Essays
Family Bones
My great-grandfather was nearly 60 years old when he dug a basement in his backyard and built part of a house on top of it.
Growing Up In The Rust Belt
As we prepare for our second birthday party, we are reliving our past. So too have many of Belt's essayists. Here are just a few of our favorite essays about growing up in the Rust Belt.
Look, Decrease
“This is just a simulation, but you’ll lay there in the bed, and we’ll slide you into the tube,” the technician points at the fMRI bed and motions for me to lay. But it’s not a real fMRI, it’s just a big, cheap-looking model of one.
Physics From The Farm
The first thing that Ellen Vinson wanted to tell me about her aunt, physicist Melba Phillips, was that Phillips was the only person from Pike County, Indiana, to ever have an obituary in the New York Times.
My Acceptance Letter
I had a literary agent when I was 23. My agent represented John Knowles, Garrison Keillor and me, among others. The agency had even handled Churchill.
Missing Detroit: My Dad and the Disease of Blight
Last year, when driving back from Detroit to his home in Fraser, my dad took a detour. Dad is by nature an anxious man, but that anxiety spiked when he turned down an ice-and-snow-covered street.
A Rust Belt Education: Part Two
On a glorious Saturday morning, Erika Harrison pulled up to her house in East Cleveland, bounced out of a sparkling red Chevy Equinox minivan, and walked briskly to her front door ...
A Rust Belt Education: Part One
It has been more than four decades since money problems forced Jerry Schlueter to cut short his broadcast degree at Ohio University.
Zoo Camp For All
My son, Nico, loves the zoo. He’s eight years old, and going there inspires, engages, and delights him in a way that few other activities or places can.
Moving from Brooklyn to Detroit Is The Best Thing I’ve Done For My Children
I say this because it's true and because I just read a column by Aaron Foley that offered a bleak – if sarcastic – warning to New Yorkers attracted by the Move to Detroit billboards.

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