For their new book, State By State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey asked 51 writers, from George Packer to Ha Jin, Anthony Bourdain to Jhumpa Lahiri, to follow these directions:
Tell us a story about your state, the more personal the better, something that captures the essence of the place. Not the kind of story one hears in a musty lecture hall or one reads in the dusty pages of an encyclopedia. The kind of story the enlisted soldier tells his boot-camp bunkmate about back home. The kind of story, wistful and wise, that begins, "Well, I don't know about you, but where I come from..."
The result: a collection of short essays, modeled after similar guides from the 1930s, published by the Works Progress Administration.
We're asking you to follow Weiland and Wilsey's instructions. Give us a 100-word story about your state. (You can leave it as a comment here, for consideration -- and for peer review.) On tomorrow's show, we'll talk to Wilsey, and to some of the men and women who contributed to his book. We'll also read a few listener stories.
Comments
Please note that all comments must adhere to the NPR.org discussion rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login | Register
More information needed to participate in the NPR online community.. Add this information