Meredith Maran writes books and articles for 50% of the magazines you browse through at the supermarket check stand. HINT: not the National Enquirer.

She is the author of Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America’s Teenage Drug Epidemic, Class Dismissed: A Year in the Life of an American High School, A Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation and 50 Ways To Support Lesbian & Gay Equality to name just a few.

She is featured in Rebecca Walker’s forthcoming (February) book: One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love.

Meredith Maran’s Favourite Books:

A Seahorse Year by Stacey D’Erasmo – the book that convinced me to write a novel. It’s about a “gay family” but never makes a fuss about that—sort of a vision of a future world in which that just doesn’t rate a fuss. Each sentence like poetry.

Run by Ann Pratchett – every time the plot verged on unbelievable something in the character’s reactions would pull it back into credible, somehow.

Dream of the Blue Room by Michelle Richmond – poetry in motion—literally. The book takes place largely on the proverbial slow boat to China and you can feel the rocking as you read. Michelle’s a dear friend, and she is a heroic writer.

While They Slept by Kathryn Harrison – as a memoirist I’m always interested in how others play with the form. Harrison pulls it off beautifully: part memoir, part true-crime mystery.