This guest blogger on Maud says that regional writers suffer the most of all when books sections in alt-weeklies close down.

Last week the big news coming out of Cooper Square was that the once-venerable Village Voice had let go yet another of its legendary contributors, Nat Hentoff. But the ever-shrinking coffers of its parent company, Village Voice Media Holdings, also claimed a victim far away from downtown Manhattan: the book section at the Nashville Scene.

The Scene’s books section was one of the best in the South, willing to take risks on new reviewers and little-known books — in 2002, Margaret Renkl, the Scene’s literary editor, gave me my first freelance gig. The section lasted a long time, given the rate at which regional outlets for literature and serious criticism are rapidly dying off: Last year the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cut its full-time book editor, Teresa Weaver, and it seems every year brings a new, potentially fatal challenge to the Oxford American, now a quarterly run under the stewardship of the University of Central Arkansas.

My first thought, of course, is that I'm really glad I don't work for VVM. But I'm of two minds about regional book reporting. Two or three times a week, I'll get a book-shaped envelope in the mail that is stamped, in giant letters, right above the address: "LOCAL AUTHOR." And almost invariably, that book is utter crap. I think regional criticism is a dangerous thing: I don't think anyone walks into a bookstore, just looks at the Northwest section, and then leaves.

One of my favorite things about having a books section is that you can talk about just about everything, from politics to philosophy to the recipes of rock stars to booklets sold in the aisles of grocery stores. Some weeks, it's the national affairs desk. other weeks, it's about local poetry, or a Seattle readings series. Which is not to say that I think you should be able to read The Stranger's books section and not tell what city it's published in. One of the most important parts of the books section is the calendar with all the dozens of events happening in bookstores and libraries all over this city. And many of our national affairs books features are timed to local readings. But I do think that regional affairs should not get special treatment simply because they're regional. I've read too many lame interviews with authors of badly drawn kid's books about geoducks (or what the fuck ever) to say that local coverage is a purely good thing. So I guess what I'm saying is that good coverage of good local books is a welcome thing. If the Scene really provided that, I'm sad that it's gone, too.