At just 33, playwright Sarah Ruhl has already been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won the MacArthur Genius Grant and had several of her plays produced on the country's most important stages.

But she still finds time to read Goodnight Moon.

Ruhl, a new mother and one of the country's most promising young playwrights, draws inspiration from a tall book stack. From nighttime readings to one-year-old, Anna, to the prose of her hero, playwright Adrienne Kennedy, Ruhl takes time to absorb the words and ideas of an eclectic group of authors.

A Chicago native, Ruhl was a poet majoring in English at Brown University when her mentor, playwright Paula Vogel, steered her to the stage. From there, her career blossomed.

Among other works, she wrote her play Eurydice at Brown, which is now playing at the 2econd Stage Theatre in New York. Her plays have also been produced at Lincoln Center, the Actor's Centre, London and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, among others.

She spoke with Liane Hansen about what's on her reading list this summer.

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