A collection within The Strate Collection
Voicesof America A literary map of the United States: one recommended work for each state and inhabited U.S. territory, with additional paths into the voices, landscapes, histories, and conflicts that shape it.
50 States · 5 Territories · One national map The idea
One country. The broader World Project covers nations across the globe. This project narrows the lens to the United States and treats each state and inhabited territory as its own literary territory. Each entry offers one recommended starting point and additional suggestions without pretending any place can be reduced to a single book.
Interactive map
Select a state or territory Alabama: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Alaska: Two Old Women by Velma Wallis Arizona: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver Colorado: Plainsong by Kent Haruf Florida: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Georgia: The Color Purple by Alice Walker Indiana: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington Kansas: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Maine: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout Massachusetts: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Minnesota: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis New Jersey: American Pastoral by Philip Roth North Carolina: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier North Dakota: Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich Oklahoma: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Pennsylvania: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara South Dakota: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder Texas: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Wyoming: Close Range by Annie Proulx Connecticut: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates Missouri: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain West Virginia: Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam Illinois: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair New Mexico: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou California: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Delaware: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez Hawaii: Hawai'i by James A. Michener Iowa: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley Kentucky: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry Maryland: The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler Michigan: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Mississippi: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Montana: A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean New Hampshire: A Separate Peace by John Knowles New York: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Ohio: Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson Oregon: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey Tennessee: A Death in the Family by James Agee Utah: Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams Virginia: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron Washington: Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson Wisconsin: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder Nebraska: My Ántonia by Willa Cather South Carolina: The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy Idaho: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson Nevada: Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins Vermont: The Secret History by Donna Tartt Louisiana: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Rhode Island: The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike American Samoa: Pago Pago Tango by John Enright American Samoa Guam: No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon Guam Northern Mariana Islands: A Chamorro Reference Grammar by Donald M. Topping Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico: La guaracha del Macho Camacho by Luis Rafael Sánchez Puerto Rico United States Virgin Islands: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique United States Virgin Islands Select a state or territory on the map to open its selected works.
South
Alabama Works from this place To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Harper Lee's novel remains one of the most widely read literary encounters with childhood, race, law, and moral memory in Alabama. The selection gives Alabama a literary point of entry without pretending that any single work can contain the whole place.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men James Agee and Walker Evans
A documentary-literary portrait of tenant farming poverty in Alabama, preserving the human cost of Depression-era rural life.
All Over but the Shoutin' Rick Bragg
A memoir rooted in working-class Alabama, family memory, hardship, and the voice of the rural South.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Fannie Flagg
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.
Forrest Gump Winston Groom
Forrest Gump by Winston Groom is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.
The Keepers of the House Shirley Ann Grau
The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.
Coming of Age in Mississippi Anne Moody
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.
Boy's Life Robert R. McCammon
Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.
Scottsboro Ellen Feldman
Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 Christopher Paul Curtis
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis is included as a representative pathway into Alabama's literature, history, landscape, memory, or regional imagination.