- ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Artists, Architects, Photographers
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Criminals & Outlaws
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical
- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Supernatural
- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Unexplained Phenomena
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Corporate & Business History
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Retailing
- COOKING / Beverages / Beer
- COOKING / History
- COOKING / Individual Chefs & Restaurants
- EDUCATION / Organizations & Institutions
- HISTORY / African American
- HISTORY / Military / Aviation
- HISTORY / Military / Pictorial
- HISTORY / Military / World War I
- HISTORY / Military / World War II
- HISTORY / Native American
- HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
- HISTORY / United States / General
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / General
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Pacific Northwest (OR, WA)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
- JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / United States / State & Local
- JUVENILE NONFICTION / People & Places / United States / General
- NATURE / Natural Disasters
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Aerial
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Architectural & Industrial
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Celebrations & Events
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Historical
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Regional (see also TRAVEL / Pictorials)
- RELIGION / Christianity / Catholic
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food (see also POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Agriculture & Food Policy)
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Customs & Traditions
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Disasters & Disaster Relief
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology
- SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / History
- SPORTS & RECREATION / Motor Sports
- TRANSPORTATION / Aviation / History
- TRANSPORTATION / Railroads / History
- TRANSPORTATION / Railroads / Pictorial
- TRANSPORTATION / Ships & Shipbuilding / History
- TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Hotels, Inns & Hostels
- TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Resorts & Spas
- TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Road Travel
- TRAVEL / Museums, Tours, Points of Interest
- TRAVEL / Parks & Campgrounds
- TRAVEL / Pictorials (see also PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Regional)
- TRAVEL / Special Interest / Amusement & Theme Parks
- TRAVEL / United States / Midwest / West North Central (IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD)
- TRAVEL / United States / Northeast / Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA)
- TRAVEL / United States / Northeast / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
- TRAVEL / United States / South / South Atlantic (DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV)
- TRAVEL / United States / West / Pacific (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA)
- TRUE CRIME / General
- TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
- TRUE CRIME / Organized Crime
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- America Through Time
- American Heritage
- American Legends
- American Palate
- Black America Series
- Brief History
- Campus History
- Civil War Series
- Disaster
- Haunted America
- Hidden History
- History & Guide
- Images of America
- Images of Aviation
- Images of Baseball
- Images of Rail
- Images of Sports
- Landmarks
- Lost
- Murder & Mayhem
- Natural History
- Pelican Pouch
- Postcard History Series
- Postcards of America
- Spooky America
- Then and Now
- True Crime
- ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Artists, Architects, Photographers
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Criminals & Outlaws
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical
- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Supernatural
- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Unexplained Phenomena
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Corporate & Business History
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Retailing
- COOKING / Beverages / Beer
- COOKING / History
- COOKING / Individual Chefs & Restaurants
- EDUCATION / Organizations & Institutions
- HISTORY / African American
- HISTORY / Military / Aviation
- HISTORY / Military / Pictorial
- HISTORY / Military / World War I
- HISTORY / Military / World War II
- HISTORY / Native American
- HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
- HISTORY / United States / General
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / General
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Pacific Northwest (OR, WA)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
- JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / United States / State & Local
- JUVENILE NONFICTION / People & Places / United States / General
- NATURE / Natural Disasters
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Aerial
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Architectural & Industrial
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Celebrations & Events
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Historical
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Regional (see also TRAVEL / Pictorials)
- RELIGION / Christianity / Catholic
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food (see also POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Agriculture & Food Policy)
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Customs & Traditions
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Disasters & Disaster Relief
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology
- SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / History
- SPORTS & RECREATION / Motor Sports
- TRANSPORTATION / Aviation / History
- TRANSPORTATION / Railroads / History
- TRANSPORTATION / Railroads / Pictorial
- TRANSPORTATION / Ships & Shipbuilding / History
- TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Hotels, Inns & Hostels
- TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Resorts & Spas
- TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Road Travel
- TRAVEL / Museums, Tours, Points of Interest
- TRAVEL / Parks & Campgrounds
- TRAVEL / Pictorials (see also PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Regional)
- TRAVEL / Special Interest / Amusement & Theme Parks
- TRAVEL / United States / Midwest / West North Central (IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD)
- TRAVEL / United States / Northeast / Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA)
- TRAVEL / United States / Northeast / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
- TRAVEL / United States / South / South Atlantic (DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV)
- TRAVEL / United States / West / Pacific (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA)
- TRUE CRIME / General
- TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
- TRUE CRIME / Organized Crime
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- America Through Time
- American Heritage
- American Legends
- American Palate
- Black America Series
- Brief History
- Campus History
- Civil War Series
- Disaster
- Haunted America
- Hidden History
- History & Guide
- Images of America
- Images of Aviation
- Images of Baseball
- Images of Rail
- Images of Sports
- Landmarks
- Lost
- Murder & Mayhem
- Natural History
- Pelican Pouch
- Postcard History Series
- Postcards of America
- Spooky America
- Then and Now
- True Crime
Sweeter Voices Still
9781948742818
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A groundbreaking nonfiction collection about queer life in the Midwest. "A marvelous ode to humanity and its passions."--Little Village
The middle of America?the Midwest, Appalachia, the Rust Belt, the Great Plains, the Upper South?is a queer place, and it always has been. The queer people of its cities, farms, and suburbs can't be reduced to just "blue dots" within "red states." Every story about a kid from Iowa who steps off the bus in Manhattan, ready to "finally" live, is a story about a kid who was already living in Iowa. Sweeter Voices Still is a collection full of stories about that kid, written by people just like them.
This collection, edited by Ryan Schuessler (The St. Louis Anthology) and Kevin Whiteneir, Jr., features queer voices you might recognize?established and successful writers and thinkers like Aaron Foley and Jeffery Bean?and others you might not. You'll find sex, love, and heartbreak and all the other beings we meet along the way: trees, deer, cicadas, sturgeon. Most of all, you'll find real people.
Perfect for anyone looking for fully realized stories about the nuanced, joyous complexity of queer identity in the Midwest.
Runaway
9781953368393
Regular price $18.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon, comes a touching memoir about the search for truths in the stories families tell. In 1970, Erin Keane's mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six. Though a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother's teenage years, questioning almost everything she's been told about her parents and their relationship. Along the way, she also considers how pop culture has kept similar narratives alive in her. At stake are some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves: What's true? What gets remembered? Who gets to tell the stories that make us who we are? Whether it's talking about painful family history, #MeToo, Star Wars, true crime forensics, or The Gilmore Girls, Runaway is an unforgettable look at all the different ways the stories we tell--both personal and pop cultural--create us.
The Cincinnati Neighborhood Guidebook
9781953368447
Regular price $24.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Part of Belt's Neighborhood Guidebook Series, The Cincinnati Neighborhood Guidebook is an in-depth look at the City of Seven Hills, written by the people who live and work there every day.Cincinnati, Ohio, is a complex mix of many different things: its present and its past, its transitions and its legacies; what defines it and distinguishes it; what makes people love it and what makes some eventually leave it. This collection, written by both lifelong Cincinnatians and recent transplants, offers a sampling of life there today--the tensions, debates, the life-and-death battles, and, not least of all, the joys that make this city so alive. It's a genuinely felt collection that offers a unique perspective on an evolving and energized city, a homegrown portrait showcasing the voices of people who know something about the way life feels--and why it feels that way--in their communities. It's about all the ways Cincinnati's differences are the very things that make the city so alive.
Here, you'll find stories that look at: How Mount Auburn changed in the aftermath of the police shooting of Samuel DuBose - The Catholic legacy in Mount Adams - A busy intersection in gentrifying Over-the-Rhine - The fading rural landscape of Camp Dennison - How life by the Ohio River defines and shapes life in Ludlow Edited by Nick Swartsell and with short essays by Gail Finke, Pauletta Hansel, Dani McClain, Ronny Salerno, Katie Vogel, and many others, this collection offers an intimate tour of the city's seven hills, its fifty-two neighborhoods, and its countless stories. Natives of Cincinnati will recognize both their streets and their histories, and readers from outside the city will get an unfiltered look at the locale known as "The Queen City."
Our Endless and Proper Work
9781948742948
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Writer and editorial consultant Ron Hogan helps readers develop an ongoing writing practice not as a means to publication, but as an end in and of itself.
Many people pick up the guitar without eyeing a career as a professional musician or start painting without caring if their work appears in a gallery. But with writing, the assumption seems to be that publication is the main goal. Why?
In Our Endless and Proper Work, the second in Belt's series of books about writing and publishing―along with Anne Trubek's So You Want to Publish a Book?―Ron Hogan argues writing should be an end in itself for more people. The founder of the literary site Beatrice, and creator of the popular newsletter "Destroy Your Safe and Happy Lives," Hogan offers concrete steps to help writers develop an ongoing creative practice. Chapters include:
- Reclaiming Your Time for Writing
- Finding Your Groove
- Preparing Yourself for the Long Haul
- Your Voice is Valuable.
Sprinkled throughout are adorable illustrations by "Positive Doodles" creator Emm Roy.
A concise, inspirational book for anyone looking to take up writing--not for money and fame, but because it can help you lead a happier, more whole and engaged life.
The Dayton Anthology
9781948742801
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A part of Belt's City Anthology Series, The Dayton Anthology offers a portrait of a city recovering from the twin 2019 crises of devastating tornadoes and the mass shooting that took the lives of nine residents in the Oregon District.
In over fifty essays and poems, contributors reflect on these traumas and the longer-term ills of disinvestment and decay that have plagued Dayton and the Miami Valley for years. But they also draw our attention to the resilience of the people who call Dayton home. This is the city that brought the world the Wright brothers' invention of flight, the cash register, and the hydraulic pump. It also gave us the soaring poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and the comedy of Dave Chappelle. Edited by Shannon Shelton Miller and with contributions from Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and former Ohio Governor Bob Taft.
A delightful tour of a city that never counts itself out, that captures the true diversity of Dayton's residents.
The Louisville Anthology
9781948742702
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%"A book that looks to stir emotions. It holds a lot of anger."--LEO Weekly. Part of Belt's City Anthology Series.
What is Louisville's identity in the twenty-first century? Is it the southernmost midwestern city, the midwestiest southern town, or somewhere in between? Living on the border of two regions creates a hybrid sensibility full of contradictions that can be difficult to articulate beyond "from Louisville, not Kentucky." In this collection of evocative essays and poems by natives and transplants, The Louisville Anthology offers locals and visitors a closer look at compelling private and public spaces around town. It's an attempt to articulate what defines Louisville beyond its most recognized cultural exports. Edited by Erin Keene, editor-in-chief at Salon.com, this is a portrait of a city caught between onward and remember-when. Here, readers will encounter stories about:
- Louisville's early punk scene
- Life as a transplant in Butcherville
- A Trip to Cave Hill Cemetery
- A Trek to find Muhammad Ali's Louisville.
A perfect book for Louisville natives or for those looking for a more nuanced look at an often-stereotyped region of the country.
Standpipe
9781948742825
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A brief, elegant memoir of the author's work as a Red Cross volunteer delivering emergency water to residents of Flint, Michigan. "A heartfelt portrait of a city, and a man, grieving."?Kirkus Reviews
A collection of short essays and "exquisitely chiseled vignettes," Standpipe: Delivering Water in Flint sets the struggles of a midwestern city in crisis against David Hardin's narrative of his personal journey as his mother succumbs to dementia and death. Written with a poet's eye for detail and quiet metaphor, Standpipe offers an intimate look at one man's engagement with both civic and familial trauma. It's also a vivid investigation into how we all heal as a community.
This gentle, observant book is for readers looking to understand the human experience of the Flint Water Crisis, and as well as "the deplorable conditions in Flint and the injustices that have plagued it for generations."
Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook
9781948742719
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Part of Belt's Neighborhood Guidebook Series, a probing look at the Steel City's diverse locales.
Pittsburgh is made up of more than ninety different neighborhoods. And while The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook can't detail every last one of them, it does its best, exploring the contrasts and contradictions that define the city's neighborhoods and how they play out through the personal narratives of those who live there. Edited by Ben Gwin (Clean Time), in these pages you'll find stories about:
- Old Lawrenceville, Garfield, and Squirrel Hill
- Swisshelm Park and Oakland in East Pittsburgh
- Crafton-Ingram, Thorn Street, and the bars of Dormont.
In over thirty poems and essays by lifetime residents, transplants, and transients, The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook offers a portrait of a city that's constantly being hailed for its renaissance but that is still marked by the old remnants of wealth inequality, gentrification, and racism.
The newest installment in Belt's Neighborhood Guidebook Series, The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook is a book for anyone who thinks they know Pittsburgh, or just wishes they did.
(Mis)Diagnosed
9781948742993
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%"A passionate and well-informed study on the importance of improving inclusiveness in mental health evaluations."―Kirkus Reviews
In a clear, empathetic style, Jonathan Foiles, author of the critically acclaimed This City Is Killing Me, takes us through troubling examples of bias in mental health work. Placing them in context of past blunders in the history of psychiatry and the DSM, he looks closely at questions that lay bare the intersections between mental health care, race, gender, and sexuality:
- Why are women more likely to be labeled borderline personalities?
- Is transphobia being treated today like homosexuality was in the past?
- Has "protest psychosis," a term used to diagnose Black men during the civil rights era, simply been renamed schizoaffective disorder?
- How different is our current label of "intellectual disability" from the history of eugenics?
- What does it actually mean to be diagnosed with a "mental illness"?
This slim but wide-ranging collection of essays wrestles with these questions and offers potential ways forward in a world where mental health diagnoses can be helpful, but not necessarily absolute.
A pragmatic and sympathetic guide to how we might craft a better and more just therapeutic future for all people.
Radical Humility
9781948742962
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%This innovative essay collection explores the personal and civic function of humility from a range of popular and scholarly perspectives.
What does humility mean and why does it matter in an age of golden escalators and billionaire entrepreneurs? How can the cultivation of humility empower us to see success in failure, to fight against injustice, to stretch beyond our usual ways of thinking, and to foster a culture of listening in an age of digital shouting?
Edited by Rebekah Modrak and Jamie Vander Broek, Radical Humility: Essays on Ordinary Acts brings together contributions from scholars, psychologists, and artists to offer some answers to these questions. Contributions include:
- Charles M. Blow on Trump's arrogance
- Lynette Clemetson on doing good journalism in an age of the attention economy
- Tyler Denmead on whiteness's lack of humility
- Eranda Jayawickreme on learning how to admit what you don't know.
Having witnessed the personal and civic costs of narcissism and arrogance, these and other writers consider humility as a valuable process?a state of being?with the power to impact institutions, systems, families, and individuals, and give voice to the ways in which humility is practiced in many ordinary but extraordinary actions.
This groundbreaking collection deserves a place in the library of anyone seeking alternatives to a culture of self-aggrandizing excess.
A Pandemic in Residence
9781948742931
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A debut essay collection of remarkable breadth and erudition by a young Pakistani American doctor and writer. "Wry and smart."―The New York Times Book Review
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Selina Mahmood―in the middle of the first year of a neurology residency―found scraps of time between grueling shifts to write. The resulting collection is her personal and meticulous chronicle of an unprecedented year in medicine. It's also the debut of a young and uncommon talent.
In the tradition of Oliver Sacks and Paul Kalanithi, Dr. Mahmood takes the science of neurology and spins it into poetry, exploring theories of the mind, Pakistani-American identity, immigration, family, the history of medicine, and, of course, the challenges of becoming a physician in the midst of a global health crisis. Skipping nimbly across continents and drawing inspiration from an array of sources ranging from Thomas Edison to Yuval Harari to Beyoncé, she has crafted an elegant, incisive, and utterly original investigation. As Salon put it, this book is "A profound, moving and unfiltered account of not just a frontline worker's experience at an unprecedented moment, but a story of family and identity, of pop songs and PPE."
A must-read for anyone seeking insight into the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a broader understanding of our universal search for meaning.
An Alternative History of Pittsburgh
9781948742924
Regular price $18.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Ed Simon tells the story of Pittsburgh through this exploration of its hidden histories--the LA Review of Books calls it an "epic, atomic history of the Steel City."
The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans for millennia. Over the past four centuries, however, it has been transformed countless times by the many people who call it home. In this brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic collection, Ed Simon, a staff writer at The Millions, follows the story of America's furnace through a series of interconnected segments, covering all manner of Pittsburgh-beloved people, places, and things, including:
- Paleolithic Pittsburgh
- The Whiskey Rebellion
- The attempted assassination of Henry Frick
- The Harmonists
- The Mystery, Pittsburgh's radical, Black nationalist newspaper
- The myth of Joe Magarac
- Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Andy Warhol, and much, much more.
Accessible and funny, An Alternative History of Pittsburgh is a must-read for anyone curious about this storied city, and for Pittsburghers who think they know it all too well already.
The Indianapolis Anthology
9781948742917
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Part of Belt's city anthology series, a reconsideration of one of America's most misunderstood cities.
Is Indianapolis just another midwestern city to fly over on the way to bigger and better destinations? Or is it, as locals know, a place where different peoples and ideals converge to create a rich cultural center? The Indianapolis Anthology showcases Naptown's vibrancy and diversity with pieces from journalists, poets, historians, established community voices, and first-time writers. The Circle City is more than the home of the Indianapolis 500, John Dillinger, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Kurt Vonnegut, Prozac, and Wonder Bread. In these pages, you'll find:
- lawn chairs in the beds of pick-ups
- Punk rock in Naptown
- suffragists and entrepreneurs
- cement pietàs
- dog bakeries and yoga studios
- red brick bungalows and war memorials
- steakburgers and Mexican seafood; pho and sauerbraten.
In other words, you'll find images from a city that is truly a cross section of today's America. Edited by Norman "Buzz" Minnick and with contributions from Etheridge Knight, Terrance Hayes, Michael Martone, and Karen Kovacik.
An insiders' look that will make you see a great midwestern city in a brand-new light.
Stories of Ohio
9781948742214
Regular price $14.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Part of Belt's Revivals Series and with a new introduction by Belt Publishing founder, Anne Trubek.
A novelist, critic, and playwright, William Dean Howells was friends with such luminaries as Mark Twain, Henry James, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Though he's best known for his East Coast novels like The Rise of Silas Lampham and A Hazard of New Fortunes, Howells never forgot his roots in Ohio. And in Stories of Ohio, he offers a series of short vignettes that chronicle the state's history, including:
- the Native burial grounds of the Serpent Mound
- the first European settlers on the frontier
- Ohio's role in the War of 1812
- the Civil War generals and presidents the state birthed in the late nineteenth century.
Though this history primarily focuses on life in Ohio before the nineteenth century, it will help today's reader see the state in a brand-new light.
This unsung classic of American literature helps shed light on both Ohio and the career of a writer known as the "Dean of American Letters."
The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook
9780998018898
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%"I have yet to meet a person who is drawn to pawpaws who is not a good person."
Pawpaws are found in the fleeting, honeyed weeks between August and October. They are fleshy and awkward to eat, sweetly fragrant, and they do not travel well at all. But they were once a favorite of Native Americans, and George Washington presumably loved them for dessert. Today, they are beloved by foragers, keepers of regional food traditions, and anyone seeking relief from the industrial food chain.
In The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook, Sara Bir sets the humble pawpaw center stage, with detailed information on how to harvest, source, store, and?of course?cook with these uniquely midwestern delicacies. Here you'll find recipes for:
- pawpaw cornbread
- pawpaw pudding
- key lime pawpaw cheesecake
- banana-pawpaw ketchup
Sidebars address questions as varied as "Where can I buy frozen pawpaws?" and "How do I use pawpaw in a cocktail?" Written with humor and love for a curious subject, The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook will inspire you to experiment in the kitchen and get out into the woods. With an introduction by Alexis Nikole Nelson, TikTok star and @blackforager.
The Milwaukee Anthology
9781948742382
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Part of Belt's City Anthology Series. "[A] mosaic of a book."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Milwaukee Anthology is a book about hope and hurt in one of America's toughest zip codes. In the essays, narratives, poems, and art included here, you won't find Summerfest or Laverne and Shirley, but you will find honest first-hand stories about Riverwest, Sherman Park, Hmong New Year's shows, 7 Mile Fair, and the Rolling Mill commemoration. Edited by Justin Kern, and with more than 50 contributors including Dasha Kelly, Pardeep Kaleka, and Michael Perry, this collection includes stories about:
- Redlining in the city
- Painting a community mural in Sherman Park
- Reflections after the Oak Creek Sikh Temple Shooting
- The city's upstart microbrewing industry
- The rise of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
It's an anthology about a place on the lake that can make you say "yes" and wonder "why" in the same thought. A place that's both a big town and small city, run down and redeveloped, tararrel and terror.
A collection that shows the Cream City is much weirder and more wonderful than you may think it is.
The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook
9781948742498
Regular price $24.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Part of Belt's Neighborhood Guidebook Series, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook is an intimate exploration of the Windy City's history and identity. "Required reading"--The Chicago Tribune
Officially, Chicago has 77 neighborhoods. Unofficially, though, that number's closer to 200. But what does that mean for the people who actually call Chicago home? In an eclectic collection of essays, poems, photos, and visual art, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook aims to explore the city's overlooked corners. Edited by Martha Bayne, and with help from the Read/Write Library, the book builds on 2017's critically acclaimed Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology. Here, you'll find compelling stories from all over the city:
- What one pizzeria meant to a boy growing up in Ashburn
- The South Shore's beauty and pain
- The best borscht in Ukranian Village
- The alleys of the Gold Coast
- Rogers Park's ever-shifting identity.
This lyrical and subjective guide to Chicago features work by Megan Stielstra, Audrey Petty, Alex Hernandez, Sebastián Hidalgo, Dmitry Samarov, Ed Marszewski, Lily Be, Jonathan Foiles, and many more. It's a book about the day-to-day lives of people in the city and above all else, about the changes those people have witnessed, suffered, and enacted.
In this idiosyncratic guidebook, Chicagoans will recognize both their streets and their stories, and readers from outside the city will get an intimate portrait of one of America's most iconic cities.
Life Sentences
9781948742597
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A collection of poetry and prose by six incarcerated men. Featuring an introduction by Amber Epps and an afterword by novelist John Edgar Wideman.
The six authors of Life Sentences?Fly, Faruq, Khalifa, Malakki, Oscar, and Shawn?met at the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh and came together in 2013 to form the Elsinore Bennu Think Tank for Restorative Justice. The men met weekly for years, along with other writers, activists, and political leaders who bonded over the creation of this book, a hybrid of prison memoir, philosophy, history, policy document, and manifesto.
Centered around the principles of restorative justice, which aims to heal communities broken by criminal and state violence through collective action, Life Sentences is more than a literary collection. It is a how to guide for those who are trapped inside any community. It's also a letter of invitation, asking readers to join with the incarcerated and their families so we can all continue to fly over walls, form loving connections with each other, and teach one another to be free.
An urgent collection that sheds light on the criminal justice system, written by those most directly involved in it.
This City Is Killing Me
9781948742474
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Jonathan Foiles weaves together psychology and public policy, exploring the trauma underlying urbanization in a book Kirkus Reviews calls an "urgent call for reform."
When Jonathan Foiles was a graduate student in social work, he had to choose between specializing in either mental health or public policy. But once he began working, he found it impossible to tell the two apart. As he counseled poor patients from Chicago's South and West Sides, he realized individual therapy couldn't account for all the ways unemployment, poverty, lack of affordable housing, and other policy decisions impacted the well-being of both individuals and communities.
Through a series of beautifully written and accessible case studies, Foiles lets us in on the stories of individual poor Chicagoans. He teaches us how he makes diagnoses, explains how therapists before him would analyze his patients, and teaches us about the profound ways that policy decisions contribute to individual suffering.
A remarkable, unique work of medical writing that serves as a call to action, this report by an experienced mental health professional is a must-read for anyone interested in the overlaps between mental health, public policy, and urbanization.
One of Ours
9781948742535
Regular price $14.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1923, One of Ours is the story of Claude Wheeler, the son of a Nebraska farmer. As a young man, Claude is dissatisfied with Nebraska farm like as well as his marriage to a childhood friend, desperate for a more cosmopolitan life. When America joins the Great War, Claude decides to enlist, where he finds excitement and fulfillment--as well as tragedy--on the battlefield.
One of Ours was considered a failure by some male critics of the day: H. L. Mencken said it "drops to the level of a serial in the Ladies' Home Journal, fought out not in France, but on a Hollywood movie-lot," and Ernest Hemingway panned Cather for not having experienced the front-line herself.
However, the Pulitzer committee considered it the greatest novel of the year, and this accessible, dramatic novel sold many more copies than Cather's more famous ones, O, Pioneers! and My Antonia.
The St. Louis Anthology
9781948742443
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%"A dazzling portrait of a Midwestern city whose relationships among socio-economics, religion, civil rights, and class are consistently complex." A part of Belt's City Anthology Series.
St. Louis is a fragmented place. It's physically dissected by rivers, highways, walls, and fences, but it's also a place where one's race, class, religion, and zip code may as well be cards in a rigged poker game, where the winners' prize is the ability to ignore the fact that the losers have drastically shorter life expectancies. But it can also be a city of warmth, love, and beauty?especially in its contrasts.
Edited by Ryan Schuessler (Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology from Middle America), the collection features nearly 70 essays penned by St. Louis writers, journalists, clerics, poets, and activists including Aisha Sultan, Galen Gritts, Vivian Gibson, Maja Sadikovic, Nartana Premachandra, Sophia Benoit, Robert Langellier, Samuel Autman, Umar Lee, and more. Here you'll learn about:
- The rent strike of 1969
- Religious life in Pruitt-Igoe public housing
- Protest art in Ferguson
- Segregation in the Vandeventer neighborhood
- A church closing in Kinloch.
The St. Louis Anthology dares to confront the city's nostalgia and its traumas, celebrating those who have faced both who live complex lives in this city against a backdrop of its red brick, muddy rivers, and sticky summer nights when the symphony of cicadas and jazz is almost loud enough to drown out the gunshots.
A perfect introduction to St. Louis for people who want to learn more about it and a great resource for those people from St. Louis who want to hear stories told by their own neighbors.
Radical Suburbs
9781948742368
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%"Radical Suburbs is a revelation. Amanda Kolson Hurley will open your eyes to the wide diversity and rich history of our ongoing suburban experiment."--Richard Florida
America's suburbs are not the homogenous places we sometimes take them for. Today's suburbs are racially, ethnically, and economically diverse, with as many Democratic as Republican voters, a growing population of renters, and rising poverty. The cliche of broad lawns and white picket fences is well past its expiration date.
The history of suburbia is equally surprising. Rather than bland, sprawling cookie-cutter developments, some American suburbs were once fertile ground for utopian planning, communal living, socially conscious design, and integrated housing. In Radical Suburbs, Amanda Kolson Hurley, an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, takes us on a tour of some of these radical communities, including:
- the co-housing commune of Old Economy, Pennsylvania
- a tiny-house anarchist community in Piscataway, New Jersey
- a government-planned garden city in Greenbelt, Maryland
- a racially integrated subdivision (before the Fair Housing Act) in Trevose, Pennsylvania
- experimental Modernist enclaves in Lexington, Massachusetts
- and the mixed-use, architecturally daring Reston, Virginia.
Here you will find blueprints for affordable, walkable, and integrated communities, filled with a range of environmentally sound residential options. It's a timely reminder, as NPR put it, that "any place, even a suburb, can be radical if you approach it the right way."
An insightful study that will make you rethink your assumptions about suburbia and possibly remake its future.
Who We Lost
9781953368539
Regular price $18.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Who We Lost is the first book that directly acknowledges the free-floating grief of the COVID-bereaved, affirms that it must be addressed, and offers a purposeful activity that respects mourners as well as the mourned.
In 2020, Martha Greenwald invited mourners to write memories of loved ones lost to COVID on the Who We Lost website. The site has been growing ever since, as the bereaved continue to write and publish stories, and the writers’ toolbox section of the website offers guidance and prompts for anyone wishing to contribute their story about who they lost to this grassroots public memorial.
The resultant book, Who We Lost: A Portable COVID Memorial, contains dozens of essays and a writing guide for those wishing to add their own story about a loved one who died from COVID. It is a community-generated tribute, a eulogy, a handbook, and a collective memorial.
The Girls
9781953368492
Regular price $24.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%From the best-selling author of Giant and So Big, a sweeping look at the lives of three generations of women on Chicago's South Side. Part of Belt's Revivals series and with a new introduction by Kathleen Rooney (Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk).First published in 1921, Edna Ferber's The Girls revolves around the "three Charlottes" of the Thrift family--Great-Aunt Charlotte, her niece Lottie, and Lottie's niece Charley. All single "old maids," as the narrator describes them, their lives weave together as they deal with issues involving money, work, friendship, family, and love as they strive to join Chicago's growing middle class in the early twentieth century. With a historic span that travels from the Civil War to World War I, Ferber highlights how the three generations of Charlottes lead very different lives. But we also see the ways their experiences rhyme with one another and how, despite the social advances in America, as Kathleen Rooney writes in her introduction, all three have to confront "a sexist and claustrophobic societal atmosphere in which any little act of self-assertion can feel like a leap from a precipice." Told through Ferber's assured and generous style, and full of her signature strong female characters, this rediscovered American classic deserves a spot on the shelf next to other great Chicago novels like Sister Carrie and The Adventures of Augie March.
Midwest Pie
9781953368522
Regular price $18.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%- A historical tour of midwestern pies that recalls when recipes were shared through faded note cards and junior league cookbooks.New England may say it's the "Great American Pie Belt," but pie has a rich and varied history in the American Midwest too. Stop by any church or community event in the heartland today and you're likely to see as many types of pie on the dessert table as there are people who made them. Midwest Pie highlights the treats, both sweet and savory, that have come to define this region. Here, you'll learn about bean pie's origins in the Nation of Islam, the popularity of "desperation pies" during the Depression, how Michigan miners ate lunch "pasties" in the mines, and much more. Full of accessible instructions and helpful sidebars, you'll learn the stories behind a variety of pies, including: Hoosier Pie
- Schnitz Pie
- Sawdust Pie
- Ohio Buckeye Pie
- Runza
Midwest Pie is the perfect collection for any home chef looking to learn more about the diversity and deliciousness of one of the region's most enduring culinary contributions.
El Dorado Freddy's
9781948742627
Regular price $20.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A charming and accessible collection of poems dedicated to one of the most American of inventions--fast food.
El Dorado Freddy's may be the first book of fast-food poetry. In poems like "Olive Garden," "Culver's," "Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen," "Cracker Barrel," "Applebee's (after James Wright)," Caine--owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas--"reviews" chain restaurants, bringing our attention to a slice of American life we often overlook, even though it's everywhere. Along the way, he touches on such topics as parenting, the Midwest, politics, and the pitfalls of nostalgia. Caine's wry, deceptively accomplished poems are paired with Tara Wray's color-drenched photos. The result is a literary yet goofy homage to American food and identity, set in a midwestern landscape dotted by the light of fast-food restaurants' glowing signs.
Perfect for those readers who love both poetry and Popeye's.
Love and Industry
9781953368584
Regular price $19.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Sonya Huber, author of the award-winning Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System, offers a candid, lyrical look inside the unsung world of exurban Illinois.New Lenox, Illinois, is a small town deep in the corn grid of the Midwest, where it runs up against the grid of south Chicagoland, a placeless location marked by geographical flatness and dwindling industry. It's also where Sonya Huber grew up, and in the twenty essays collected here, she lovingly explores the ways New Lenox--and the Midwest more generally--has come to define her life. Here, you'll find portraits of Huber's parents as they tirelessly run a small business, homages to the Gen-X joys of wearing flannel, secret insights about being a Pizza Hut waitress, and odes to the ecstasy of blasting classic rock as your car hurls along I-80. Whether she's writing about All in the Family, detailing the region's influence on David Foster Wallace, or exploring the poetry embedded in a can of Miller High Life, her vision is astute and her prose convincing. Sometimes experimental and always inventive, Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook takes seriously Chicagoland's farthest reaches--gritty, sweeping, a region full of its own distinct feelings of "almostness"--and transforms them into a map of the heart, a ramshackle territory marked by memory, family, regret, determination, and wonderment
Car Bombs to Cookie Tables (Revised)
9781948742672
Regular price $26.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%The Youngstown story often is told with a beginning in iron and steel and ending in decay with a subplot driven by violent mobsters and corrupt politicians. Aiming to provide a more well-rounded examination of Youngstown, this collection of essays provides an authentic look at the city through a diverse set of experiences from the perspectives of those who have lived there. Readers will gain a sense of the past, present, and future of the city. Edited by Jacqueline Marino and Will Miller, the book features contributions by Christopher Barzak, Rochelle Hurt, Eric Murphy, Ed O'Neill, Sarah Sepanek, David Skolnick, Sarah Stankorb, C Lee Tressell, Jay Williams, Andrea Wood & 35 others.
So You Want to Publish a Book?
9781948742665
Regular price $16.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%In So You Want to Publish a Book?, Anne Trubek, founder of Belt Publishing, demystifies the publishing process.
This insightful guide offers concrete, witty advice and information to authors, prospective authors, and those curious about the inner workings of the industry. Learn the differences between "Big Five" and independent presses, and how advances and royalties really work. Discover the surprising methods that actually move books off the shelves. Develop the lingo to make editors swoon, and challenge yourself to find the errors intentionally embedded in the text!
Team Building
9781953368331
Regular price $17.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%From the author of Clean Time comes a firsthand account of the organizing effort inside one of the world's largest tech companies and its impact on one Pittsburgh family.In 2019, Ben Gwin played an integral role in organizing the contract workers at Google's Pittsburgh offices. In Team Building, he takes us inside the employees' fight for better benefits and more flexible scheduling, offering us a candid account of today's labor movement and the forces in America that aim to divide workers and maintain the status quo. But this is also a personal story of struggle and triumph. As Ben works with the union, he's suddenly faced with the prospect of raising his teenage daughter alone after her mother dies of a drug overdose. As he juggles work and the challenges of single fatherhood, he offers us a frank portrait of daily American life, where it sometimes feels like every moment is an uphill battle. Expertly crafted and tightly structured, Team Building artfully explores the ways our working conditions reach deeply into our lives outside the office. It's an honest and ultimately hopeful look at the importance of building solid foundations with the teams that matter most.
The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook
9781948742832
Regular price $14.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook celebrates the Rust Belt tradition of the cookie table with forty-one classic recipes from authentic Mahoning Valley cooks.
What's a cookie table? Funny you should ask! The cookie table is a tradition beloved by residents of Youngstown, Pittsburgh, and parts in between. It has its roots in a time when wedding cakes were far too dear for newly arrived immigrants to purchase. Instead, family and friends showed their love for a bride and groom by baking from scratch hundreds (sometimes thousands) of cookies and other small sweet treats to be shared at the reception.
The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook includes cookies from different cultures, cookies with different textures, spices, shapes, and a trove of interesting backstories. Simple cookies, ridiculously indulgent cookies, experimental cookies?they're all here. And most of all, this cookbook shares the tradition of the cookie table, a heartfelt way of building community that has endured through generations. In the tradition of the community cookbook. Author Bonnie Tawse, a former Atlas Obscura Field Agent, collects 41 recipes that include everything from pizzelles to potato chip cookies. Buy it with Belt's Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology for the full experience!
A wonderful testament to a local baking tradition of the Midwest and a must for any kitchen large or small.
The Last Children of Mill Creek
9781948742641
Regular price $18.95 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Vivian Gibson's bestselling memoir of growing up in the 1950s in a segregated St. Louis neighborhood has been hailed by critics as "a spare, elegant jewel of a work" and "a love letter to Gibson's childhood."
Vivian Gibson grew up in Mill Creek Valley, a segregated working-class neighborhood in St. Louis that was razed in 1959 to build a highway, an act of racism disguised under urban renewal as "progress." A moving memoir of family life at a time very different from the present, The Last Children of Mill Creek chronicles the everyday lived experiences of Gibson's large family?her seven siblings, her crafty, college-educated mother, and her hard-working father?and the friends, shop owners, church ladies, teachers, and others who made Mill Creek into a warm, tight-knit African American community. In Gibson's words, "This memoir is about survival, as told from the viewpoint of a watchful young girl?a collection of decidedly universal stories that chronicle the extraordinary lives of ordinary people."
Winner of a Missouri Humanities award for literary achievement, The Last Children of Mill Creek is an important book for anyone interested in urban development, race, and community history?or for anyone who was once a child.
Color Me In Boston
9781467197809
Regular price $9.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Color your way through Boston!
Best-selling author-illustrator Martha Day Zschock introduces young readers to the beautiful and exciting city of Boston. Young travelers and locals alike can color the boats in the harbor, visit the duckling statues and Swan Boats in Boston's parks, and explore museums. Color in ice cream and lobster and historic sites as you celebrate all that Boston has to offer
Hannibal's Invisibles
9781953368768
Regular price $28.00 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%With over a hundred photos collected by G. Faye Dant, and with an introduction by renowned Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin.
When Mark Twain published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885, he turned Hannibal, Missouri, into one of the most famous towns in the American imagination. But like Twain’s novel, Hannibal’s idyllic façade often elided the darker racial violence that had marked its past, and it overlooked the history and humanity of the Black residents who have called Hannibal home for generations. Without them, there would be no “America’s hometown.”
In Hannibal’s Invisibles, G. Faye Dant, a Hannibal resident and the executive director of Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center, tells the incredible story of the Black community in this small Missouri town, giving voice to a history that has been marginalized far too long. Hear first-hand accounts from those who survived enslavement, faced racism after emancipation, endured Jim Crow, and contributed to the triumphs of the civil rights movement. These are the stories of Black doctors, entrepreneurs, and teachers who helped uplift the community, and remembrances of the countless individuals who gave richness and meaning to Hannibal’s everyday life. The vintage photographs and historical documents collected here are a celebration of these resilient people who built and sustained this corner of the Midwest, despite the immense obstacles they met at every turn.
Be Not Afraid of My Body
9781953368904
Regular price $19.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%From an exhilarating new voice, a breathtaking memoir about gay desire, Blackness, and growing up.
Darius Stewart spent his childhood in the Lonsdale projects of Knoxville, where he grew up navigating school, friendship, and his own family life in a context that often felt perilous. As we learn about his life in Tennessee—and eventually in Texas and Iowa, where he studies to become a poet—he details the obstacles to his most crucial desires: hiding his earliest attraction to boys in his neighborhood, predatory stalkers, doomed affairs, his struggles with alcohol addiction, and his eventual diagnosis with HIV. Through a mix of straightforward memoir, brilliantly surreal reveries, and moments of startling imagery and insight, Stewart’s explorations of love, illness, chemical dependency, desire, family, joy, shame, loneliness, and beauty coalesce into a wrenching, musical whole.
A lyrical narrative reminiscent of Saeed Jones’s How We Fight for Our Lives and Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Be Not Afraid of My Body stands as a compelling testament to growing up Black and gay in America, and to the drive in all of us to collect the fragments of our own experience and transform them into a story that does justice to all the multitudes we contain.