As soon as I read through the list, and the author’s reasoning behind putting the list together, I knew I needed to add a link to the map to my Andrea Reads Americaresources. The article’s author, Kristen Iverson, explains about her book choices:
“All are literary in voice and spirit; every last one will let you understand a time and place in a more profound way than you maybe thought possible.”
I was particularly excited to see titles from my to-read list on there, along with some of my favorites that are usually edged out by other titles. I knew this list was for me when I saw the New Hampshire pick was not the obvious Hotel New Hampshire but the even better John Irving choice: A Prayer For Owen Meany.
I have a confession to make. A major motivator in my Andrea Reads America project is my ambition to read more Great American Literature. I’ve read Faulkner and Ellison and Steinbeck; I’ve read Cather and Walker and Lee; but Philip Roth – who’s he? John Updike? Never tried him. Toni Morrison? I want to read more of her work. As I work my way across the USA, reading three books set in each state, I aim to finally get to some of the big names that I might otherwise never read.¹
Pulitzer Prize fiction winners and finalists set in specific US statesNational Book Award fiction winners set in specific US states
Following the lead of researchers Kidd and Costano, who published a recent paper in Science suggesting that reading literary fiction improves empathy, I turned to the Pulitzer and National Book Award lists to find examples of Great Literature. I compiled lists of winners and finalists, and based on blurbs, reviews, and Goodreads tags, I noted the setting of each book in my spreadsheet.² If the narrative was set primarily in a specific state within the United States of America – not in generic-town-USA, not overseas, but in a specific location within the US – I plotted it on the maps above.³ Books that are based mainly on a journey across states are, for the most part, not included.⁴ Full list of titles follows.⁵ ⁶
I am reading America: 3 books from each state in the US with the following authorships represented – women, men, and non-Caucasian writers.
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¹ No, I do not plan to read every book listed here. Are you crazy?
² If I am wrong on any of these, please correct me. In cases where I haven’t read the book (i.e. most of them. 88% in fact.), I cannot be sure how much of the narrative takes place in a particular setting. Also, the stars on the maps do not indicate specific cities or setting within a state, only that the book is set in the state. I’d be here forever if I scaled down to city level, and I’ve got reading to do.
³ The spread is fascinating, isn’t it? What’s up, Western States? Also, look how many Pulitzer winners are set in New York: NINE if you include finalists. The committee was hooked on Maine for a while there, too. And the state with the most National Book Awards? Illinois. What does it all mean, people?!
⁴ My personal familiarity with the books came into play here. Though the story travels from Texas to Montana, I included Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove for Texas, mainly because the point of view is clearly Texan, and because McMurtry evokes Texas so beautifully that the state becomes a character in the story. I wonder if John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath works similarly for Oklahoma, as it is told from the Okie perspective as Oklahomans journey west to California. I do not remember the book well enough to feel comfortable plotting it in either Oklahoma or California. If you have strong feelings on this, please let me know in the comments.
⁵ Pulitzer Fiction Winners and Finalists by state setting
AL – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1961)
AL – The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau (1965)
AK – The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2013 finalist)
DC – Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (1960)
FL – Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (1949)
FL – Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (2012 finalist)
GA – Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (1956)
GA – The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983)
IL – An Unfinished Season by Ward Just (2005 finalist)
IN – The Bright Forever by Lee Martin (2006 finalist)
IA – A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1992)
LA – A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1981)
ME – Tinkers by Paul Harding (2010)
ME – Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2009)
ME – Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2002)
MA – The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor (1962)
MI – Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2003)
MS – The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973)
MS – The Reivers by William Faulkner (1963)
MO – The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (1950)
NE – The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (2007 finalist)
NJ – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2008)
NJ – American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1998)
NM – House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (1969)
NY – The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (1990)
NY – Ironweed by William Kennedy (1984)
NY – The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1979)
NY – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2001)
NY – Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (1997)
NY – All Souls by Christine Schutt (2009 finalist)
NY – The Privileges by Jonathan Dee (2011 finalist)
NY – Mr. Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos (1996 finalist)
NY – At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott (1993 finalist)
ND – The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (2009 finalist)
OH – The Town by Conrad Richter (1951)
OH – Beloved by Toni Morrison (1988)
OK – Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan (1991 finalist)
PA – The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975)
TN – A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1987)
TN – A Death in the Family by James Agee (1958)
TX – Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1986)
TX – Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (1966)
UT – The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer (1980)
VA – The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2004)
VA – The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1968)
WY – Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx (2000 finalist)
⁶ National Book Award Winners by state setting
CA – In America by Susan Sontag (2000)
FL – Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (2008)
GA – Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (1988)
GA – The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983)
HI – From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1952)
IL – The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (1950)
IL – Herzog by Saul Bellow (1965)
IL – The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder (1968)
IL – So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1982)
LA – The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1962)
LA – Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories by Ellen Gilchrist (1984)
MA – The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1958)
MI – Them by Joyce Carol Oates (1970)
MN – Morte D’Urban by J. F. Powers (1963)
MS – Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2011)
NE – Plains Song by Wright Morris (1981)
NE – The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (2006)
NJ – Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth (1960)
NY – The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1959)
NY – World’s Fair by E. L. Doctorow (1986)
NY – Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009)
NC – Paco’s Story by Larry Heinemann (1987)
NC – Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (1997)
ND – The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012)
PA – Ten North Frederick by John O’Hara (1956)
PA – The Centaur by John Updike (1964)
PA – Rabbit is Rich by John Updike (1982)
RI – Spartina by John Casey (1989)
WV – Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (2010)
If you’ve read any of these and have opinions on them, please let me know. I’ve read a few and thought Bah, what’s the big deal? while others have blown me away. I’m curious what your thoughts are. Thanks!
I am looking for titles set in each US state by authors from that state. Can you help fill the gaps or notify me of egregious omissions? Scroll down for details on the project. Thank you!
Alabama: Albert Murray
Alaska: Velma Wallis
Arizona: Alfredo Vea, Jr
Arizona: Leslie Marmon Silko
Arkansas: Henry Dumas
Arkansas: Janis F. Kearney
California: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
California: Octavia Butler
California: Amy Tan
Colorado: Manuel Ramos
Connecticut: Ann Petry
Delaware: Cristian Henríquez
Delaware: Bertice Berry
D.C.: Edward P. Jones
Florida: Zora Neale Hurston
Georgia: Alice Walker
Hawaii: Kiana Davenport
Hawaii: Kaui Hart Hemmings
Hawaii: Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Idaho: Janet Campbell Hale
Illinois: Richard Wright
Illinois: Gwendolyn Brooks
Indiana: Mohja Kahf
Iowa: Bharati Mukherjee
Kansas: Langston Hughes
Kentucky: Crystal Wilkinson
Kentucky: William H. Turner
Lousiana: Ernest J. Gaines
Maine: Alexander Chee
Maryland: Frederick Douglass
Massachusetts: Dorothy West
Michigan: Malcom X
Minnesota: Kao Kalia Yang
Mississippi: Jesmyn Ward
Mississippi: Richard Wright
Missouri: Maya Angelou
Montana: James Welch
Nebraska: Delphine Red Shirt
Nevada: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins
New Hampshire: ?
New Jersey: Akhil Sharma
New Jersey: Junot Diaz
New Mexico: Rudolfo Anaya
New Mexico: M. Scott Momaday
New York: Louise Meriwether
New York: Oscar Hijuelos
New York: James Baldwin
New York: Colson Whitehead
New York: Nella Larsen
North Carolina: Harriet Jacobs
North Dakota: Louise Erdrich
Ohio: Celeste Ng
Ohio: Toni Morrison
Oklahoma: Brandon Hobson
Oklahoma: Linda Hogan
Oregon: Heidi Durrow
Oregon: Mitchell S Jackson
Pennsylvania: M.K. Asante
Rhode Island: Jhumpa Lahiri
South Carolina: Dori Sanders
South Dakota: Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
South Dakota: Charles Eastman
Tennessee: Rosalyn McMillan
Tennessee: Alex Haley
Texas: Ito Romo
Texas: Jovita Gonzalez
Texas: Gloria Anzaldúa
Utah: ?
Vermont: Jamaica Kincaid
Virginia: Edward P. Jones
Washington: Sherman Alexie
Washington: Jamie Ford
West Virginia: ?
Wisconsin: Nina Revoyr
Wyoming: ?
One of the most challenging aspects of my Andrea Reads America project has been finding works of fiction set in each state written by non-Caucasian authors who are either from the state or have lived there as a resident. When I wrote about this difficulty in a previous post, Where are the ethnic authors?, several readers asked that I compile a list of the titles I have so far so that they could help fill in the gaps. (Thank you @LissGrunert and The Afro-Librarians for the suggestion. I’m holding you to your offer now.)
As of this posting date, March 12, 2014, I have found non-Caucasian authors from 38 states and the District of Columbia. I lack titles for the remaining 11:
Colorado
Indiana
Maine
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
South Carolina
Utah
West Virginia
Wyoming
If you have favorite titles that meet the following criteria, please leave me a note in the comments below (or via Twitter at @andreabadgley) and I will add them to the list. If you know a title set in a specific state but do not know where the writer is from, don’t worry: please give me your titles anyway and I’ll research the author’s background. All genres are welcome:
Non-Caucasian author (African-American, Asian American, Latino, Native American, Indian American, etc.)
Narrative set in a specific US state
Author born in or has lived in the state in which the title is set OR author writes about personal ancestors in the state
Please pass this list around to any readers you know so we can fill it in and provide a resource for folks who’d like to diversify their reading. Thank you!
Andrea Reads America 