Mine is Becky Chambers. I’ve just finished rereading all of her work, and it gave me the exact same feeling of hope I had the first time. Not groundbreaking, but soul-feeding.
China Mieville and Ursula Le Guin are both up there are authors who have written things that have felt momentous to read.
But I’m not sure either of them could edge out Terry Pratchett as the author whose work I’ve enjoyed going back to time and time again, having read most of Discworld at a more formative age probably helps too.
Gene Wolfe, but I am a sucker for a longwinded description of a bizarre world. Definitely not for everyone. As type this I had the thought, “gods I hope he is not a shitass.” BRB, got some searching to do
Brian Jacques, of Redwall fame. I feel so lucky to have grown up on such a lovely collection of adventure stories. I have such fond memories of my mom surprising me with a new book. I picked one up the other day and read a snippet, and it was just as lovely as it ever was.
In the 1980s, Jacques worked as a milkman, on a round which included the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind.[1] He got to know the children there, and volunteered to read to them. However, he became dissatisfied with the state of children’s literature, with too much adolescent angst, and began to write stories for them. So that the visually impaired children would be able to picture the scenes he was writing for them, he developed a highly descriptive style, emphasizing sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch, and kinesthetics.[6] From these short stories and reading sessions emerged Redwall, an 800-page handwritten manuscript.[7] -wikipedia
Guy was a saint, simple as.
Don’t know if I have a favourite but Becky Chambers is excellent.
Gonna piggy back on your comment to agree with OP. I get such joy from reading Becky Chambers!
Currently I would have to say Becky Chambers at the moment too. I love A Closed and Common Orbit and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within the most.
I still need to read her Monk & Robot series though.
I did like To Be Taught, If Fortunate and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Record of a Spaceborn Few and I didn’t really get on well though, sadly.
Roberto Bolaño has been most influential in my life, I first read him as a teenager and many trips, career decisions and lifestyle choices during my early 20s were directly influenced by two of his books: The Savage Detectives and Last Evenings on Earth.
He’s been my favorite author for a long time and certainly the writer I’ve read and re-read most often, but I think I’ve outgrown him a bit during the past year. I’m glad he’s been part of my life for so long though, and I look forward to finding my next favorite author.
Henry Neff, author of the Tapestry series, Impyrium, and as of this week, Witchstone.
Awesome writer. Awesome illustrator, and in 2020, he made my year. I DM’d him on Twitter asking if he had a physical copy of his 5th book in the Tapestry series that I could buy, because at that time you could only get it in e-book format. He sent me an inscribed and signed special edition as a Christmas present with a bunch of neat swag. That book is my prized possession.
(Honorable mentions: Christopher Farnsworth and Christopher Buehlman)
