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“This
eclectic collection of essays describing the ordinary people and places
within our 50 states is as essential as the Rand McNally atlas. It
includes pieces from the likes of Rick Moody (Conn.) and S.E. Hinton
(Okla.), each searching for a sliver of the American character.
Alternately brash and bashful (’You’re probably just skimming through
this chapter on your way to Nevada,’ writes Nebraskan Alexander Payne),
each literary foray in State by State is well worth the trip. Grade: A.”
Inspired by the legendary WPA State Guides of
the 1930s, New York Times bestselling
editors Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey commissioned original pieces on all 50
states by 50 leading American writers to create STATE BY STATE. The result, featuring an electric mix of acclaimed
novelists, journalists, graphic novelists and even a musician (Carrie
Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney), a filmmaker (Alexander Payne), and a cook
(Anthony Bourdain), is a classic road-trip in book form, capturing the 50
states as they live and breathe today. STATE
BY STATE: A Panoramic Portrait of America portrays the beauty, the kitsch,
the unexpected and the quintessential things that make each state distinctive.
As Weiland writes in the book’s preface, “What makes one state different from
another? What are each state’s particularities and idiosyncrasies, their
prejudices and biases, their beauty marks and moles, their cadences and jokes?”
Weiland and Wilsey also wondered how America has changed—and how has it
remained the same—since the WPA State Guides appeared seventy years ago. At
turns poignant, funny, and always insightful, these 50 writers—including
Franzen on New York, Vowell on Montana, Patchett on Tennessee, Eggers on
Illinois, Erdrich on North Dakota, Bourdain on New Jersey and much more—capture
the good, the bad, and the ugly through a pieces of personal history or
contemporary reporting.
STATE
BY STATE also features an array of revealing facts and figures comparing the
fifty states in a range of surprising measures (such as violent crime, roller
coasters, and military recruitment). And, in a 32-page photo insert, each
writer has selected one image that captures something essential about each
state.
STATE
BY STATE has been chosen by Powell’s Books to be the third film in the Out of the
Book film series. With sixteen
contributors starring in “Out of the Book, Volume 3: State by State,” the film
will be screened in partnership with independent booksellers in as many as one
hundred cities and towns across America between September 16 and November 2,
2008.
STATE BY STATE: A Panoramic Portrait
of America
Edited by Matt Weiland and Sean
Wilsey
Publication Date: September 16, 2008
Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
Hardcover / $29.95 / 608 pages
ISBN: 9780061470905
www.eccobooks.com
Contact:
Michael McKenzie michael.mckenzie@harpercollins.com | ||
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