We had a discussion on the concept of a ‘Literary Canon’ and how it is a positive force for signaling strong works one wants to call attention to, but can also be a force of exclusion which lacks a diversity of voices. We decided the idea of a Canon is best as a guide and not an official declaration of merit, and we put together our own Canon of works that our members find essential to our own world and voices. Consider it a list of recommendations from The Monarch Writers to you.
Books & Short Stories
100 years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Boy’s Life – Robert McCammon
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
All Creatures Big and Small – James Herriott
All Things Bright and Beautiful – James Herriott
Anne of Green Gables – Lucy Maud Montgomery
Black and Blue – Anna Quindlen
Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Brooklyn – Colm Toibin (Canonized for being terrible)
Canterbury Tales
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Cathedral – Raymond Carver
Catherine Called Birdy – Karen Cushman
Cities of the Red Night – William S. Burroughs
Damned – Chuck Palahniuk
Desolation Angels – Jack Kerouac
Dharma Bums – Jack Kerouac
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Evelina – Fanny Burney
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
From the Corner of his Eye – Dean Koontz
Howl, America – Allen Ginsberg
I was a Teenage Fairy – Francesca Lia Block
Invisible Monsters – Chuck Palahniuk
It – Stephen King
Junky – William S. Burroughs
Koko – Peter Straub
Metamorphosis – Kafka
Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs
Old Yeller – Fred Gipson
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
Radio Free Albemuth – Philip K. Dick
Remembering the Good Times – Richard Peck
Sexus – Henry Miller
Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Sounder – William H. Armstrong
Strangers – Dean Koontz
The Ballad of Mulan (not the movie)
The Canterbury Tales (Wife of Bath) – Chaucer
The Divine Invasion – Philip K. Dick
The History of Emily Montague – Frances Brooke
The Place of Dead Roads – William S. Burroughs
The Road of the Dead – Kevin Brooks
The Rosy Crucifixion – Henry Miller
The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The Sylph – Georgiana Cavendish
The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
The Third Mind – William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer – Philip K. Dick
The Western Lands – William S. Burroughs
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
The Yage Letters – William S. Burroughs
Tikki Tikki Tembo – Arlene Mosel
Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller
Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller
Ubik – Philip K. Dick
Valis – Philip K. Dick
Visions of Cody – Jack Kerouac
Watchers – Dean Koontz
Welcome to the Monkey House – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Authors
Aldous Huxley
Anne Rice
Octavia Butler
Neal Stephenson
Edgar Allen Poe
Vladimir Nabokov
Essays, Non-Fiction, craft, & Etc.
The Artists Way – Julie Camron
The Bible
Bloods – Wallace Terry
Good Readers and Good Writers – Vladimir Nabokov
Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
If I am Missing or Dead – Janine Latus
MLK Jr.’s Speeches
The Only Girl in the Car – Kathy Dobie
On Becoming A Novelist – John Gardner
The Art of Fiction – John Gardner
The Portable MFA
The Politics of Ecstasy – Timothy Leary
The Tao te Ching (Dao de Jing)
Kwaidan – Lafcadio Hearn
Poets & Poetry
Garlic – Robert J. Levy
Osso Bucco – Billy Collins
David Tomas Martinez
e.e. cummings
Maya Angelou
Ralph Waldo Emerson (poet)
Rumi
Allen Ginsberg
Movies & TV Shows
Movies
Alphaville
American History X
Batman Begins
Casualties of War
Cinema Paradiso
The Dark Night
Fight Club
Full Metal Jacket
Leon: The Professional
The Matrix
Memento
Platoon
Seven
TV Shows
Breaking Bad
Community
Conan O’Brien
Firefly
I Love Lucy
Misfits
Mr. Robot
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Seinfeld
Sesame Street
Star Trek the Next Generation
The Outer Limits
The Sopranos
The Walking Dead
The Wire
The X Files
True Blood
True Detective
Twilight Zone
Music
Brand New
Bright Eyes
Built to Spill
Death Cab for Cutie
Eminem
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Incubus
Jawbreaker
Jets to Brazil
Modest Mouse
Radiohead
Smoking Popes
The Clash
The Decemberists
The Get Up Kids
The Hold Steady
The Mountain Goats
The New Pornographers
The Promise Ring
The Talking Heads
The Weakerthans
Tom Waits
The Monarch Writers 