“If you opened me up, you’d find Ohio,” writes Maggie Smith. Writers from all coasts wrestle with the question of how to write place, but it’s especially charged in the Midwest, where our forests and lakes, our asphalt and industry are so often called fly-over country. How can stories dig deeper into the truth of this place and its people? Whether we’ve been here our whole lives, left and returned, or never want to go back, the Midwest lives in the body, not in our heads but our bones.

Room 2505AB, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 2