We sometimes talk about those who have impacted us as our “influences.” If that terms feels comfortable to you, then you can absolutely continue to use it. I first got exposed to it through English class. So-and-so writer influenced so-and-so writer in the next generation, which—in an English textbook—made the literary lineage of the entire literary canon quite tidy and trackable. 

I’m uncomfortable with the implications of this for a couple reasons: 

• The crossover of influences is rarely so tidy as it appears in an English class paper. The more you make and the more you study makers, you start to see the ways that “influences” flow in on all sides. So the term itself isn’t as useful as it could be. 

• In today’s terms, using the word “influence” introduces a power dynamic that can be misused. For example, “influencer” is a job title now. Their audience is “influenced” through social media and other channels, often through paid product placement. 

I prefer to use terms that encourage more agency on all sides. 

So I started using “literary elder” when I name someone in my literary lineage. I throw lots of writers in that category, from all sorts of different literary eras: Shakespeare, Toni Morrison, Beverly Cleary, Jane Austen, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, J. K. Rowling, etc. 

But the term itself isn’t as important as the process that’s true to my experience: 

I inherit from my literary elder, the same way I inherit from the flesh-and-blood elders in my own family. I have the ability to carry that inheritance into the next generation. I also have the ability to take my inheritance and transform it into something that fits me better. 

Both elder and inheritor are each complete and whole individuals, doing their best in their specific circumstances. They have influenced me, of course, because I am inheriting the world they helped to create. 

But I decide what to do with it. And in most cases, they’re older than me, which means that if all goes as planned, I have more time left on the planet. That means I have more time to finish and share more new creations. In other words, through my creations, I’m still shaping what I’ll do with that inheritance, a task that lasts as long as my life does. 

So, when I call another my literary elder, I honor what I have received from them, and I also tell you where it shows up in my work. I do this to remind each and every person reading this that you are also a whole and complete creator, with agency to decide what you’ll do with your inheritance as you make and grow throughout your life. 

Of course, this includes myself.