A call for submissions and proposals
Proposal deadline: October 1, 2014
Submission deadline: November 1, 2014
Publication date: Spring 2015
Everyone thinks they know Youngstown’s story. It begins with steel — enough for the Germans to target us during World War II — and ends with violence. Steeltown quickly became Crimetown. Rackets flourished. Mobsters killed. Politicians corrupted. Steel is still gone. Corrupt politicians keep coming back.
You know the story, but the story is not the city. Blanket statements do not apply: Youngstown is dying! Youngtown is back! Youngstown is corrupt! Youngstown is cool!
This will not be a book of nostalgia or apology. It will not be a manifesto or a lament. It will be a confrontation. Youngtown does not exist to be the worst example of anything. Youngstown can teach. It can change. This book will be for the people of Youngstown, past, present and future. It will be for their parents and their parents’ parents, for their children and their children’s children, but mostly it will be for themselves. This book will be an examination of memory and conscience, sometimes a celebration, always a mirror. From hard hats to cookie tables, black lungs to football glory, the valley of our pasts will be in these pages. My sweet Jenny, I’m sinkin’ down. It is the only way through.
We are accepting nonfiction contributions, including essays, profiles and reported works between 500 and 2,000 words that fit with the vision expressed above. Proposals of no more than 300 words are also welcome. We will work with writers on pieces that show promise. Payment will be $100* upon publication.
Contributions are needed for the following sections:
- Family (culture, neighborhoods, attachments)
- Loss (violence, steel, racial and ethnic conflict)
- Transcendence (arts, sports, religion)
- Work (new business, new politics, redevelopment)
We are also looking for work from documentary photographers and graphic artists with a Youngstown connection. Work will be published in black and white. Poetry will be considered, but the bar is extremely high. Please do not submit works of fiction.
This anthology will be edited by Youngstown natives Will Miller and Jacqueline Marino and published by Belt Publishing, which produced Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, as well as several other city-based anthologies.
Send proposals, submissions and questions to [email protected]
*Due to the generous donation of a supporter of this project.
