A good place to be from. That's how some people might characterize the Buckeye State. Indeed, the selections in Good Roots: Writers Reflect on Growing Up in Ohio attest to the truth of that statement. From a wide array of prominent essayists, novelists, poets, short story writers, and journalists, these contributions, alternately nostalgic, irreverent, and sincere, offer us a personal sense of place.

The childhoods of the writers are as varied as their work. Some were raised in the cities or suburbs of Cleveland, Akron, and Cincinnati, others in the small Ohio towns that typify the Midwest, and still others in the countryside... Yet what they have to tell us about their Ohio roots resonates with a shared heritage, a sense of what is universal and enduring about growing up in the heartland. Good Roots is also plain good reading from some of our country's most accomplished contemporary writers.