State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

From the bestselling editors of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup comes an American road trip in book form: original writing on all 50 states by 50 of our finest novelists, journalists, and essayists

Inspired by the example of the legendary WPA American Guide series of the 1930s and '40s, now 50 of our foremost writers have produced original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states in our time, creating a fresh portrait of America as it lives and breathes today.

At turns poignant and funny, and always insightful, these 50 writers tell us something lasting and revealing about each state through personal memory or contemporary reporting that captures the essential qualities that make each state its own. With an array of revealing facts and figures comparing the 50 states in a range of surprising measures (toothlessness, military enlistment, suicide), State by State is more than an anthology: It is a classic American road movie in book form.

Featuring original writing on all fifty states

Alabama by George Packer
Alaska by Paul Greenberg
Arizona by Lydia Millet
Arkansas by Kevin Brockmeier
California by William T. Vollmann
Colorado by Benjamin Kunkel
Connecticut by Rick Moody
Delaware by Craig Taylor
Florida by Joshua Ferris
Georgia by Ha Jin
Hawaii by Tara Bray Smith
Idaho by Anthony Doerr
Illinois by Dave Eggers
Indiana by Susan Choi
Iowa by Dagoberto Gilb
Kansas by Jim Lewis
Kentucky by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Louisiana by Joshua Clark
Maine by Heidi Julavits
Maryland by Myla Goldberg
Massachusetts by John Hodgman
Michigan by Mohammed Naseehu Ali
Minnesota by Philip Connors
Mississippi by Barry Hannah
Missouri by Jacki Lyden
Montana by Sarah Vowell
Nebraska by Alexander Payne
Nevada by Charles Bock
New Hampshire by Will Blythe
New Jersey by Anthony Bourdain
New Mexico by Ellery Washington
New York by Jonathan Franzen
North Carolina by Randall Kenan
North Dakota by Louise Erdrich
Ohio by Susan Orlean
Oklahoma by S.E. Hinton
Oregon by Joe Sacco
Pennsylvania by Andrea Lee
Rhode Island by Jhumpa Lahiri
South Carolina by Jack Hitt
South Dakota by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Tennessee by Ann Patchett
Texas by Cristina Henríquez
Utah by David Rakoff
Vermont by Alison Bechdel
Virginia by Tony Horwitz
Washington by Carrie Brownstein
West Virginia by Jayne Anne Phillips
Wisconsin by Daphne Beal
Wyoming by Alexandra Fuller

and an afterword on Washington, D.C.: A Conversation with Edward P. Jones

“Self-consciously modeled after state guides sponsored by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, this ambitious effort features a terrific roster of writers.” - Kirkus Reviews

“[State by State] is a funny, moving, rousing collection, greater than the sum of its excellent parts, a convention of literary superdelegates, each one boisterously nominating his or her piece of the Republic.” - New York Times Book Review

“Ideal nightstand reading and a welcome reminder of the pluribus behind the unum.” - Salon.com

“Odds are, reading STATE BY STATE, that you’ll fall for every state a little, even if they remain tremendously hard to explain.” - Los Angeles Times

“This eclectic collection of essays describing the ordinary people and places within our 50 states is as essential as the Rand McNally atlas. Alternately brash and bashful...each literary foray in State by State is well worth the trip. Grade: A.” - Entertainment Weekly

“An enjoyable journey: 50 essays, cartoons and mini-plays, plus an afterward about Washington, DC and a fascinating appendix…all in all, it makes one yearn for a driver’s license and a stretch of open highway.” - New York Post

“Travel can take many forms, and in State by State, a collection of 50 essays by 50 writers inspired by the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project, the individual journeys combine for an intimate and often abstract odyssey through America. . . . The range of this writing, whether set in land with amber waves of grain or purple mountain majesties, or nearer to the music-hearted sea, is impressive and almost always unexpected.” - Boston Globe

“The full plumage of American life, in all its riotous glory.” - The New Yorker

“This fascinating collection, inspired by guides in the 1930s and 1940s, includes original essays on each of the states by some of the country’s finest (mostly younger) writers.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Fascinating.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“It starts to become clear that how where we come from defines who we are is both intensely personal and ineffable, that it is a thing of memory, and it may come from the place that we have no right to call home but that we come to love. And odds are, reading State by State, that you’ll fall for every state a little, even if they remain tremendously hard to explain.” - Los Angeles Times

“This eclectic collection of essays describing the ordinary people and places within our 50 states is as essential as the Rand McNally atlas. . . . Alternately brash and bashful (’You’re probably just skimming through this chapter on your way to Nevada,’ writes Nebraskan Alexander Payne), each literary foray in State by State is well worth the trip. Grade: A.” - Entertainment Weekly

“ Some of the essays—including Jim Lewis’ brief fling with Kansas and Craig Taylor’s beautifully reported take on Delaware—are among the finest you’ll read all year. Ideal nightstand reading and a welcome reminder of the pluribus behind the unum.” - Salon.com