A part of Belt's City Anthology Series. "A lively grab bag of essays,
fiction and poetry that reads at times like a who's who of contemporary
Chicago writers/residents."--The Chicago Tribune
Chicago is a city built on meat, railroads, and steel, on opportunity
and exploitation. But its identity has long involved so much more than
manufacturing. Today, the city continues to lure new residents from
around the world, and from across a region rocked by recession and
deindustrialization.
The problems that plague the region don't disappear once you pass the
Indiana border, though. In fact, they're often amplified. And Chicago is
a complicated city because of that, defined by movement that's the
anchor of the Midwest, but bound to its neighbors by a shared ecosystem
and economy.
Rust Belt Chicago collects essays, fiction, and poetry from more than
fifty writers who speak directly to the concerns the city shares with
the region at large, and the elements that set it apart. With
contributions from writers like Aleksandar Hemon, Kathleen Rooney, and
Zoe Zolbrod, and here you'll find stories about:
- Buying Bread on Devon Street
- The Cantinas of Pilsen
- Bike commutes through the North Side
- Adventures on the El.
Writing with affection, frustration, anger, and joy, the writers in this
collection capture all the harmony and dissonance that define one
cacophonous place.
A wide-ranging insider's look at one of the world's most iconic cities.
