I'm from Rockford, Illinois, which gets called a Rust Belt city—a manufacturing town hit hard decades ago when most of our factories closed. I have mixed feelings on that term, "Rust Belt," partially because it gets thrown around so much, but its definition is no longer clear. But also, my Rust Belt city has defined me. Yes, our high crime and unemployment rates have put us on the map, but I'm who I am from growing up—and continuing to live—in this place that other parts of the country have written off.
Needless to say, I was excited to check out Belt Publishing's latest anthology, Best of the Rust Belt, edited by Anne Trubek, founder and publisher of Belt. The anthology is a collection of essays published in other Belt collections, ones focused on Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and more—including work by some of Chicago's most beloved writers: Britt Julious, Megan Stielstra, Kathleen Rooney, and more. With an introduction by Anna Clark, this collection is the perfect primer to the great work coming out of Belt.
I was happy to have the opportunity to speak to Anne Trubek about the collection and to learn more about Belt Publishing.
Rachel León:
This incredible anthology comes just after Belt Publishing's ten year anniversary. I thought we could start with a quick overview of what has and hasn't changed this past decade.
Anne Trubek:
Well everything has changed as we had no history prior to ten years ago! But in the very beginning we were only doing city anthologies, and then we expanded to short, single-author books of nonfiction that had some connection to our mission, be it because they were about the Rust Belt, by a writer from here, or were informed by our non-sentimental, critical (as in analytic, informed, researched) approach. And then we just kept growing, signing up more titles that were connected by approach and sensibility if not also region. We were acquired by Arcadia at the beginning of this year, and now we have the opportunity to keep growing, along with a larger team and additional resources.
I also think the Rust Belt has changed over the past decade, or at least the discourse surrounding it has. Before 2016, there was an impulse to wave our hands and say "hey! hi! interesting stuff here!" Once Trump was elected in 2016, it became a game of whack-a-mole of sorts—again, just talking about the ways writers and journalists conceive of the region—in which we were trying to say "stop blanketing us with these facile stereotypes that do not meaningfully reflect life or the population here!" I think that's mellowed of late—and if we want to use election cycles, 2022 could be seen as a nice righting of various ships.
Rachel León:
In Anna Clark's introduction, she talks about how she thinks of the making of the Detroit anthology as an act of listening. That really encompasses the experience of reading this collection— it feels like listening, and with such beauty, vulnerability, and thoughtfulness in these essays, doing so feels, dare I say, important. I'm curious if you see this book, and other Belt anthologies, that way?
Anne Trubek:
Yes—there is simply nothing more gratifying or meaningful, for me, than helping publish these city anthologies. I think there's something about the prompt—write an essay about one aspect of your relationship to one place—that brings out such great prose. It allows writers to situate themselves in a larger context so seamlessly—and literally! The anthologies do not attempt to generalize, or make blanket statements, or wax nostalgic. They just put a series of individual experiences, all centered around a common theme, next to each other. I think there is a tendency that is perhaps more pronounced now than it has been at other historical moments, to overgeneralize, be it about identity, or politics, or to make one idiosyncratic personal experience stand for a whole. That's the opposite of what these anthologies are trying to do. They show us a variety of voices and places and then just put them between soft covers without any shrill or cliched or overarching by definition incomplete explanation. Another lovely element is the generosity of the writers who contribute, and the community that is created when they participate in the project, and is often sustained long after its publication. And that is doubly true for the writers in this "anthology of anthologies."
Rachel León:
I want to quote Clark's intro one last time because I think it speaks to not only this anthology, but Belt's work as a press: "Anthologies are still Belt's signature. It is aptly democratic. The form suits the purpose of interrogating our lives as they are lived alongside others." Do you mind speaking on that?
Anne Trubek:
I think the above does that! But I will add that the individual city anthologies that these are selected from often contain as many essays by people who had never published before as they do writers per se. And those rookie pieces are often the strongest. Anthologies are not hierarchical in nature, so first timers are not separated from the "names." Each essay is somewhat like an expression "public solitude" —like the experience of walking through a city alone. The writers are all doing that, and us readers are, I guess, watching them pass by from a remove (ideally at a bar with a window onto the sidewalk or an outside table at a cafe, weather depending).
Rachel León:
With such a rich variety of essays to choose from, how did you narrow down which to include in Best of the Rust Belt?
Anne Trubek:
Most of the credit here goes to Phoebe Mogharei, an editor at Belt, and her name should be on the cover. Phoebe and I wanted to thread a few needles. For awhile we internally discussed whether this was a "best writing of the Rust Belt" book, and we would just pick based on literary quality, or if we wanted it to be "best guide to the Rust Belt," to help those unfamiliar with the region (but who focus on it intensely every four years now) better understand it. Plus we wanted it to be geographically and demographically representative. So that was a tall order! Once we had roughed out a list that tried to hit all or most of the above, we fine tuned it, decided some of the pieces were perhaps a bit dated, etc. etc. and culled until we had something solid. Of course our ulterior motive is to whet readers of this anthology an appetite they can only satisfy by then reading all the city anthologies these are excerpted from, and keep diving deeper.
Rachel León:
Belt's submission guidelines are clearly stated on the website, but what makes a book a good fit for Belt?
Anne Trubek:
I was trying to articulate this to someone recently and the only term that really fit was "intellectual," which I hesitate to use because it sounds terribly pretentious. And by that I don't mean academic, though a disproportionate number of our authors do have PhDs, but a writer who is well-read and has a critical approach to a topic, be it a city they are gathering essays about, or a focus for a memoir, or critical essays about the Midwest, or reporting about an environmental issue, or a cookbook (our cookbooks often include the history of an ingredient, for instance).
But to start over and answer this differently: Belt was founded in order to fill a gap. There were not many books being published about the Rust Belt in 2013. I was and still am drawn to any writer who understands that and has an idea to correct/add to the record, as it were.
And more generally: there are too many books being published in the US today, right? I have no desire to publish a book just 'cuz. There has to be a reason, and that reason will still be a gap, but it might be less obvious—like a memoir in which the writer turns into a minotaur—which means it is playing with form, and the memoir form has become a bit moribund, in my opinion. Or maybe it's a book about gentrification that says, hey wait—this started in the '50s, not a decade ago, and helps change an often oversimplified conversation.
Or to start over once more: smart, well-read people who are good writers. And cartographers! We are really eager to hear from cartographers. Oh, also funny writers. They are the rarest commodity.
Rachel León:
Can you tell me a bit about the Belt Publishing team? Who are the people behind the press?
Anne Trubek:
We are small but mighty, as they say. Phoebe Mogharei and Hattie Fletcher, who many know from her years editing Creative Nonfiction, edit our books. David Wilson is the genius behind our covers, which are probably more responsible for Belt's success than me and the editors combined. And now of course we are joined by the marketing, sales, and design teams at Arcadia as well.
Rachel León:
What can readers look forward to coming out with Belt Publishing?
Anne Trubek:
I think when readers open the deceptively simple cover of Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA they are going to become [mind blown emoji]. It's an extraordinarily detailed look (literally) at Ferguson as an exemplar of an inner ring suburb, publishing to coincide with the 10th anniversary of MIchael Brown's death. Chicago's Jonathan Foiles has a lovely, ironically soothing book about how reading philosophy can help with contemporary anxieties, be it about democracy or climate change, in Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room. And I am more than excited for the launch of Chicago House Music: Culture and Community at The Silver Room in August!*
*Chicago House Music Launch Party
Wednesday August 14
6:00-8:00 PM
The Silver Room
1506 E. 53rd Street
Chicago, IL 60615
NONFICTION
Best of the Rust Belt
Edited by Anne Trubek
Belt Publishing
Published July 2, 2024
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