Jack Love’s poem “Cured Are You Above All,” featured in Bad Moon on the Rise: An Anthology of the Unsettling, reveals a writer deeply attuned to the beauty and complexity of everyday life. A lifelong reader inspired by the fantastical worlds of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Rick Riordan, Love’s influences now span from the poetic precision of Langston Hughes and W.B. Yeats to the immersive storytelling of modern science fiction. In this interview, he reflects on how parenthood, memory, and simplicity shape his work—and how he balances creativity, academia, and the ongoing pursuit of artistic growth.
Q: What/who were your early literary influences, and how do you think their writing has shaped you as a storyteller today?
A: For a large part, it was the conventional children’s authors who had significant influence on my interest in writing. I remember loving C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Roald Dahl, and Tolkien’s Hobbit. I also remember thoroughly enjoying Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, which was being published while I was a kid. I think these writers (among many others) shaped me while I was young because they imagine such fantastic worlds that you can lose yourself in. As a kid, I recall trying to mimic their world-building by creating my own strange worlds when I would play by myself.
Write on the World 