local authors

You can tell you live in a desirable place by the fact that people want to write books about the place. In our case, a steady stream of good books about the Great Lakes/North woods continue to come out by nationally distributed writers in works of non-fiction, poetry, literary fiction, and category fiction.

Along with the nationally distributed writers are the local authors. Maybe there's something about our place that just brings out the desire to share a story.

This past weekend, our public library held a local authors' bookfair. Works of history, natural history, anecdotal accounts of life in the area, childrens' books, literary fiction were all represented by a dozen local authors. Only a few are nationally distributed authors, at least so far. Writing is not their primary source of income. Rather they are motivated by their desire to share their stories of our place. Thanks to the library staff and program committee for providing this opportunity to get to know our local authors better and thanks to our local authors for their labors of love. I've read most of them (and bought one I hadn't) and appreciate the points of view they bring.

S don't limit your reading just to the bestseller lists or just to what network TV talk show hosts suggest. Get to know your place better through your local authors.