Thirteen great books out of the Midwest

Anna Clark is a 2010 fellow with the Peter Jennings Center for Journalists and the Constitution. Her writing has appeared in The American Prospect, Salon, The Nation, UTNE Reader, among many others.

For The Daily Beast she named 13 essential works of fiction to come out of the Midwest. One title on the list:

Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson

With its heels dug deep into small-town life, Winesburg, Ohio, is buoyed by an eclectic cast of characters—among them an agnostic, a drunkard, a reverend, a spinster, and a schoolteacher. Anderson’s story cycle centers the life of George Willard, with the narration becoming more complex as Willard himself evolves from childhood into independence. Writers ranging from Ray Bradbury to Eudora Welty to Amos Oz have credited this classic text as an influence. Anderson grew up in Clyde, Ohio, and later lived in Chicago, where he joined a literary community anchored by Carl Sandburg and Theodore Dreiser.

Read about the other books on Clark's list.

--Marshal Zeringue