Trump’s election was just one of a global turn rightward. Anti-democratic, illiberal, proto-fascist political movements were gaining ground internationally. Even still, eight years later, the Midwest and the Rust Belt are regarded as at the center and engine of the neo-reactionary and radical right-wing movements today.
Two poems by Joseph Goosey.
"We have not given up our traditions and our culture just because we are witches or LGBTQ! We are proud Appalachians; we are proud witches."
She made a choice in life, and I respect her right to choose to practice (or not practice) a religion that best suits her beliefs. That doesn’t mean I think a pastor should be speaking from a synagogue pulpit on Shabbat.
I’d recently finished my junior year of high school and was kicking around a few ideas on how to get out of Locksburg, a Central Pennsylvania backwater I’d wanted to flee ever since I was old enough to misspell its name.
Excerpted from How to Become an American: A History of Immigration, Assimilation, and Loneliness, by Daniel Wolff, published December 2022 by University of South Carolina Press.
Hundreds of angry miners crowded around the machine, several attacking it with hammers and axes. Finally, fifteen sticks of dynamite were placed under the motor, and a firing wire and exploders attached. A few minutes later there was a terrific blast and the shovel was reduced to a tangled mass of wreckage.
We've got more planned in the future, including a print anthology of Rust Belt poetry and the production of an original podcast about environmental calamities in our region, but none of this will be possible without your generous support.
Harmful algal blooms are a growing concern in the Great Lakes. The toxins they produce can close beaches, and even poison drinking water. What’s fueling these blooms? Phosphorus, a key ingredient in agricultural fertilizers. But the way it’s being used comes at a cost.
"All in the Water" and "Cuyahoga Thanatos" by Frank Rosen
The turnaround in Cincinnati can serve as an inspiration.
A poem by Daniel Wolff.