In literature, regionalism, or local-color fiction, was a perspective of literature that gained popularity in America after the Civil War. Local-color writers depicted nearly every region of the United States, leading realism to their stories by describing customs and manners and re-creating dialects. Because these authors usually set their stories in their regions as they remembered them from their own youth, however, they often blended realism with nostalgic sentiment. Many Americans found this mixture palatable, and local-color stories filled the pages of the leading magazines until the end of the nineteenth century. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

New England regional writers include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rose Terry Cooke, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Sarah Orne Jewett, Rowland Robinson, Philander Deming, Alice Cary, Alice Brown and Celia Thaxter. Southern regional writers include Kate Chopin, Grace King, George Washington Cable, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Charles W. Chesnutt, Thomas Nelson Page, Joel Chandler Harris and James Lane Allen. Midwestern writers include Edward Eggleston, E.W. Howe, Hamlin Garland, John Hay, James Whitcomb Riley, and Zona Gale. A Great Plains writer is Zona Gale Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa). Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and Mary Austin are known Western regional writers.

In Latin America Regionalism started in the 19th century. In Spanish it is called 'criollismo' or costumbrismo. The movement began between 1900 and 1940. The setting always took place in the authors native country. The setting was typically in a rural area that had not been modernized. Horacio Quiroga is one of many Latin American Regionalist authors.

External links

• American regionalism and local color fiction: definitions, links, bibliographies