“Place-based writing” is an awkward phrase, but the kind of writing I want to consider is awkward as well, ranging from novels through travel literature and extending even to anthropological narratives and analyses.

Here is a proposed syllabus for a course engaging many of these texts.

Here is a list of the writings I’ll be considering, in rough chronological context:
Daniel Defoe, from Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Mark Twain, from Innocents Abroad (1869)
Edith Wharton, from In Morocco (1920)
George Orwell, “Marrakesh” (1939)
Paul Bowles, from The Sheltering Sky (1949), Let it Come Down (1952), and The Spider’s House (1955)
William Burroughs, from Interzone/Naked Lunch (1959)
Mohamed Choukri, For bread alone (1973)
Elizabeth Fernea, from A Street in Marrakech (1975)
Susan Schaefer Davis, from Power and Patience: Women’s Lives in a Moroccan Village (1982)
Clifford Geertz, from “Suq: the bazaar economy in Sefrou” (1979)
Leila Abuzeid, from The Year of the Elephant (1989)
Esther Freud, from Hideous Kinky (1992)
Fatema Mernissi, from Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood (1994)
Susanna Clark, from A House in Fez (2006) and the blog, The View from Fez
Tahir Shah, from The Caliph’s House (2006) and In Arabian Nights (2008)
Laila Lalami, from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005) and The Secret Son (2009)

Here is a list of writings considered, in rough geographical context:

Tangier: Mark Twain, from “Innocents Abroad”
Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky; Let it Come Down
William Burroughs, Interzone/Naked Lunch
Mohamed Choukri, For bread alone

Fez: Paul Bowles, The Spider’s House
Susanna Clark, from A House in Fez and the blog, The View from Fez

Sefrou: Clifford Geertz, from “Suq: the bazaar economy in Sefrou”

Marrakesh: George Orwell, “Marrakesh”
Elizabeth Fernea, from A Street in Marrakesh

Casablanca: Tahir Shah, from The Caliph’s House and In Arabian Nights
Laila Lalami, from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and The Secret Son

Rabat: Laila Lalami, from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits