Massachusetts

Readers seeking writers from Massachusetts find a small, dense group: novelists of the Boston suburbs and the North Shore, writers of fantasy and paranormal romance, and a solid children's and young adult contingent. Salem, Cambridge and the small towns around them supply the settings.

Massachusetts writers here range from Rick Riordan and Holly Black to Brunonia Barry, Jenna Blum and J.R. Ward.

Massachusetts writers split into two habits. One stays close to home: Brunonia Barry works Salem's maritime past, Gary Braver puts Cambridge and Boston streets under pressure, Suzanne Berne writes the uneasy interiors of ordinary New England towns, and Jenna Blum and Naomi Benaron keep the family and its history in view. The other habit travels. Rick Riordan takes mythology into the middle-grade shelf, Holly Black writes faerie and dark fantasy for teens, J.R. Ward builds a long paranormal romance series, and Gregory Norman Bossert works in speculative short fiction. Ali Benjamin sits between the two, nonfiction and fiction for younger readers.

Set that against California, Texas, Florida or New York and the difference shows. Those tags lean toward sprawl, sun and reinvention. Massachusetts leans toward old houses, cold water, inherited money and inherited guilt, and toward a strong children's and young adult bench. If you want a novel where the town itself is a character, start here.