SHAZZAR (Belteshazzar)

The Holy Bible, and so many other books. I love to read and some of my favorite authors are Langston Hughes, my main literary role model, Maya Angelou, my inspiration, James Weldon Johnson, a great man who composed a brilliant career, Sonia Sanchez, she reminds me most of my poetic-self, Alice Walker, is a kindred writer unto me, Nikki Giovanni, a true poetic soul, Yusef Komunyakaa, a prolific prized poet, Gordon Parks, a true renaissance man like myself, Mildred Taylor, she gave me the hunger to create and the desire to teach through my writing, J. California Cooper, a master of the short story, Zora Neale Hurston, a master of poetic fiction, Toni Morrison, winner of the "Nobel Prize in Literature", need I say more?, Richard Wright, truly a great Black writer, powerful Paul Laurence Dunbar, a pioneer of poetry, deft Dorothy West, the youngest writer of the Harlem Renaissance, a great period in our history, Young Adult writer Walter Dean Myers, we share the same creative inspiration to write and express our literary voice, Virginia Hamilton, my first inspiration and the first writer I ever met, Edwidge Danticat, a future great writer, and Octavia Butler, the Queen of Science Fiction! I also admire the great Mark Twain, he was a charismatic writer and a complex character of life! Pastor Max Lucado is my favorite inspirational writer. His teaching ministry through his books have helped change my life for the better. The last book that got me real "emotional" by the ending was "The Secret Life of Bees" (the movie doesn't compare to the novel)!