AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--DECEMBER 2024--THE HEARTLAND

(By http://www.americasheartland.org/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35548257)

Inexplicably, we have not really done a Regional Authors month in this challenge since I've been hosting it. It's way past time. There was some debate in the planning of this year's list over how to define "The Heartland" of the United States. No consensus existed among the participants here, so I made an executive decision--- "There are a number of definitions of the American Heartland floating around, but for our purposes let’s say it includes Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio." That kind of sounds like "The Midwest", but we (and by that I think I mean me, myself and I) decided to use the term "The Heartland" which adds an element of cultural identity that perhaps the geographic designation "Midwest" does not.

Here's a relevant article from The New York Times on the subject. It's geared toward the political ramifications of having two "Midwestern" VP candidates in our recent election, but there are a lot of interesting observations there that might speak to our selections.

As always, I'm in favor of flexibility here. So if you choose an author from a state not listed in bold up above, because you feel their work belongs to heartland culture, go for it. I feel this is more a matter of theme, subject matter and soul than geography.

Quintessential and lesser-known authors who fit:

Mark Twain
Sherwood Anderson
Carl Sandburg
Robert Heinlein
Daniel Woodrell
Jim Butcher
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Alexandra Ivy/Deborah Raleigh
Gillian Flynn
John Edward Williams
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Edna Ferber
William Allen White
Ben Lerner
Sarah Smarsh
Ted Kooser
Mari Sandoz
Stephen Markley
John Green
Gene Stratton Porter
William Dean Howells
Booth Tarkington
Abraham Lincoln
Leah Johnson
Lisa Knopp

A couple of non-fiction volumes that are intriguing me:

The Heartland: An American History by Kristin Hoganson
The Tribal Knot by Rebecca McLanahan

So where are YOU going with this one?

I'm going to be a Midwest curmudgeon. Having lived in the Midwest all my life, I cannot imagine the Heartland without Wisconsin & Minnesota.

Here are some random additional suggestions, mostly from Illinois:

Fiction:
Ray Bradbury, b. Illinois
Sandra Cisneros, b. Illinois
John Dos Passos, b. Illinois
Leif Enger, b. Minnesota
James T. Farrell, b. Illinois
Ernest Hemingway, b. Illinois--although he spent his life shaking the Midwest off his feet
Jane Hamilton, b. Illinois
Nella Larsen, b. Illinois
Sinclair Lewis, b. Minnesota
Rebecca Makkai, b. Illinois
William Maxwell, b. Illinois
Sara Paretsky, b. Iowa
Richard Powers, b. Illinois
Carol Shields, b. Illinois
Scott Turow, b. Illinois

Poets:
Maya Angelou, b. Missouri
*Gwendolyn Brooks, b. Kansas, grew up in Illinois
Edgar Lee Masters, b. Kansas, grew up in Illinois
Shel Silverstein, b. Illinois

Playwrights:
Lorraine Hansberry, b. Illinois
David Mamet, b. Illinois
Thornton Wilder, b. Wisconsin

Nonfiction:
Jane Addams, b. Illinois
Dan Egan, b. Wisconsin
Mike Royko, b. Illinois
Bob Woodward, b. Illinois

A couple of random names associated with the Midwest, but born elsewhere:
Willa Cather, b. Virginia, grew up in Nebraska
Studs Terkel, b. New York, worked & wrote in Chicago

*Gwendolyn Brooks did write one novel, which I loved: Maud Martha.

I am going to Ohio with Michael Dirda in Bound to Please, but he also wrote an autobiography called An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland detailing his childhood in Ohio, if anyone would be interested in that one.

I happen to have a copy of Ghost Story by Jim Butcher that I’ve been eager to get to reading, so I’m thrilled to read it for this month’s challenge.

Butcher was born in Independence, Missouri. Most of his “Dresden Files” books are set in Chicago.

Karen O

>2 kac522: "cannot imagine the Heartland without Wisconsin & Minnesota" does not make you a curmudgeon...you're better qualified to define the heartland than those of use from the Northeast, for instance. Thank you for all the excellent suggestions. There are almost endless possibilities. I left Hemingway and a couple others off my list intentionally, because their work didn't seem to grow out of Midwestern sensibilities, but that doesn't rule them out.

Bill Bryson was born in Iowa, and while a lot of his work is distinctly about elsewhere, his memoir, The Thunderbolt Kid, recounts growing up in Des Moines.

>6 lycomayflower: Oh, I've been meaning to read that, and it's here!

ETA: I AM reading it, and it's amazing. Alternately hysterically funny and distressingly enlightening.

I plan to read Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, which I've had unread on my shelf for ages. If time permits, I want to re-read So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell.

Ben Lerner and Daniel Woodrell both appeal to me for the challenge, Linda.

Paulette Jiles, Richard Powers and Gwendolyn Brooks also spring to mind.

Gwendolyn Brooks is a good choice, if anyone is looking to add some poetry to the mix. I dunno about Jiles....she's so Texas, in my mind.

>6 lycomayflower: - That was SUCH a funny book! I've read most of Bryson's books but really loved that one. Especially on audio, which he reads in that delightfully sarcastic way of his.

I finished So Big by Edna Ferber. She really was an author from the heartland. Born in Michigan. Lived in Appleton, Wisconsin for awhile. Jewish American also. Winner of the Pulitzer, 1925. Not sure why I've never read anything by her until now.

I've just finished The Tribal Knot, a family memoir about growing up in Indiana (mostly)...I can't recommend it highly enough. It was one of the most engrossing creative non-fiction narratives I've ever read.

I finished Bound to Please by Michael Dirda a couple of days ago and very much enjoyed this book of essays.

>13 laytonwoman3rd: - Got me with a BB there, Linda. Sounds like my kind of read.

>12 Kristelh: One of my favorites. I also loved The Girls, also set in Chicago, and Fanny Herself, set in Winnebago (aka Appleton), Wisconsin.

>13 laytonwoman3rd: That does sound interesting. Right now I'm reading A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter and it's just OK--can't put a finger on why it's not appealing to me.

I had just about forfeited for this month, but then I realized after the fact that Sharp Objects qualifiés for this category. I had watched the HBO show when it came out but decided to read the book. The show stayed fairly true to the book, and I actually enjoyed the few changes that it made. Rewatching the show now and considering whether I should read more Gillian Flynn. Gone Girl was also an enjoyable book that I finished recently as well.

I finished The Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter (1909) and it was just so-so for me. I know it is a favorite of many, but I kept comparing it with Anne of Green Gables, which was published in the same year (1909), and it kept coming up short. Perhaps if I had read it as a young person it would have more of a place in my heart, but it didn't always ring true and the writing was somewhat stilted and uneven. Lots of interesting stuff about moths, although I wish there had been more nature description of the Limberlost (Indiana) area in general.

For those ready to move ahead into a new reading year, Here is the Pacific Northwest January 2025 AAC Challenge thread.