AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM

Opened in spring 2017, this is the only museum in the United States dedicated to American writers. It's a project that took many years to set up and cost a whopping $10 million, with funds provided mainly by generous donors. The museum is really very well designed, as it is highly interactive and modern, with numerous small workshops inviting visitors to familiarize themselves with American writers, from the greatest of them all, such as Hemingway, to lesser-known writers. Some are not necessarily of American origin, but have gone on to become so, or have written extensively about the United States. The common criterion for all the writers selected is that they have contributed to American literature in one way or another, and not necessarily in an academic way... For example, in The Surprise Bookshelf, a series of 100 interactive quotations, you can read a phrase by rapper Tupac Shakur. In fact, there are few books to be found in the museum per se: the main aim is to better understand these writers and their backgrounds, so as to better apprehend their texts. The Mind of a Writer room, for example, recounts the writers' creative process in an interactive way, with examples of famous works such as The Great Gatsby. So this museum is not just about American writers, but about all writers and the writing process. Not to be missed, even if all the museum's explanations are in English only.