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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.

A part of Belt's City Anthology Series, a unique take on the South Dakota town residents call the Best Little City in America.

In 1992, Money magazine named Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the best place to live in America. This rich anthology offers an inside look at the city through the eyes of both longtime residents and recent transplants. In over forty-five essays, you'll hear stories about the city's past, including the region's legacy of violence against Native Americans and Sioux Falls's status as a divorce destination in the late 1800s. But you'll also discover the ways the city's savvy planning and entrepreneurial gumption have helped it navigate twenty-first-century challenges. You'll read about: - the end of George McGovern's presidential run at a Sioux Falls Holiday Inn - the vibrant Jewish and Syrian-Muslim communities that helped form the city - the first sit-down strike in American labor history - firsthand accounts of how South Sudanese refugees are shaping the city today Edited by Patrick Hicks and Jon K. Lauck, City of Hustle: A Sioux Falls Anthology gives an insider's perspective on what's really going on in so-called flyover country, and it shows why that name misses so much of the true richness that makes up life there every day.

Part of Belt's City Anthology Series. The ultimate (literary) tour guide to the neighborhoods and wild places, history and politics, culture and cuisine, music and myths of the Twin Cities, a place I only thought I knew.--Benjamin Percy

In recent years, Minneapolis has become one of America's literary powerhouses. With over fifty poems and essays, Under Purple Skies: The Minneapolis Anthology collects some of the most exciting work being done in, or about, Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area, with narrative threads that stretch back not just to Scandinavia, but across the world.

Edited by Frank Bures (The Geography of Madness), the writers included here have won, or been shortlisted for, the Newbery Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer, the Caldecott Award, the National Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and many others. The wide-ranging stories included here include:

- A tour through Prince's Minneapolis

- The story of the Metrodome's demolition

- A story of a Somali immigrant's journey to Eden Prairie

- Eating Halva on Lake Street.

Contributors include James Wright, Kelly Barnhill, Marlon James, Kao Kalia Yang, Michael Perry, Bao Phi, Danez Smith, Shannon Gibney and many more, alongside new and first-time writers.

A wonderful, literary portrait of the City of Lakes and the myriad ways it's changed in recent years.

The Rooms Where History Happened

Before Jefferson City became the Capital, hotels shaped its story. As the town grew from frontier roots, places like the City Hotel served travelers, lawmakers, and locals for over 80 years.

During each legislative session, hotels and boarding houses—like the one run by the Lansdown sisters—were in high demand. Hotels like the Madison and Monroe House became landmarks of progress, constantly expanding and modernizing.

These spaces weren’t just for sleeping. They hosted teas, dances, civic meetings, and debates that shaped the future of Missouri.

From social events to political movements, hotels were at the center of it all.

Local historian Michelle Brooks checks in to tell the stories behind these historic stays.

Perfect for readers who love small-town history, Missouri heritage, and forgotten local landmarks.