Authors from your homeland

[Multaniette]

Pakistani authors:

Sadat Hassan Minto - easily the best short story writer Pakistan has produced. Short stories like Khol Do and Toba Teek Singh tackled subjects which were (and are) considered highly taboo.

Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi - I am not a big fan however he is almost universally lauded for his frank and honest portrayal of the rural punjabi society. I would contend that he wasn't nearly critical enough and either trivalizes or glosses over the negative aspects of the people he is portraying.

Amar Jalil - Noted critic and short story writer in both Sindhi and Urdu. His political philosophy and secessionist notions don't sit well with most nationalists but there's no doubting his literary powers.

Ibn Insha - Travelogues are a very popular genre in Pakistan, specially if they are peppered with satire and off-beat humor. Insha took over the mantle from the late Pitras Bokhari and has entertained three generations of Pakistani's with his quirky and moving tales. He is one of the funniest authors I have read in any language, beats the fuck out of the likes of Adams and Pratchett.

[Biter]

Astrid Lindgren is indeed a really good storyteller/author.

I've read a really good book by Per Anders Fogelström, En natt ur nuet, but I think it might be a bit too obscure for anyone in another country to find.

ETA: I was way off about the name of the guy who wrote "En natt ur nuet" (about as much off as you can be without being on again).

[zakalwe7]

To add to the Banks, Grey and MacLeod, I'd also add

Robert Louis Stephenson - particularly for Jekyll and Hyde

Walter Scott - As one of the first internationally renowned 'novel' writers with Ivanhoe, Robb Roy and Waverley

JM Barrie - For Peter Pan

Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes

Irvine Welsh - Purely for Trainspotting rather than his other stuff

[Anubiel]

Astrid Lindgren is indeed a really good storyteller/author.

I've read a really good book by Sture Dahlström, En natt ur nuet, but I think it might be a bit too obscure for anyone in another country to find.

I would say Astrid Lindgren was one of the first fantasy authors I read, because her Mio, my son is indeed a fantasy book. Though I don't think it's regarded as such...

But haven't any of you swedes read Jan Guillous books about Arn? The crusades trilogy? I loved those! Knights templar and medieval Sweden all rolled up in one!

First book is The road to Jerusalem.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Well, let's face it. Katherine Mansfield is the only author from my country who anyone has heard of.

[Galactus]

I would say Astrid Lindgren was one of the first fantasy authors I read, because her Mio, my son is indeed a fantasy book. Though I don't think it's regarded as such...

But haven't any of you swedes read Jan Guillous books about Arn? The crusades trilogy? I loved those! Knights templar and medieval Sweden all rolled up in one!

First book is The road to Jerusalem.

I didn't really like them, they're very... Gillou

Also, Arn is such a Mary Sue But it's not a BAD read by any means.

For history I much prefer the finn Mika Waltari

[Filippa Eilhart]

I could recommend plenty that haven't been translated.

As it is, Lem and Sapkowski.

[naz]

English-language Indian authors:

Ruskin Bond (Anglo-Indian, but the writing is very Indian)

Arundhati Roy

Jhumpa Lahiri (Indian American, but so am I)

Kaavya Vishwanathan (just kidding!)

Non-English (Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Farsi....)

Rabindranath Tagore

Tulsidas

Kabir

Harivansh Rai Bachchan

Amir Khusro

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

Yes, Lem and Sapkowski who will soon be publishedm in UK are the only authors who are available in English. Both are great, although very different, authors. Poland actually has quite strong speculative literature and I hope some others authors will get translated to English as well, but it is quite difficult to convince English language publishers to invest in authors writing in as obscure language as Polish

[nobodymN]

I probably should have mentioned Kobo Abe as well, Woman in the Dunes is a favorite of mine, and then of course there is the classic The Tale of Genji which is generally associated with Murasaki Shikibu . Murakami is also a very solid, and sometms great writer, I just don't put him in the same class as Ishiguru at all.

[Larry.]

I'm a Southerner before I'm an American, so I win by default, I think Anyways, here are a few from my native region:

Thomas Wolfe

Flannery O'Connor

William Faulkner

Harper Lee

Mark Twain (he considered himself Southern)

Robert Penn Warren

Zora Neale Hurston

James Dickey

Truman Capote

Walter M. Miller, Jr. (he even went to my alma mater, the University of Tennessee, for two years before WWII)

Cormac McCarthy

Gene Wolfe

Virtually all of them giants in respective subgenres of literature. So to ask me to recommend one would be quite difficult, no?

[Xray the Enforcer]

Xray--

You're from cowtown?

That must have sucked.

more almonds and tomatoes than cows...but yes, I can't say I was all that unhappy to flee to the Bay Area when university gave me the chance. could have been worse, though. I coulda lived in Lodi.

[Seventh Pup]

Authors that have either been from or are now currently living in my city and state are...

Frank Herbert~ Was born near my city and went to school in my city. It always amazed me that he could write a dessert world so well having lived here.

Tom Robbins~ You will either love him or hate him. I HATE his work, though my boyfriend loves it. :/

Ann Rule~ Crime writer, never read anything by her

Terry Brooks~ Has a home here. Though not originally from here. I recommend him for reader under the age of 13 just starting out in the whole fantasy genre. Not a great writer, but it is entertaining when you’re younger.

David Guterson~ Wrote "Snow Falling on Cedars". Hated this book. Truly.

JA Jance~ Never read anything from her.

And finally...

David Eddings~ Was born in my state, but does not live here any more I think. Like Brooks I recommend him only for young readers that might not want to scarred by reading something like ASOIAF to soon, or bored to death with someone like Jordan. Not that great for older readers though.

[Vestrit]

Katherine Mansfield, as mentioned by RBL

Alan Duff is probably the most important one we've had for a while. He wrote Once Were Warriors, the film of which is far better known (and arguably one of the few movies better than the book IMHO), and a number of other books including State Ward and One Night Out Stealing. I'm not a massive fan of his style but he has taken on the problems facing Maoridom both from the system and from within. Also Alan Duff set up Books in Schools, a programme under which every primary school kid in NZ gets a free book every term, and he gets top sportsmen and women to go to the schools, hand out the books and promote reading.

Frank Sargeson so wins for his short story writing. Superbly plotted, structured and written stories, and they're so NZ.

Keri Hulme's The Bone People won the Booker Prize in 1985. If any of you read it and can understand what the fuck is going on, please post.

Emily Perkins is a NZer who moved to England when she was about 21. Tends to set her books with both or either country. I've read one, couldn't stand it, it kind of tried a bit too hard, which is a common fault with NZ fiction writing.

Oh, someone's going to mention Barry Crump, who gets promoted as the archtypal Kiwi book writer, but is actually rubbish and was a wife beater as well.

There's probably loads others but I can't remember, I've been away too long, and also NZ fiction suffers from the fact that everybody wants to write The Great New Zealand Novel rather than just getting on and writing a decent yarn

In my new home of Scotland, I like Banks' SF stuff and have really gotten into Ian Rankin.

[Bazzlebane]

My favorite hometown author, and in fact fellow high school alumni, is Daniel Handler, principally known for the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events. While they are children's books, they are actually quite delightful (erm, dreary). I enjoyed them immensely (I mean I was horrified). Only one left (the 13th). Ignore the plodding movie; it is no reflection on the books.

Handler is also quite brilliant in person, a very quick witted extemporanious speaker. He's written a couple of books "for adults" under his own name that I mean to read (my wife already has; she says thumbs up).

[Seventh Pup]

Bazzlebane are you from San Francisco?

[Ormond]

Well, let's face it. Katherine Mansfield is the only author from my country who anyone has heard of.

That may be true, but Elizabeth Knox is a fantasy author from New Zealand that I think more people should have heard of. At least I really liked the one book of hers I read, The Vintner's Luck, a rather erotic depiction of the relationship between a French wine maker and an angel.

[Vestrit]

That may be true, but Elizabeth Knox is a fantasy author from New Zealand that I think more people should have heard of. At least I really liked the one book of hers I read, The Vintner's Luck, a rather erotic depiction of the relationship between a French wine maker and an angel.

See, I told you I'd forgotten someone.

Another one is Rose Tremain, who wrote The Colour. My family gave it to me but I haven't read it because a book about 19th Century gold digging in the South Island sounds far too much like a 7th Form history lesson

edited for a very unusual and quite intriguing typo

[Werthead]

From England: Pratchett, Gaiman, JV Jones, Peter F. Hamilton, Tolkien, Lewis and Christopher Priest.

From Northern Ireland (where my family on my mother's side hails from): Paul Kearney.

[Ormond]

If one considers Nebraska my "homeland", the only science fiction or fantasy author I know of who lives in Nebraska is Robert Reed. I think he's a very good author, if you like science fiction.

If one is considering authors of general fiction, of course Willa Cather was by far the most famous author from Nebraska. I think she was a fine writer myself and have always especially admired her ability to describe physical settings. Mari Sandoz, Wright Morris, Ron Hansen, and Bess Streeter Aldrich often get mentioned as great Nebraska authors, though I will admit I haven't read any of them.

From the other end of quality, it is unfortunately true that Terry Goodkind went to high school in Omaha. I'm not sure if that says something bad about Nebraska, or something good about it, since he had moved away from the state many years before he began turning out his books.