Call for Submissions: Youngstown Anthology (2nd Edition)

This book is for the people of Youngstown, past, present and future. It is for their parents and their parents’ parents, for their children and their children’s children, but mostly it is for them. This book is 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 lives in these pages. My sweet Jenny, I’m sinkin’ down. It is the only way through.

Four years ago, 43 writers and photographers from the Youngstown area contributed to this book. Now, as another presidential election approaches, the Mahoning Valley is once again on the national radar, an inevitable stop on the campaign trail where candidates promise old world jobs for old school loyalty, improbable understanding and unlikely rescue for the victims of deindustrialization. As a counter to all that, we are producing a second edition of Car Bombs to Cookie Tables to be published in June 2020. We are accepting new original documentary photography and nonfiction submissions, including essays, profiles, and reported works between 500 and 2,000 words. Submissions should fit one of the following themes:

Family (culture, neighborhoods, attachments)

Loss (violence, steel, racial and ethnic conflict)

Work (new business, new politics, redevelopment)

Rise (arts, sports, religion)

Proposals of no more than 300 words are also welcome. All submissions will be read. Writers of essays and reported works will receive a small stipend upon publication. Contributors should include a brief bio, including their connection to the Youngstown area.

This anthology will be edited by Youngstown native Jacqueline Marino and published by Belt Publishing.

Proposal deadline: June 30, 2019

Send proposals, submissions and questions to [email protected].