Dispatches from the Rust Belt: The Best of Belt Year One

A print anthology of our favorite pieces from Belt Magazine s first year. Dispatches From the Rust Belt includes stories about Great Lakes waterfronts, faux-authentic restaurants in Detroit, and the history of Cleveland s Chief Wahoo. Experienced journalists who recognized early on the importance of what we are doing, such as Gordon Young--whose cautionary tale Attention Would-Be Urban Homesteaders: Think Before You Buy is a must-read for anyone seduced by the promise of a Rust Belt fixer-upper--share these pages with new writers who found a voice with us, such as Amanda Shaffer, whose Busing: A White Girls Tale received national recognition. Taken as a whole, Dispatches expands our map of the Rust Belt, giving shape and voice to its history, its culture, its economy, and its future.

Contributors include Jacqueline Marino, Edward McClelland, Dan McGraw, Laura Putre, Brad Ricca, Erick Trickey, and others.

Belt Magazine, a Cleveland-based, online publication focused on life in the Rust Belt, practices principles that ring almost quaint in the new media age. It assigns editors to work with writers on long stories with original reporting, writers who in turn get paid for their work. The result is a selection of stories and essays that often offer fresh insight into regional issues and challenges and that stoke smart conversation. --Cleveland Plain Dealer

The decaying cities of the post-industrial Midwest can sometimes seem like a museum of things America used to make: cars, refrigerators, steel, televisions. But if a start-up in Cleveland gets its way, the region may help rebuild the market for another endangered product: long-form magazine journalism. --The New York Times

Creator Anne Trubek has taken the loose idea of writing about the Rust Belt and expanded the catch-all category with a host of brilliant writers on any and all topics that affect us, be it United pulling its hub from Hopkins and what role Burke Lakefront Airport plays in the region, to moving essays on what it s like to grow up, live and work in Cleveland. It s the sort of writing you won t find anywhere else, both in scope and talent. --Cleveland Scene