Comments on: the best writing on place

By: Laura Manning

Laura Manning — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:20:30 +0000

When we talk about the value of ‘place’ to writing, I must conjure the work of Eudora Welty. Welty wrote an essay on the subject many years ago in which she opens by citing something to the effect that place is the ‘lesser angel of fiction’. With such stated up front, i do not believe that she was relegating place to a lesser role in the importance of her writing; rather, she began this essay about the importance of place by noting how we (writers and readers alike) may overlook its value in creating contexts, moods, how it holds an arch of a story, provides the path on which readers enter the work of a writer. Any discussion on place can only benefit by a close look at the work of Eudora Welty.

By: Jim Herod

Jim Herod — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:38:16 +0000

Anyone visiting northern New Mexico or living there should see the Valles Caldera above Los Alamos.

The web site is
http://www.vallescaldera.gov/comevisit/

Forget about the Garden of Eden being somewhere in the MidEast. It was in Valles Caldera! I promise.

By: Summer Wood

Summer Wood — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:10:53 +0000

Thanks, all of you. I like your recommendations! Some of them — Perma Red, This Cold Heaven, Wyoming Stories, Rainy Mountain — are familiar to me, and I’m looking forward to checking out the others. (Sheryl, is it coincidence that three of your titles have colors in their names? I love it!)

By: Sheryl de Jonge - Loavenbruck

Sheryl de Jonge - Loavenbruck — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:03:49 +0000

I took quite a few courses from the UNM Creative Wr. Prof. Her: The White Horse A Columbian Journey gives a real feel for Columbia and her experiences there
-n, Scott Momaday’s: The Way To Rainy Mountain is an interesting perspective on journey I also enjoyed Ancient Child and his feel for Navajo country.
-Edwidge Danticat’s Dewbreaker takes us to Haiti at times and helps us understand a dictatorship (I also like her Krik? Krak!)
-Soldier of Orange by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema takes us to the Netherlands during WWII and to England where the Queen was ‘in hiding’.
-Blue Mondays by Arnon Grunberg gives us a feel for Amsterdam, NL
-Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling takes us to 1940′s Montana

I could go on forever but I’m sure this is plenty, for the time being. Happy reading and I can’t wait to read the books on
Summer’s list. The only one I’ve read is Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. I had lunch with Tim when he visited SUNY Brockport where I was teaching and my 2 Comp. classes presented him with booklets of reactions to the sections of his book.
Well, take care…Sheryl

By: Deonne Kahler

Deonne Kahler — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:29:46 +0000

Summer, thank you for this list. I’m familiar with a few of the titles (The Meadow is one of my new favorites), and I’ll check out those I didn’t know.

I’d add Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven for those fascinated with desolate places (in this case, Greenland), and any of Annie Proulx’s Wyoming stories. More gorgeous bleakness. (Hm, what do my recommendations say about me? Ha.)

By: Rob Toscano

Rob Toscano — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:25:46 +0000

Jerome Kaplan “Three Men on a Bummel”
describes a bycycle journey through the Black forest of Germany. I’ve never read more humorous cliche in description of surroundings and happenings.

pierre loti – Egypt