Literary Map of Virginia

In 1957 the Virginia Association of Teachers of English created a Literary map of Virginia. It is a beautiful document that can still be seen online as part of the Library of Congress exhibit of Language of the Land: Journeys into Literary America.

It is appropriate that we decided to rebuild this project fifty years later. This time we are creating the information digitally, which will make it easier for it to grow over the years.

How do we define a Virginia writer? A Virginia writer for this project is a published writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or song lyrics who was born in Virginia, lived in Virginia, or currently lives in Virginia. Other states may claim writers, such as Willa Cather, who was born in Virginia but lived most of her life in Nebraska, or Sherwood Anderson, born in Ohio, but toward the end of his life lived in Virginia, but we claim them, too.

This is an ongoing project, which will never be finished. If you would like to help with the research or contribute to the list of authors, please contact Linda MacCleave.