Way back in mid-August I signed on for the Literary Road Trip, hosted by GalleySmith. What is a Literary Road Trip, you ask? Well, “The Literary Road Trip is a project in which bloggers are volunteering to showcase local authors. This showcase can be anything you want to make of it — book reviews, author interviews, giveaways — as long as you’re working with an author local to you.”
Having moved to Nebraska in late July, I’m naturally excited about showcasing Nebraska authors, in part as a way for me to learn more about this state I’ve moved to. Disclosure: I’m not exactly new to Nebraska. I was born here, and over the course of my lifetime, I’ve lived in Nebraska for about five years total, spread out over three different locales and three different sojourns. I do have some roots in the state. Still, I didn’t live in Nebraska during my school years, so I don’t exactly have the local history down pat.
My early, tentative list of Nebraska authors is:
• Willa Cather
• Mari Sandoz
• Bess Streeter Aldrich
• Ted Kooser
• Ladette Randolph
• Timothy Schaffert
This is me putting the call out. Do you know of other Nebraska authors? (Are you a Nebraska author? Contact me, please!) Of the Nebraska authors I know of, what work(s) should I start with?
I’d also be interested in hearing about books set in Nebraska, particularly those in which the setting has a real presence.
I do plan to check out my local library.
In addition to book reviews and author interviews/guest posts, I also hope to include posts about touring the Nebraska homes of some of these authors — Cather’s home in Red Cloud isn’t too far from me, for example.
Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?
4 comments
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August 9, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Michelle
I’m so excited to see you joining in. I’m anxious to read more about the authors of Nebraska
August 10, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Margot
I’m so glad you picked Nebraska. I picked Kansas so, hi neighbor. I’m not actually living there right now as my husband and I retired and traveling all over the place. I knew of a few Kansas authors but had the best luck when I googled Kansas authors. It led to all sorts of interesting websites and I now have a huge list of local authors. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for you.
August 10, 2009 at 2:38 pm
wordlily
Margot, yeah, I’d seen that you’d picked Kansas. I look forward to your posts! This afternoon I went through the Nebraska Authors tag on my library’s website, and based on that, I have a huge list! It’ll take me a while to just check them all out!
November 1, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Facing facts « Word Lily
[...] I also haven’t read any books by Nebraska authors yet this year, something I agreed to because I really wanted to highlight local authors and learn more about my new home state besides. [...]