Where's the beating heart of US literature? According to Publisher's Weekly the highest concentration of writers is to be found in the Midwest and the Northeast of the country.

It's no surprise to find New York hailed as the "unchallenged king of the US when it comes to pumping out writers", but does the state on a writer's birth certificate really count for all that much? It's difficult to imagine, say, Harper Lee could have written To Kill a Mockingbird from anywhere other than Alabama, but does F Scott Fitzgerald really speak for Minnesota, or Mark Twain for Missouri? The roots writers put down later in life often outweigh the accidents of birth.