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In Southwest Michigan, many aren’t shrugging off the march

2017-11-15T12:21:57-05:00By Martha Bayne|Current Issue, Politics and Urbanism|

On Saturday, January 21, the New York Times deployed a dozen reporters far and wide to report on the women’s marches happening across the country.

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The Past and Present of the Fiction of the Midwest (Wherever That Is)

2017-01-25T13:02:51-05:00By Anne Trubek|Arts & Culture, Books, Covers, Current Issue|

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.

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Urban Greenways: Stalking the Ruins of Pittsburgh

2017-01-26T16:48:44-05:00By William Rickman|Cities, Current Issue, Pittsburgh|

Nestled within some of Pittsburgh’s many wooded hillsides, or “greenways,” are dark corners that harbor vestiges of long demolished houses, city blocks, and even whole neighborhoods.

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Snippets of Lee-Harvard in the 70s

2017-01-19T15:27:36-05:00By William Rickman|Cities, Cleveland, Current Issue|

My old neighborhood, Lee-Harvard, now referred to as Lee-Miles, is quieter and, like the rest of Cleveland, less populated than it was in the 70s. I remember the hustle and bustle of the city then, but people look at me like I’m crazy when I refer to Cleveland’s former status as a major U.S. city.

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The Coburn Street Ghosts: A Memoir

2017-01-11T23:52:16-05:00By William Rickman|Akron, Cities, Current Issue|

In the summer of 1961, my family moved against our will to a smelly brickpile of a parsonage in Akron, Ohio, where my father became the pastor of a church named for the crucifixion. And when we got there, we found ourselves surrounded by ghosts.

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What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia

2017-04-05T14:33:43-04:00By Anne Trubek|Covers, Current Issue, History|

Belt Publishing is thrilled to announce the newest addition to our Notches series: What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte.

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Belt Membership Drive

2017-01-10T09:59:08-05:00By Nicole Boose|Covers, Current Issue|

From now through February 6 – when The New Midwest goes on sale – Belt [...]

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Introduction To How To Speak Midwestern

2017-01-03T10:00:09-05:00By William Rickman|Arts & Culture, Books, Cities, Current Issue|

Every part of the United States has its own accent. The Midwest — defined, for the purposes of this book, as west of Exit 41 on the New York State Thruway, east of the Missouri River, and north of the Ohio River...

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Eleven Works of Midwestern Fiction for the Trump Era

2016-12-14T13:34:05-05:00By Anne Trubek|Arts & Culture, Books, Covers, Current Issue, Reading The Midwest by Mark Athitakis|

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.

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