Regional Book and Authors, Promoting and reviewing our own, Where’s this blog headed
I’m very interested in how regional books, or books by regional authors, are reported and reviewed. I’ve found a few places of interest, but not a whole lot.
While looking up New Mexico authors and books I came across this website, called New West, with a book section, that includes news, author interviews, and reviews. New West Network seems to concentrate on “news that matters to the Rocky Mountain West”. In the Best Books summaries, the states listed were Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and other Western states.
There’s http://www.utexas.edu/opa/blogs/shelflife/, to promote the writings of the University of Texas folks. Texas book blogsters are all over the place, Will’s Texas Parlor, Texas Bookshelf, and the Young Texas Reader, to name a few.
Louisiana has an LSU book blog, many of the state’s have university press blogs, usually only promoting their own titles. Which in no way is meant as a criticism.
But I’m finding that many local authors and books, of very fine quality, are missed by the larger literary newspapers and blogs. What other blogs are you finding that give regional coverage a priority? And in Oklahoma, where do we fall regionally. Are we South, West, Central, most of us don’t consider ourselves Midwest, where do our authors fit into the geographical conundrum that is Oklahoma?
Many times the only place we see local writers reviewed are in local newspapers whose book coverage is minimal at best, and shrinking. So the question for me becomes one of whether I should only review Oklahoma books and Oklahoma authors, tossing in a few regional folks or continue to review all types of literature as it appeals to me, of which many titles are already receiving widespread reviewing and coverage.
Much to ponder….
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Ah, where *does* Oklahoma fit into the American regional framework? Midwest, south, southwest, west?
I remember when the Language of the Land exhibit came to Oklahoma City from the Library of Congress. That exhibit declared us a western state, and the illustrative map showed all of the contiguous states west of the plains in a nice clump, and there was Oklahoma jutting out of it, like a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit. (Texas was proclaimed Southern in that exhibit, by the way.)
Take a look at the Oklahoma Almanac’s Demographics section and check out Zelinsky’s Cultural Regions map of the state. We do indeed have influences from all of the areas: midwestern, southern, southwestern, and western. Settlers came to our state from all of those areas. Add Indian Removal to the mix and I think you have a good idea why some people describe Oklahoma as schizophrenic.
But what fertile ground for writers!