>20 Questions #2 (continued)

>We’re asking writers this week to tell us about favorite authors and/or influences on their work.

Mithran Somasundrum:
My favourite author is Graham Greene. Taking the last question first, it’s not so much a case of imitating him as the problem of trying not to sound like a bad version of him. When I started writing, everything I did seemed to come out as second rate Graham Greene and, even now, reading Greene while writing a first draft is dangerous. As for why he’s my favourite: his ability to write sentences that resonate off the page; all of his wonderful seedy characters (particularly the minor ones, which I think is mostly where Greeneland lies); the brilliantly constructed plots; his ability to write thrillers and literary fiction equally well; his writing’s huge international scope. The other thing is, I found Greene when I was around 16 — I wonder how much an author’s influence comes from the age at which you find them?
[Mithran Somasundrum is a short story writer published in literary and genre
mags.]

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

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