Category talk:American writers by state

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[edit] Ill defined...

Who goes in each of these categories? People who write about a state? People who were born in that state? What about a person who happened to live in California for 2 years in the early 80s?

A clearly spelled out definition of who goes in these categories is definitely needed. Someone recently added Orson Scott Card to Category:North Carolina writers... card just happens to live thier currently, but it plays a very minor part in his life.

Anyway, some clarification would be appreciated. ---J.S ^(T/C) 20:03, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

I think it is common practice in lots of bibliographies to claim a person for a state if they lived some major part of their life there. Of course, we can debate all day about what "some major part" means. In general, I would accept any amount of time as long as it was what you would call a permanent residence. I guess that means we have to look at everybody's tax records! :)

Anyway, there a lots of troublesome possibilities: a person born in a state but spent almost none of their life there; a person goes to college but never spends any time in that state afterwards. I think you just have to go on a case by case basis. I would accept Orson Scott Card for North Carolina. He DOES live there. The place may not be important to his writing, but lots a writers do not use their personal geography in their work.

I feel that, unless there are some real good reasons otherwise, that a person who writes about a state should NOT be included as part of that state's writers. Mark Twain wrote a number of things about Utah, but I'm not going to call him a Utah writer. --Steven.Harris ^{(T | C)} 23:33, 29 December 2006 (UTC)