September 28, 2022, 10:13am
TIME published its list of the 100 most influential people of 2022 today, and it includes eight writers from across the worlds of poetry, literary fiction, playwriting, journalism, and academia. Here’s what their peers had to say about them, and you can find the full list here.
Sally Rooney, novelist
“It’s an uncomfortable thing to be generationally anointed (something about which I have some knowledge), but Rooney has proven herself immune to the mounting pressures: Beautiful World, Where Are You goes meta, grappling with philosophical questions around success, the disconnection of the internet age, and the complexity of adult friendships. Her ability to swerve means she won’t just be the hottest young novelist of the year—she will be a permanent fixture, not just as a hardback in the hands of appealing youth but as a critic in the collective conscience.” –Lena Dunham
Elizabeth Alexander, poet, philanthropist, and educator
“…she has put real investment into creating spaces that reflect the country’s rich diversity, and rethinking how we can embrace our cultural narratives, whether through physical monuments or the ways in which we tell our stories.” –Lynn Nottage
Emily Oster, economist and writer
“In best-selling books (Expecting Better, Cribsheet, and most recently The Family Firm), her popular newsletter, and social media, Oster weighs trade-offs, distinguishes trivial from substantial risks, and evaluates evidence for causation in a messy world.” –Steven Pinker
Maya Lin, artist and writer
“Sometimes her work reveals the literally hidden, like underground rivers or the dramatic contours of San Francisco Bay. But it also reveals inconvenient truths long ignored: the costs of environmental degradation, the ravages of extinction, our long national history of exclusion in civil rights and gender equality.” –Celeste Ng
Michelle Zauner, novelist
“While she intertwines the threads of her art into perfect plaits, she lets us find something in our own lives, a new strand with which to adorn ourselves.” –Bowen Yang
Michael R. Jackson, playwright
“When Jackson wrote [A Strange Loop], he was saying: I have to lean in to my authenticity and my truth, even though there’s nothing in the market that would encourage me to do so. The manifestation of him doing that is remarkable.” –Billy Porter
Sevgil Musaieva, journalist
“In the bloodiest war in Europe this century, Ukraine is fighting for its future and the right to exist. Sevgil Musaieva, the editor in chief of top independent news site Ukrayinska Pravda, ensures that her outlet covers every aspect of the conflict.” –Amie Ferris-Rotman
Dmitry Muratov, journalist
“Since Dmitry Muratov founded independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993, six of his reporters have been assassinated for exposing the crimes of Vladimir Putin’s regime and Russia’s oligarchy. … Dmitry Muratov has shown a lifetime of bravery.” –Bill Browder