Short story author and Syracuse University professor George Saunders won a MacArthur “genius grant” yesterday. Yay George! Because Syracuse’s newspaper, the Post-Standard has not only a book critic, but a blog about books, I can alert you to an online piece Saunders wrote for the New Yorker. (Thanks for the link, Laura.)
George is one of many, many working writers in the region. I’ve mentioned them before, but it’s a topic near and dear to my heart. Who else can you run into at the library or coffee shop? Bruce Coville, for one. Tammy Pierce is moving up here (December?) and Suzan-Lori Parks. Who else has ties here? Tobias Wolf, Mary Karr, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Seybold, Jay McInerney, John Berendt, professor Gwyneth Bolton, poet and professor Bruce Smith, Raymond Carver, Steven Crane, F. Scott Fitzgerald, mystery writer John McDonald, and scholar Alison Lurie. Norma and Harry and Anne Fox Mazer. SCBWI maven Ellen Yeomans.
Who am I missing?
Central New York has a rich artistic and literary history and is a magnificent place to live. Maybe you should move up here. Now.
I have a question for you readers in the area – where is the best public space to write in Central New York?
If you don’t live around here – where do you like to write? Be specific, give addresses (but only if it is a public space).