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.
D.L.I.V.E – Rebuilding The Lives Of Gunshot Victims In Detroit
In a small conference room at Detroit Medical Center’s Sinai Grace Hospital, violence intervention specialist Ray Winans asks a roomful of young African Americans if they know anyone who has been killed by gunshots.
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.
A Blue Bird Lands In Flint And We Do Not Call It Redemption
Even though this is about a bird – miraculous blue jewel, transfiguration in a city backyard – it begins with a crash in the middle of the night.
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 [...]
A Big, Useless Bathtub, Or The Inland Sea
It’s easy to mistake the Great Lakes for the ocean, at first. I’ve brought a few people to see Lake Michigan for the first time, and that’s what they all say: “It looks like the ocean!”
‘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 [...]