Newspaper writing teaches humility. "It ain t art, and you ain t Hemingway," more than one city editor has growled at a straining-to-rise cub. A newspaper is a factory; it employs mechanics and craftspeople, but whatever art its employees produce is produced on their own time.
I cannot recommend "The Cherry Pit" as fiction to anyone. As a critical consideration of Little Rock, however, Donald Harington s first novel has no equal.
Recently I posted a query on Facebook asking readers to list their favorite Arkansas authors, one each in fiction and nonfiction. I received scores of replies, and a few stragglers are still posting their favorites. While this exercise is in no way scientific or representative in its composition, the results are very interesting to me and, I suspect, to others. Today I address fiction, with nonfiction to follow.