> Literature is especially cliquey--almost all the most famous writers are based out of hubs like New York, London, Paris. Is this true? Smith, discussed in t

> Literature is especially cliquey--almost all the most famous writers are based out of hubs like New York, London, Paris. Is this true? Smith, discussed in the parent, sure, born and lives in London. In general, I have a suspicion this concentration is more true of British authors than American ones, although the most recent one I can think of that came to fame is... Sally Rooney? Ireland. Naming a few other famous novelists I've heard of in the last several years, and doing some quick Googling... trying to stick to "literary" ones: Franzen? Santa Cruz Knausgård? Sweden + London. Looks like it was only London after he got famous, though. Ferrante? Heh, well, famously nobody knows for sure, but seems like people believe Italy. Stephen King? Maine until very recently. Go further into genre content and we get out of the point of the "literature" discussion here, though. I'm looking at novelists vs columnists both because of the example given of Smith and because novelists are less geographically constrained than someone whose day job is to write for a publication that historically has been based in those cities, to try to avoid "once you're in the club you get the job that makes you move to the city" factors.