Set in a failing small town in central Ohio, this excerpt from Christian Kiefer's new novel from Melville House The Heart of It All asks how one manages, in an America of increasing division, to find a sense of family and community. Available September 12, 2023.
"The jukebox at Pizza King didn’t bump any songs past / 1978 but we fed it quarters anyway"
Lima’s current mayor is retiring after thirty-two years. Sharetta Smith, his current chief of staff, says “it’s time for the next generation to lead.”
Olcott, New York—"The French Riviera of Lake Ontario"—has sunk and rebounded in a way so minor, yet major enough to feel like a triumph.
"All over McKean County, we claimed the unwanted spaces that adults had left behind."
A requiem for the small-town "hang-arounds."
An ode to a community institution.
In the last fifty years, loss of coal industry and frequent flooding have driven people out of Sharpsburg, Ohio. But not everyone is ready to leave.
Bellevue, PA is ripe for a resurgence. Can it be sustainable?