 In an interview, Gilbert mentioned "The Wizard of Oz" with nostalgia, adding, "I am a writer today because I learned to love reading as a child—and mostly on account of the Oz books..." She has said she was particularly influenced by Charles Dickens, and has noted this in many interviews.She identifies Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations" as her favorite book on philosophy.She also declared Jack Gilbert as "the poet laureate of my life" when she succeeded him as a writer-in-residence at the University of Tennessee in 2006.