Sorry, So-called Blue States, You Don’t Get to Walk Away
By Tim Carmody In 2016, I voted in my hometown, a Detroit suburb called Madison Heights. (It’s where the [...]
The Great Lakes are sicker than we think
By Matt Stansberry In The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, journalist Dan Egan makes the case that the [...]
Yes, you can do something about Donald Trump
I was sitting at home on January 26, reading the news and having a hard time sitting still. The shock of a new president had not (and still has not) worn off, and story after story was pushing me toward a deeper sense of despair. It was far beyond politics—I grew up in rural Michigan, and Republicans are not foreign, scary creatures to me.
From the Editor: We’re All In This Together
Last summer I was at the Soggy Bottom Bar in downtown Flint, Michigan for the launch of Happy Anyway: A Flint Anthology, which I had edited, and author Aaron Foley and I were doing the very cool thing of signing each other’s books.
Grand Rapids Grassroots: An Anthology – Call For Submissions
Ashley E. Nickels and Dani Vilella have joined forces to compile articles, poetry, and personal narratives about and by Grand [...]
Living LGBT in the Midwest in the Time of Trump
I’ve tried over and over and over to try and push out some thoughts about gay life in the Midwest. What exactly is there to be said that would help outsiders understand what we’re like around these parts? I keep coming up short.
The Past and Present of the Fiction of the Midwest (Wherever That Is)
A few years ago I noticed something about my favorite works of contemporary fiction set in the Midwest: they were all set in the past.
What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia
Belt Publishing is thrilled to announce the newest addition to our Notches series: What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte.
Belt Membership Drive
From now through February 6 – when The New Midwest goes on sale – Belt is offering some great new [...]
Eleven Works of Midwestern Fiction for the Trump Era
No one book is going to explain what happened in the Midwest to help turn the last presidential election to Donald Trump. No stack of books is going to do it, fiction or nonfiction.
Praise from the New York Times
Today's New York Times praises our latest book, How To Speak Midwestern, calling it a "dictionary wrapped in some serious dialectology inside [...]
In Cleveland (2016)
Filmmaker Ian Mantgani traveled from London to Cleveland in July to join Belt for the Republican National Convention. Here, just in time for Thanksgiving weekend, is the stunning result. Trump, Tamir, hope, despair, casual racism and potent rage: it's all here. Enjoy.