The best American writing has always been regional. But to be regional in the best sense you have to see beyond the region. For example, the Fugitives at Vanderbilt in the '20s felt that the South they knew was passing away and they wanted to get it down before it went, but they had a larger vision than just the South. They were against what they saw coming, against the social planner, fellow traveller spirit that came along in the next ten years. They looked to the past and future to make a judgement in their own times. (
pg. 109)
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William Stafford also talks about the importance of regionalism-- that all experiences are local and that, paradoxically, it's through immersion in our own location that we can achieve universality-- "the vivid encounter with the stuff of our world is where life happens to be."
I never thought about the importance of my voice reflecting my region, as a writer, until I read O'Connor.
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