“The fact that a writer of Stegner’s stature felt ghettoized with the dreaded tag of “regional author” raises the question of whether our national literature is too tightly controlled by the so-called cultural elite – those people who talk to each other in some mythic Manhattan echo chamber.”

-Timothy Egan, “Stegner’s Complaint,” in his Outposts blog. No, there’s no class on Stegner at Stanford.