Editing Josh Ritter (section)

==Other ventures==
Ritter also has an interest in writing, and has claimed many different writers as influences on both his songwriting and fiction work. Some of his favorite authors are [[Flannery O'Connor]], [[Philip Roth]], and [[Dennis Lehane]] (who wrote the intro for the Deluxe Edition of ''[[Hello Starling]]'').{{Citation needed|date=June 2015}} The title of Ritter's sixth album, ''[[So Runs the World Away]]'', comes from a line in the third act of [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]''.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/josh-ritter-talks-about-h_b_561972.html | work=Huffington Post | first=Jesse | last=Kornbluth | title=Josh Ritter Talks About His New CD | date=May 4, 2010}}</ref>

Ritter's own novel, ''[[Bright's Passage]]'', was published by [[Dial Press]] on June 28, 2011. He said of the novel, "Besides my songs, ''Bright's Passage'' is the first [written] work I've wanted anyone to see ... it's about a kind of sweet normal guy from [[West Virginia]]. He goes to the [[World War I|first World War]] and he comes back and he has an angel. And it's about him and this angel escaping this wildfire for five days. It's sort of this short little comedy."<ref>{{cite web|last=Greenblatt |first=Leah |url=https://ew.com/article/2010/02/16/josh-ritter-novel-book-deal/ |title=Rocker Josh Ritter to release first novel via Random House |publisher=Entertainment Weekly |date=2010-02-16 |access-date=2021-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Sepinwall |first=Alan |url=http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat-goes-on/posts/sundance-interview-josh-ritter-talks-songwriting-his-new-novel-and-blood-and-guts |title=Sundance Interview: Josh Ritter talks songwriting, his new novel and blood and guts |work=[[HitFix]] |date=2011-02-03 |access-date=2015-10-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924045603/http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat-goes-on/posts/sundance-interview-josh-ritter-talks-songwriting-his-new-novel-and-blood-and-guts |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Ritter's second novel, ''The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All'', was published in the U.S. in September 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-great-glorious-goddamn-of-it-all-josh-ritter|access-date=2021-06-01|website=HarperCollins|language=en}}</ref>