Belt City Anthologies

Screw Capital of the World. Forest City. Home of the Rockford Peaches of A League of Their Own fame. Rockford, Illinois, has many identities, most oriented toward the past. These days, the fastener industry has mostly rusted away, the trees are less plentiful than they once were, and professional women's baseball is no more. What defines Rockford today? According to The Rockford Anthology, it's the people. Those who grew up here, who came by choice or by circumstance, or who decided to leave. People who lost someone or found a voice or built community here. In this installment of Belt's City Anthology series, the people of Rockford represent themselves in essays, poetry, and photographs. Here, you'll meet someone who found the space to start a business after leaving the crowd in Chicago. Academy Award–nominee Bing Liu takes you on a personal tour of his childhood houses and the ghosts that lurk there. A local attorney and activist shares how the city pushed back when ICE wanted to bring a detention center to Rockford. And you'll learn why New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby, stand-up comedian Ashley Ray-Harris, and an introverted expat living in Taiwan always say they're from Rockford . . . not Chicago. Whether through stories of growing up or chronicles of fights to make the city better, a sense of Rockford's present-and future-starts to come into focus.

Chicago is built on a foundation of meat and railroads and steel, on opportunity and exploitation – but its identity long ago stretched past manufacturing. Today, the city continues to lure new residents from around the world, and from across a region rocked by recession and deindustrialization. But the problems that plague the region don't disappear once you pass the Indiana border. In fact, they're often amplified. A city defined by movement that's the anchor of the Midwest, bound to its neighbors by a shared ecosystem and economy, Chicago's complicated – both of the Rust Belt and beyond it. Rust Belt Chicago collects essays, journalism, fiction, and poetry from more than fifty writers who speak both directly and elliptically to the concerns the city shares with the region at large, and the elements that set it apart. With affection and curiosity, frustration, anger, and joy, the writers sing to each other like the bird on the cover. At times the song sings in harmony and at others sounds in notes of strategic dissonance. But taken as a whole, this book sings one song, responding to one cacophonous city.

A unique perspective of the Motor City, this anthology combines stories told by both longtime residents and newcomers from activists to teachers to artists to students. While Detroit has always been rich in stories, too often those stories are told back to the city by outsiders looking in, believing they can explain Detroit back to itself. As editor, Anna Clark writes in the introduction, "These are the stories we tell each other over late nights at the pub and long afternoons on the porch. We share them in coffee shops, at church social hours, in living rooms, and while waiting for the bus. These are stories full of nodding asides and knowing laughs. These are stories addressed to the rhetorical "you"―with the ratcheted up language that comes with it―and these are stories that took real legwork to investigate . . . You will not find 'positive' stories about Detroit in this collection, or 'negative' ones. But you will find true stories." Featuring essays, photographs, art, and poetry by Grace Lee Boggs, John Carlisle, Desiree Cooper, Dream Hampton, Steve Hughes, Jamaal May, Tracie McMillan, Marsha Music, Shaka Senghor, Thomas J. Sugrue, and many others.

Buffalo is a magical place to be and this anthology walks the reader through the decades. The newness of the city is electrifying and sits atop a glorious history of power, disappointment, artistic flair, racial injustice and spicy chicken wings—and Buffalo has the Niagara Falls in its backyard. Told through the eyes of more than 65 artists, writers, and residents, the essays will give readers a feel of the city, its good and bad sides, and why many people love calling Buffalo their home. The contributors include: Lauren Belfer, Wolf Blitzer, Marv Levy, John Lombardo, Mary Ramsey, Robby Takac, and many more.

An inside-out snapshot of Cleveland written by those who actually live and work there. An intimate reminder "that strength of character abounds in the Cleveland community."-- Freshwater Cleveland The past few y

A part of Belt's City Anthology Series, this collection explores Akron, Ohio's past and what may happen there in the future. A portrait of the city's rich, mysterious, odd-leaning inner life. Between 1910 and 1920, Akron was the fastest growing city in the United States, tripling in size and exploding from a population of 69,000 to 208,000. Its period of rapid growth coincided with the expansion of the rubber and tire industry, which in turn corresponded with that of the automobile industry. But since the mid-1970s, industry has abandoned Akron, and the city has lost 31 percent of its population. Once opulent neighborhoods are now swaths of abandoned homes, and the factories that made Akron the Rubber Capital of the World lie dormant. Edited by Jason Segedy, and bringing together established writers like Rita Dove and David Giffels with the work of emerging voices, The Akron Anthology collects essays, poems, and photographs from the writers, artists, and activists who call Akron home.

hat is Louisville‚Äs identity in the twenty-first century? Is it the Southernmost Midwestern city, the Midwestiest Southern town, or somewhere in between? Living on the border of two regions creates a hybrid sensibility full of contradictions that can be difficult to articulate beyond ‚Äúfrom Louisville, not Kentucky.‚Ä In this collection of evocative essays and poems by natives and transplants, The Louisville Anthology offers locals and visitors a closer look at compelling private and public spaces in an attempt to articulate what defines Louisville beyond‚Äîbut also inclusive of‚Äîits most recognized cultural exports.

Pittsburgh is ever-changing — once dusted with soot from the mills, parts of the city now gleam with the polish of new technologies and little remains of what had been there before. The essays and artwork in this anthology aim for the surprising, elusive stories that capture a Pittsburgh that is in transition. Contributors run the gamut from MacArthur-award winning photographer, LaToya Ruby Frazier to 15-year-old Nico Chiodi, the book's youngest contributor who chronicles the doings of the North Side Banjo Club. "Everyone in this book," writes editor, Eric Boyd, "is talking about the city, the things surrounding it; all of the pieces have been created with experience, intimacy, and personality. This book, I hope, will speak to you, not at you. Because we all know this city is changing. We're just not exactly sure what that means." Included are contributions by Amy Jo Burns, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Ben Gwin, Cody McDevitt, David Newman, and many more.

A part of Belt's City Anthology Series, a unique take on the South Dakota town residents call "the Best Little City in America." In 1992, Money magazine named Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the best place to

The Youngstown story often is told with a beginning in iron and steel and ending in decay with a subplot driven by violent mobsters and corrupt politicians. Aiming to provide a more well-rounded examination of Youngstown, this collection of essays provides an authentic look at the city through a diverse set of experiences from the perspectives of those who have lived there. Readers will gain a sense of the past, present, and future of the city.

Part of Belt's city anthology series, a reconsideration of one of America's most misunderstood cities. Is Indianapolis just another midwestern city to fly over on the way to bigger and better destinations? Or is it, as l

The Milwaukee Anthology is a book about hope and hurt in one of America's toughest zip codes. In the essays, narratives, poems, and art included here, you won't find Summerfest or Laverne and Shirley, but you will find honest first-hand stories about Riverwest, Sherman Park, Hmong New Year's shows, 7 Mile Fair, and the Rolling Mill commemoration. Edited by Justin Kern, and with more than 50 contributors including Dasha Kelly, Pardeep Kaleka, and Michael Perry, this collection includes stories about: - Redlining in the city - Painting a community mural in Sherman Park - Reflections after the Oak Creek Sikh Temple Shooting - The city's upstart microbrewing industry - The rise of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. It's an anthology about a place on the lake that can make you say yes and wonder why in the same thought. A place that's both a big town and small city, run down and redeveloped, tararrel and terror. A collection that shows the Cream City is much weirder and more wonderful than you may think it is.

In recent years, Minneapolis has become one of America‚Äs literary powerhouses. With over fifty poems and essays, Under Purple Skies: The Minneapolis Anthology collects some of the most exciting work being done in, or about, Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area, with narrative threads that stretch back not just to Scandinavia, but across the world. Edited by Frank Bures (The Geography of Madness), the writers included here have won, or been shortlisted for, the Newbery Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer, the Caldecott Award, the National Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and many others.

A part of Belt's City Anthology Series, a unique take on Charm City through the eyes of those who live there every day. To many outsiders, Baltimore--sometimes derisively called "Mobtown" or "Bodymore"--is a city famous for its poverty and violence, twin ills that have been compounded by decades of racial segregation and the loss of manufacturing jobs. But that portrait has only given us a skewed view of a truly unique and diverse American city, the place that produced Babe Ruth, Elijah Cummings, Nancy Pelosi, Edgar Allan Poe, John Waters, and Thurgood Marshall, and a city that's completely its own. In the over thirty-five essays, poems, and short stories collected here, the authors take an unfiltered look at the ins and outs of Baltimore's past and present. You'll hear about the first time an umbrella appeared in the Inner Harbor, nineteenth-century grave robbers, and the city's history with redlining and blockbusting. But you'll also get a deeper sense of what life is like in Baltimore today, including stories about urban gardening in Bolton Hill, the slow demise of local journalism, what life was like in the city during COVID, and the legacy of Freddie Gray. As Ron Kipling Williams writes in his essay about the city's magnetic appeal, "Baltimore has always been a city worth fighting for," and running through all these essays is the story of Baltimore's resilience. From Pigtown to Pimlico, this anthology captures the sights, sounds, and feel of this city that so many people have come to discover is truly a lovely place, a fighting place, a charmer. Edited by Gary M. Almeter and Rafael Alvarez, this anthology offers an unfiltered look at Baltimore that will appeal to anyone looking for a portrait of an American city that's far more nuanced than the stories that are generally told about it.

The Dayton Anthology, the fifteenth in Belt's City Anthologies series, is a portrait of a city recovering from the twin 2019 crises of devastating tornadoes and the mass shooting that took the lives of nine residents. Through essays and poems, contributors reflect on these traumas, and the longer-term ills of disinvestment and decay that have plagued the city for years, but also on the resilience of the people who call Dayton home. This is the city that brought the world the Wright brothers' invention of flight, along with the cash register, the hydraulic pump, and other technological innovations, but also the soaring poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the comedy of Dave Chappelle. With contributions from Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and former Ohio Governor Bob Taft.

St. Louis is a fragmented place. It‚Äs physically dissected by rivers, highways, walls, and fences, but it‚Äs also a place where one‚Äs race, class, religion, and zip code may as well be cards in a rigged poker game, where the winners‚Ä prize is the ability to ignore the fact that the losers have drastically shorter life expectancies. But it can also be a city of warmth, love, and beauty‚Äïespecially in its contrasts. Edited by Ryan Schuessler (Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology from Middle America), the collection features nearly 70 essays penned by St. Louis writers, journalists, clerics, poets, and activists including Aisha Sultan, Galen Gritts, Vivian Gibson, Maja Sadikovic, Nartana Premachandra, Sophia Benoit, Robert Langellier, Samuel Autman, Umar Lee, and more.

‚ÄúInstant City,‚Ä ‚ÄúMagic City of Steel,‚Ä ‚ÄúSin City,‚Ä ‚ÄúChocolate City,‚Ä ‚ÄúPlywood City,‚Ä ‚ÄúMurder Capital.‚Ä Once the second-largest city in Indiana, and home to the world‚Äs largest steel mill, Gary has suffered and shrunk greatly in the postindustrial global economy. Population numbers now approach pre-Great Depression lows. Large swathes of its land are urban prairie, and a recent survey found a quarter of the Gary‚Äs built environment is in a dilapidated or dangerous condition. But Gary is also a center of Black culture and political power. It is home to the Indiana Dunes National Park and globally rare ecosystems. Union, community organizing, and environmental justice struggles based in Gary have profoundly shaped social and political life in the United States. It is the setting for everyday joys and tragedies, and very much alive. The Gary Anthology‚Äs contributors include not only the essayist, poet, and journalist but also the graffiti writer, the minister, the activist, the singer, the organizer, and of course, the steel worker. Their work complicates standard narratives about steel, violence, and urban decay, and offers readers the chance to hear from those who are reshaping the city from the bottom up. Taken as a whole, the collection is a vibrant rebuke to the notion that Gary is ‚Äúdead.‚Ä