Fire in Steubenville
"Each time I come back home / something else has burned."
Black Freedom, Black Joy: A Juneteenth Reading List
Honoring Black joy and freedom struggles in the Rust Belt.
Rust Belt Pride
A queer Rust Belt reading list.
Madeline Davis’s Queer History of Buffalo
Davis, who died last month at the age of eighty, dedicated her life to LGBTQ+ history in Buffalo.
The Rubber Industry’s Toxic Legacy in Akron
The stories of workers and their families reveal "unintended consequences" for life and health in the community.
Midwestern
"I heard the dreams of a revisionist age, / the once upon a time / of a land strong in industry."
Belt’s Top Stories of 2020
Eleven pieces our readers kept coming back to.
meditations in the decline of western civilization
"this is how i ground myself. / i follow the writing on the wall."
The Best of Belt Magazine 2020
Announcing a new anthology of regional writing, available exclusively to Belt members.
The Rust Belt is Indigenous Land
A land acknowledgement, plus ten stories from the archives on Indigenous life in the region.
Election Week Through the Lenses of Black Women
Snapshots of the 2020 election from five photographers across the Rust Belt.
Alternate Ending
"In this version no one has to wear a wig to senior prom/because of chemo. No one’s car is set on fire."