Voices from the Rust Belt

Where is America’s Rust Belt? It’s not quite a geographic region but a linguistic one, first introduced as a concept in 1984 by Walter Mondale. In the modern vernacular, it’s closely associated with the Post-Industrial Midwest, and includes Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. The region reflects the country’s manufacturing center, which, over the past forty years, has been in decline. In the 2016 election, the Rust Belt’s economic woes became a political talking point, and helped pave the way for a Donald Trump victory.

But the region is neither monolithic nor easily understood. The truth is much more nuanced. Voices From the Rust Belt pulls together a distinct variety of voices from people who call the region home. Voices that emerge from familiar Rust Belt cities-Detroit, Cleveland, Flint, and Buffalo, among others-and observe, with grace and sensitivity, the changing economic and cultural realities for generations of Americans.

The anthology is a collection of the best non-fiction essays published in Belt Magazine, a critically-acclaimed regional magazine, and has been artfully put together by publisher and founder Anne Trubek.