Includes bibliographical references and index.

Getting back there: an introduction and a case study -- Why read for place? an introduction -- To blend in the place you're in, but with a mind to do something?: The practice of merging in James Dickey's to the White Sea -- A matter of context: region and place -- One writer's place: the south of George Garrett -- Representing urban Appalachia: Fred Chappell's the gaudy place -- The truths of William Hoffman's southern Appalachian places: the critics and his own -- Southern Appalachian montage: reviewing books across regions (a collection) -- Looking closer: a state of place -- Out of space, out of time?: the Virginia novels of Julien Green -- Hanging on to place: the self-reflexive depths of Kelly Cherry's fiction -- Here, there, where: David Huddle's Appalachian Virginia -- Epilogue: Writing for a place: a writers workshop for Mcdowell County, West Virginia.