Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest

How do the stories we tell about Midwestern places influence or reflect our experiences? How is the literature of a place or a region relevant to the people who live there? In this expansive anthology, Andy Oler collects 72 original short essays by a diverse array of contemporary writers. Each explores locales in Midwestern literature relevant to the life and work of literary figures and canonical authors such as Toni Morrison and Willa Cather. Lingering in these places in both body and mind, the contributors contemplate the resonances and desires nurtured by their chosen location. Together, the essays take readers on an odyssey that maps our inner longing to connect across vast landscapes. A singular collection of creative nonfiction, Lingering Inland plumbs the personal and collective essence that binds Midwesterners together through words and places.

Andy Oler is chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aereonautical University and coeditor of Michigan Salvage: Approaches to the Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell and Old-Fashioned Modernism: Rural Masculinity and Midwestern Literature.