Currents in the Electric City

In Currents in the Electric City, an installment of Belt’s City Anthologies series,  the story of Scranton gets told by the people who know it best.

Scranton, PA,  is more than just the setting for The Office. It's a living city, one with a rich industrial and labor history, that also has a small-town feel. Who is considered “from Scranton” is fiercely guarded even as the city sees immigration from around the world. Neighborhood talk can reveal your family secrets before you even know them yourself, as Barbara J. Taylor writes. Pieces in this anthology talk about desires to leave, ties that bind, and decisions to stay, as well as impressions from newcomers to the Northeastern Pennsylvania hub. As coeditor Joe Kraus notes in his foreword, Scranton was once a prominent stop on the vaudeville circuit―vaudeville translating literally into “the voice of the city.” The chorus of voices that fill the poems and essays in this anthology tell a complicated story of the Electric city that many have heard of, but few know.

A Scranton native, Brian Fanelli spent his teenage years going to local punk rock clubs, including Café Del Soul, Café Metropolis, and others. He eventually moved to the Philly area and then bounced back to NEPA, where he currently resides with his wife, Daryl, and their cat, Giselle. His latest book is Waiting for the Dead to Speak (NYQ Books), and his writing has been published in the LA Times, World Literature Today, Paterson Literary Review, Pedestal, and elsewhere. Brian also loves horror movies and is a contributing writer to HorroBuzz.com, Signal Horizon Magazine, and 1428 Elm. He has an MFA from Wilkes University and a PhD from SUNY Binghamton University. Currently, Brian is an associate professor of English at Lackawanna College. 

Joe Kraus is a professor at the University of Scranton in the Department of English & Theatre where he teaches American literature and creative writing. He is the author of The Kosher Capones (Northern Illinois UP, 2019), and his creative work has appeared in The American Scholar, Riverteeth, Under the Sun, and The Baltimore Review, among other places. He is a two-time Pushcart nominee, has been long listed for Best American Essays, and won the 2007 Moment/Karma Foundation International Short Fiction Contest.