Ta-Nehisi Coates, Elena Ferrante, and Marilynne Robinson in TIME’s 100 Most Influential People

TIME magazine’s yearly 100 Most Influential People list is here, and three great writers have been named to the list: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Elena Ferrante, and Marilynne Robinson. (Frankly, three seems pretty skimpy for the entire field of literature, but at least all three picks are well-deserved.)

Writing about Ta-Nehisi Coates, Bryan Stevenson says:

When his best-selling second book was released last summer, it seemed everyone came to understand that he is the real deal. Between the World and Me is brilliantly structured, insightful and forcefully argued. He navigates the complexities and burdens of race in America compassed by a father’s love for his son.

Writing about Elena Ferrante, Lauren Groff says:

The story we hear most often about the Italian author Elena Ferrante is the story of her absence: her pseudonym and the deliberate choice to disengage from the world as an author. It’s odd, though, to imagine that a photo or biography could tell us more about Ferrante than her astonishing books, translated fluidly into English by the great Ann Goldstein, which together form a topographical map of an extraordinary mind.

Writing about Marilynne Robinson, Colm Tóibín says:

Marilynne Robinson’s novels and essays manage to be serious without being solemn. They exude a sense of sensuous feeling but also rigorous thinking. She is concerned with how we should live, with the idea of the world as a sort of gift to us, which requires us to notice what we have been offered, and to study it, to appreciate it and to dramatize its textures and contours.

See the full list here, and go out and buy the works of Coates, Ferrante, and Robinson if you want to be, well, influenced.