I don't really care the region, I enjoy getting immersed in dialogue that is significantly different from what I'm used to (I'm used to White college educated American speech). I especially enjoy characters who are uneducated (though often street smart/wise), often Southern, but could be Midwestern, perhaps 50-100 or so years back.
But it's gotta be really well-written, lyrical, poetic. It doesn't have to be serious–I appreciate some levity, actually.
Some examples that spring to mind are North Woods, The Heart in Winter (Kevin Barry), Dogs (C Mallon), Train Dreams (Denis Johnson.
by bonsaitreehugger
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I got you here. Check out old translations of classics. Like, from 1875-1900. Easy to find in libraries. You’d be amazed what Homer sounded like to Ivy-Leaguers at the turn of the century.
Manly Wade Wellman was the king of Appalachian/country/rural weird/horror. He had a lot of connections to the area, and probably nobody told dark tales better in the folk mountain tradition than him. He was actually born in Africa, but In 1947 he moved to North Carolina, first to Pinebluff and soon after to Chapel Hill. From there studied the folklore of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, built a cabin in Madison County and spent a good deal of time talking to a local people about their folk ways and legends.
So he is very authentic to the details, including the dialect and the dialogue of the local people. This is not a 2025 Californian trying to do Scotland in 1700. Everything rings true.
The fantastic publisher Night Shade Books came out with a definitive edition of his short stories and quite a few have Appalachian settings.
Wellman, Manly Wade. *The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations.* San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2000.
Wellman, Manly Wade. *The Devil Is Not Mocked and Other Warnings.* San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2001.
Wellman, Manly Wade. *Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales.* San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2001.
Wellman, Manly Wade. *Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances*. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2003.
Wellman, Manly Wade. *Owls Hoot in the Daytime and Other Omens.* San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2003.
Try NATIONAL VELVET by Enid Bagnold or THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Oscar Wilde
Jane Austen! Old time but witty.
Then try “A Brief History of Seven Killings”
Novel by Marlon James