Ten pieces our readers kept coming back to.
Every year, at the end of the year, we take a look back at the stories we published and revisit the ones that resonated most with our readers—the pieces you read, shared, and emailed us about most often. We hope you enjoy revisiting them as 2021 winds down.
None of this would be possible by our members and partners. The stories on this list were funded by readers like you, with additional support from NewsMatch; the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses; the Ohio Arts Council; Ohio Humanities; and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. Find more of our best Rust Belt writing in Dispatches from the Rust Belt Vol. IV, a new print anthology collecting features, essays, poems, photo essays, and commentary from the past year at the magazine. (The anthology is available exclusively to Belt members; get your copy by joining Belt today).
Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting our work in 2021. We truly couldn’t do it without you, and we’re looking forward to what we’ll do together in the year to come.
-Ryan Schnurr, editor
By Yanick Rice Lamb
Our most popular story of the year, on the complicated relationships between people and industry. Read More.
By Emiliano Aguilar
In the 1920s, East Chicago planned its ideal future. Here’s how that went. Read More.
By Ed Simon
It’s technically an open-faced sandwich, but that’s like calling the Empire State Building an office park. Read More.
By Ryan Schnurr
A proposed passenger rail line could reconnect the region–from Chicago to Fort Wayne to Columbus to Pittsburgh. Read More.
By Rebekkah Rubin
An event in the summer of 2021 revealed the messiness of the town’s white-dominated abolitionist narrative. Read More.
By Natalie Tomlin
On the shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron, climate change, and the stakes of inaction. Read More.
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