Forthcoming in 2018: The New Old Town: Early Gentrification in Chicago
The story was the same in Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago: once-booming cities had started to shrink. Historic neighborhoods [...]
Coming in 2018: Folktales and Legends of the Middle West
Joe Magarac, the Pittsburgh steelworker who was born inside an ore mountain and squeezed out rails between his fingers. Hiawatha, the man-god who conquered the King of Fish and founded the Iroquois Nation. Coyote, the trickster of the Great Plains.
Shaker To Asiatown: The Cleveland Bikepath Review
I live in Shaker Heights, on a tree-lined street between the high school and the library, and I work in Asiatown, between the Thai restaurants and the board-ups.
Check Out the Cover For The Chicago Anthology
We’re unveiling the cover for Belt Publishing’s forthcoming Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology, and we couldn’t be more excited. The cover was designed by legendary Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, known for his style of vibrant collages.
Lovely Weather We’re Having … Now Who Will Save Us?
On days with significantly bizarre but altogether pleasant weather, Midwestern politeness stifles me from responding to small talk observations of “unseasonably warm weather” with thoughts on climate change.
Announcing In the Watershed: A Journey Down the Maumee River
For several years, Ryan Schnurr watched media coverage of Lake Erie algae blooms with a growing sense of unease. [...]
‘The New Midwest’ Hailed by Critics as the Book we Need in the Trump Era
Mark Athitakis’s book, The New Midwest: A Guide to Contemporary Fiction of the Great Lakes, Great Plains, and Rust Belt, is [...]
‘Are yinz goin’ to read this?’ A Guide to Pittsburghese
By Edward McClelland No Midwestern city is more conscious than Pittsburgh of the way it speaks—or, more accurately, the way [...]
Rustoration: How the Rust Belt Can Show America What it Really Means to be Great
By G. M. Donley Americans sure love to vote for celebrities: Shirley Temple, Ronald Reagan, Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp, [...]
Why Shame Coal Country’s Progressives?
By Elizabeth Catte To all Appalachians, but particularly West Virginians, New Republic columnist Kevin Baker has come with some [...]
Want More Independent Journalism? Help Us Reach Our Goal.
The media missed the Rust Belt, the story goes, and the results of the 2016 election show how poorly coastal [...]
Be the First to Get Belt’s ‘Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook’!
The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook is ready for pre-order! If you loved A Detroit Anthology and How to Live in Detroit Without Being a [...]