Imitation is boring. Inspiration is something else entirely. Different women writers will connect with different work by female predecessors (and male predecessors, too, of course, but they probably won't turn to the men for ways to write about female experience). At various times in my development as a writer, there were different women whose work electrified me, and for different reasons: Plath, Sexton, Parker, Dickinson, Olds, Pastan, Espaillat, Glück, Cope, Stallings, just to name the most influential. I wouldn't say that I write like any of them, but I learned something about how to write from all of them. I also picked up some clues about how to be a woman who writes, both positives and negatives, from looking at what they did. I could list even more male writers who have influenced me, because there are so many of them. But I think most women writers tend to be aware of other women in their field, always on the lookout for role models, even if the supply of female mentors has been low.
Susan
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