OK Buffalo. It’s time to start talking.

We need your stories, your passion, your art, your energy, your words.

Belt Publishing has published four successful anthologies about Rust Belt cities since 2012, with two more on the way.

Now, it’s our turn. The Buffalo Anthology will be published in Fall 2016.

We need your help.

We want the world to know that living in Buffalo means more than surviving seven-foot walls of snow and living with the regret of missed Super Bowl chances. We want to capture our city’s beautiful old bones, the toddling newness of our waterfront, the glow of our summers, the chaos and collapse of our school system, the humiliation and reclamation of our water, the pride, loneliness and racism that divides us and the warmth and resilience that unites us. We want to include fabled stories of Buffalo’s golden years from our oldest residents and the impressions and aspirations of our newcomers. And so much more.

We want the cruel and the kind because we want our book to be by us, about us and for us.

Please help us by sharing your Buffalo stories for the anthology.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

  • Nonfiction essays (brief and long form — 300-2,000 words)
  • Art (mostly grayscale)
  • Photography (most will be black and white)
  • Comics
  • Poetry

We welcome emerging and established writers and want people with diverse experiences and backgrounds. We are looking for unique voices and experiences that shout, “Buffalo!”

Authors can submit multiple pieces. We will also accept previously published pieces, but the author must include the original publication information and have the rights to the piece. Accepted submissions will likely be edited in coordination with the author.

Belt does not yet have an underwriter for the book and so cannot yet offer to pay contributors. (We will let you know if we can and please let us know if you know of someone willing) However, contributors will be celebrated and promoted with the book release and will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology. We will feature about 20-30 submissions in the completed anthology.

The book will be edited by Jody Kleinberg Biehl, a former editor for Der Spiegel magazine in Berlin, who directs the journalism program at the University at Buffalo.

To submit an entry, please:

  • Include author’s full name and contact information (phone, email, address and 3-4 sentence bio)
  • Indicate the neighborhood where the author lives/where “story” takes place (i.e. Allentown, West Side, East Side, Amherst, downtown etc.)
  • Write “SUBMISSION” on the subject line

Submit all entries and questions to: [email protected]

DEADLINE: Friday, December 11, 2015

Read here to learn more about other Belt’s other city anthologies.

Interested in underwriting or sponsoring this book? Email Publisher Anne Trubek at [email protected] 

Photo credit: Nancy J. Parisi