A recent Detroit Free Press story points out there's been a profusion of literary output from West Michigan over the last few years.
The newspaper missed a couple of prolific writers, most prominently
Wade Rouse of the Saugatuck/Douglas area, but the story otherwise rounds up the local literary scene, recognizing that beyond Bonnie Jo Campbell and Jaimy Goren with their National Book Award nominations a number of other writers working on the west side of the state have earned critical acclaim.
They point to Stuart Dybek, Heather Sellers, Rhoda Janzen, David Small, Melinda Moustakis and Kristina Riggle.
Excerpt:
David Small: The 2001 winner of the Caldecott Medal, the nation's most prestigious award for the illustration of children's books, Small stunned the literary world in 2009 with "Stitches." The comic book-style memoir recounts his hellish upbringing in Detroit in the 1950s, including how Small's father, a doctor, subjected him to an overdose of radiation that left him unable to speak. Small lives in Mendon.
For more on the other authors, please read the
rest of the story.
Source: Detroit Free Press
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