State by State Portrait--Pynchon Turned Down Offer to Contribute

[rich]

Sean Wilsey is the author of the memoir Oh the Glory of It All and the
co-editor, with Matt Weiland, of the newly released State by State: A
Panoramic Portrait of America, which features original writing on all
fifty states by the U.S.'s finest novelists, journalists, and
essayists. Rail contributor Jed Lipinski recently met with Mr. Wilsey
to discuss his new book.

Rail: What writers turned you down?

Wilsey: [Laughs] J.D. Salinger. I attempted to get in touch with him
through his son, and had the door firmly shut, but politely. Franzen
initially said he couldn't do a state because he had another book due,
so we asked Don DeLillo to do New York. He wrote back saying that he
couldn't write something that didn't originate in "my own dim
interior." Thomas Pynchon said no, but recommended we talk to Annie
Proulx about the difference between Iowa and Minnesota, weirdly
enough.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/11/express/interview-with-sean-wilsey

Thought Proulx wrote mostly about Wyoming?

rich