What Makes a Chicago Author?

esterday, Gapers Block made a post about Ewan Morrison’s list of the top ten literary threesomes.  Apparently the list contained two Chicago author’s books.  The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag, a University of Chicago Alum, came in at #7 while Ernest Hemingway took the cake with The Garden of Eden placed at #1.  Apparently he was born in Oak Park.  (I should brush up on my Hemingway trivia, I ’spose).  Anyway, today I was rereading the post and discovered that a comment that asked the simple question, “what makes an author a Chicago author?” The commenter, Pete, found it ridiculous to call these two Chicago authors based solely on their limited experiences with/in the city.

I find this fascinating.  I’d like to know where the line is drawn between authors and Chicago authors (or New York authors or L.A. authors, or whatever).  On this site I often refer to any author who lives in (or sometimes around) the city of Chicago as a Chicago author, which I think is a relatively solid distinction.  The purpose of this site is to highlight the vibrant publishing and writing industry that thrives (or survives, in some cases) in Chicago.  As such, anyone publishing books or writing books in Chicago counts.  But in the larger scheme of things, one must ask if someone like Luis Urrea who hails from Mexico, grew up in California, and went to college in Colorado is really a Chicago author just because he happens to live here now.  All of his books are concerned with the southwest and Mexico.  He himself finds it strange when people refer to him as a Chicago author.

So maybe it’s a question of intent.  If a person considers themselves and/or their writing to be attached to a particular place then they can be called a Chicago author or London author or whatever it happens to be.  Personally, I do think it’s a stretch to call Hemingway a Chicago author just because he lived here at one time or Sontag because she spent a few years in a University bubble that happened to be in Chicago.  I don’t think we can call someone an [insert place here] author because they happened to spend a few days there or because their grandma lives there.  Aside from authorial intent, I think the only other way we can describe someone as an author of a specific place is if they make a concious decision to live and work in that place.