Call for submissions: Location/Dislocation

This summer I'll be guest editing a special issue of the Mississippi Review. The theme is Location/Dislocation and the issue will now appear in two versions: an online edition in July, followed by a print edtion in September. I've always been a sucker for stories with a strong sense of place, where the location becomes a character or a force that the characters have to respond to in some way. I'm still working out the plans for how much the work will overlap in the two editions, but meanwhile, if you are interested in submitting, more details can be found at the Mississippi Review website.

Comments

Kel-Bell said…
I am working on a novel in which the place is a pivotal character.

The town represents middle america, as seen in the book Middletown.

The house represents the heart of the family.

Each of the characters speaks from one of the major political or social viewpoints of the time.

I am curious, in your experience, what books do you feel offer the best examples of place as character?
Ken Foster said…
Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson, is a book in which the landscape--the lake that floods and freezes over, the train tracks, etc.--seems both a character and a force on the other characters as well.

All of Ernest Gaines work is anchored in a sense of place--the old slave quarters of Bayonne Lousiana.

A lot of Mary Gaitskill's second collection has a real San Francsican quality that you don't find in her New York stories...

I'm sure I could come up with more examples, but I always go blank when I'm put on the spot.

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