carver →

“Mystery and Pleasure: A Conversation with Shruti Swamy”
by Yasmin Adele Majeed (2020)

Ursula K. Le Guin →

“Love in a Time of Dystopia: A Conversation with Thea Lim”
by Manisha Claire (2019)

Kirstin Chen →

“Family Perils: A Conversation with Yang Huang and Kirstin Chen”
by Yang Huang (2018)

Yang Huang →

“Why I Write in English”
by Yang Huang (2016)

Willa Cather →

“Routine Made Everything Possible: An Interview with Ling Ma”
by Jen Lue (2019)

Marilynne Robinson →

“Unexpected Solace: An Interview with Michelle Zauner”
by Ruth Minah Buchwald (2022)

Chang-rae Lee →

“To Forget the World, Only to Discover the World: A Conversation with Krys Le”
by Hannah Michell (2017)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie →

“Tell the Truth Sooner: An Interview with Abeer Hoque”
by Piyali Bhattacharya (2017)

Tarfia Faizullah →

“Confronting the Author: A Conversation with Carlina Duan”
by Sreshtha Sen (2021)

Ross Gay →

“Our Wholeness, Our Togetherness: A Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil & Ross Gay”
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Ross Gay (2018)

Aimee Nezhukumatathil → 

“Meena’s Words Are Inscribed in Us: A Collected Tribute”
by Manan Ahmed (2019)

Meena Alexander → 

“Silence and Breath: Kaveh Akbar and Kazim Ali”
by Kaveh Akbar and Kazim Ali (2017)

Mahmoud Darwish → 

“Imagining Abolition: A Conversation with Jackie Wang”
by Mark Tseng-Putterman (2018)

Fred Moten → 

“A Reading List for Abolitionist Imagination and Practice”
by Rachel Kuo (2021)

bell hooks → 

“Refusal=Intervention”
by Eunsong K. and Don Mee Choi (2014)

Joyelle McSweeney → 

“The Vanishing Point: Writers Speak to Kim Hyesoon’s Poetry in Translation”
by Joyelle McSweeney and Johannes Göransson (2016)