The Regional Writer
An author is a regional writer when his or her body of work reflects a particular area or region. For instance, Eudora Welty is a Southern style writer because her stories are mostly set in the Deep South, and more specifically in Mississippi. They reflect the physical setting, language and culture of that area and time.
The physical setting is the most important aspect of determining a regional writer. In Eudora Welty's story, A Worn Path, the action takes place in a southern rural area. The main character walks from an isolated country farm to the nearest town to get medicine for her son. Even the nearest town is a small southern town. Ms. Welty's story waiting at the P.O. is set at a small Mississippi town where the narrator lives and in a Post office where the narrator of the story goes to escape from her sister.
Gravestone of famous author Eudora Welty
English: I took photo of Eudora Welty at National ...
English: Eudora Welty House; Jackson, Mississippi;...Also set in Mississippi are Welty's stories, "The Robber Bridegroom", "Delta Wedding", "The Ponder Heart", "Losing Battles", and "The Optimist's Daughter". In fact, George Hodgman comments about Welty in his Entertainment Weekly article, Southern Comfort, "Her setting was almost always a fertile Mississippi". Usually the writer sets his or her stories in one particular area because that is the area they were born or raised in or spent most of their lives. It is an area they know and therefore it is easier for them to write about life in that area the way it is. In an obituary for Eudora Welty in Newsweek, Malcolm Jones writes, "Her stories and novels are never directly autobiographical, but everything she knew about life is there".
Another example of a regional writer setting his stories in one region is Garrison Keillor. Mr. Keillor's stories are mostly set in the fictional town...