On a spring afternoon in Moreland Hall, a group of students unfold maps of Oregon. Later, they’ll be doing their best to answer a seemingly simple question: What is Oregon literature? Is it a matter of geography, of borders? Of birthplace? Of subject matter—or sensibility? Who is included when we say “Oregon literature,” and who (or what) is left out?
These questions sit at the heart of Assistant Professor Surabhi Balachander’s Studies in American Literature class this term, which tasks students with creating a guide to Oregon literature—a curated, researched, and revised work intended for readers beyond the classroom. Surabhi brings a deep knowledge of the literary traditions of the American West to the classroom given her scholarly interests in the region, and her former role as a staff member at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. While the form the guide will take has yet to be determined and will emerge from collaborative conversations in class, the syllabus Surabhi developed provides a solid foundation for students to build from and sets them up for a fun adventure.
The reading list reflects the range and complexity of Oregon literature itself. Students encounter familiar figures such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Beverly Cleary alongside contemporary writers like Oliver de la Paz and Beth Piatote. Taken together, the texts explore speculative futures, the legacies of colonization, immigrant experience, and coming of age, among other themes, while also raising questions about how place operates in literature. Readings span poetry, young adult fiction, memoir, and short fiction, inviting students to consider how Oregon has been written from multiple vantage points and how those perspectives shape, complicate, or resist easy definitions of what “Oregon literature” might be.
In the second half of the course, students will shift to researching and writing their own contributions to the guide, drawing on existing place-based literature projects as models and points of comparison. They will take up questions of scope, selection, and representation as they develop entries that situate individual works and authors within broader literary and cultural contexts. Drafts will be shared and workshopped in class, where students revise with an eye toward clarity, accessibility, and the expectations of readers beyond the university. In the process, they practice translating academic research into public-facing writing, learning how to balance critical engagement with storytelling. Whatever form the guide takes, it will be freely available online. All the while, the maps they opened on the first day remain close at hand, serving as both reference and reminder as their collective guide to Oregon literature comes more clearly into view.