My Kind of Town

Despite the summer influx of tourists, says the author, the town "remains at heart a working harbor."

The Vineyard in Winter

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks delights in the allure of Martha's Vineyard's off-season

"Horses define Lexington in many ways," says Edwards (with Thoroughbred Park's statues).

Lexington Is Kim Edwards' Old Kentucky Home

Far from her Northern roots, the best-selling novelist discovers a new sense of home amid rolling hills and Thoroughbred farms

We don't have a town center, Alvarez says, but we're "rich in characters and talents."

Julia Alvarez on Weybridge, VT

Other towns get more attention says novelist Julia Alvarez, but this is a place where things get done

Amid the city’s ribbons of freeway and corporate spires, says the author, the sky offers "a huge, open relief."

Southern Comfort

Celebrated poet Mark Doty succumbs to Houston's humid charms

In a "city of neighborhoods," Johnson found "an ideal environment for nurturing innovation, individualism and the creative spirit."

In Seattle, a Northwest Passage

He arrived unsure of what to expect—but the prolific author quickly embraced Seattle's energizing diversity

Author Joan Acocella

My Kind of Town: New York

Why do New Yorkers seem rude? A noted critic and essayist has a few ideas

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Urbane Renewal

Claire Messud, the best-selling author of The Emperor's Children, discovers the grown-up pleasures of her adolescent playground

Oxford is a "baffling jumble of structures . . . with no obvious center to them," says the author.

Among the Spires

Between medieval and modern, Oxford seeks equilibrium

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At Home. For Now

The acclaimed novelist probes our yearning for a fixed address

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Have Roots, Will Travel

Like the four generations of Angelenos who preceded her, the best-selling author likes to get around

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Beyond the Fringes

The author traces some abiding infatuations—and old antagonisms—to his seaside boyhood home

"It used to be said that Yankees knew of only two places in Georgia—the Coca-Cola factory and Tara—and one of those was fictional," notes Greene (Atlanta's Olympic Park).

Some Don't Like It Hot

Atlantans regard summer—and the overheated tourists it spawns—woefully

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"Mad, Stark Mad"

Thirty-five years after "defecting" to the Barbary Coast, the bestselling novelist still loves his city by the bay

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