Is there a Midwestern author or book that you love? Have you visited their home or made a pilgrimage to their birthplace? Do you share a hometown? On your commute, do you pass by a site from within their writing? Do you live near a site that has been lost or redeveloped? Write about that experience!
We seek brief essays (~600 words), accompanied by a photo of the site, to publish on The New Territory website for Literary Landscapes. This is an ongoing series on the website, with highlights published in the print magazine. All contributors will receive a one-year New Territory subscription as a thank-you.
It’s essential that this series represent the diversity of the Midwest, including the authors, contributors, and the types of landscapes and visuals that we publish. With that in mind, we especially seek pitches from Indigenous, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ contributors.
Here are a few possibilities from The New Territory team. Select one of these or pitch your own! Send inquiries and pitches to Departments Editor Andy Oler at andy@newterritorymag.com.
A (limited) list of potential sites:
*We will regularly add to this list and remove names/sites that have been “claimed” by a contributor. Last updated 1/14/2024.
- Hanif Abdurraqib (Columbus, OH)
- Lynda Barry (Richland Center or Footville, WI, or Chicago, IL)
- Truman Capote (Holcomb, KS)
- Ana Castillo (Chicago, IL)
- Charles W. Chesnutt (Cleveland, OH)
- Maxine Clair (Kansas City, KS)
- Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Crow Creek Reservation, SD)
- Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
- William Cunningham (sites from the Green Corn Rebellion in eastern Oklahoma)
- Ella Cara Deloria (Yankton or Standing Rock Reservations, or sites in Vermillion or Rapid City, SD)
- Rita Dove (Akron, OH)
- Paul Laurence Dunbar (Dayton, OH)
- Ralph Ellison (Oklahoma City, OK; Gary, IN; Chicago, IL)
- Eve L. Ewing (Chicago, IL)
- B. H. Fairchild (Tulsa, OK, or small towns and oil fields in Oklahoma or Kansas)
- Ross Gay (Bloomington, IN)
- Susan Glaspell (Davenport, IA)
- Paul Goble (Rapid City, SD)
- Zane Grey (Zanesville, OH, or sites from his westerns)
- Joy Harjo (Tulsa, OK)
- E. Lynn Harris (Little Rock, AR)
- Velina Hasu Houston (Junction City, KS)
- Scott Heim (Hutchinson, KS)
- LeAnne Howe (Edmond or Stillwater, OK)
- Lawson Fusao Inada (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
- William Inge (Independence, Lawrence, or Wichita, KS)
- Cynthia Kadohata (Chicago, IL, or Springdale, AR)
- Elmore Leonard (Detroit, MI, or characters from Detroit, Norman, OK, etc.)
- Oscar Micheaux (Gregory County, SD, or Great Bend, KS)
- Janice Mirikitani (Rohwer War Relocation Center, AR)
- N. Scott Momaday (Lawton, OK)
- Toni Morrison (all over! we are considering a Morrison-focused volume)
- Bich Minh Nguyen (Fort Chaffee, AR; Grand Rapids, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; West Lafayette, IN; Madison, WI)
- Ohiyesa/Charles Eastman (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois)
- José Olivarez (Calumet City, IL)
- Tillie Olsen (Wahoo or Omaha, NE)
- Otokichi Ozaki (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
- Harvey Pekar (Cleveland, OH)
- Celia C. Pérez (Chicago, IL)
- Susan Power (Chicago, IL)
- James Whitcomb Riley (Greenfield, IN)
- Tomás Rivera (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, or Wisconsin)
- Damon Runyon (Manhattan, KS)
- Bienvenido Santos (Iowa City, IA)
- Sarah Smarsh (Kingman or other locations in Kansas)
- Danez Smith (St. Paul, MN)
- Matȟó Nážiŋ/Luther Standing Bear (Rosebud or Pine Ridge, SD)
- Ruth Suckow (Hawarden, IA, or many other towns/farms/landscapes in Iowa)
- Joyce Carol Thomas (Ponca City, OK)
- Taitetsu Unno (Rohwer War Relocation Center, AR)
- V. “Valhalla” Vale (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
- Gerald Vizenor (Minneapolis or White Earth Reservation, MN)
- John Albert Williams (Omaha, NE)
- Richard Wright (Chicago, IL)
- Xéhachiwinga/Mountain Wolf Woman (Black River Falls, WI)
- Ray Young Bear (Meskwaki Settlement, IA)