Tue 10/18 @ 6PM
Cleveland-based Belt Publishing has created a cottage industry in anthologies of essays about Rust Belt cities, written by residents, former residents and others with connections to them.
Its latest is its Akron anthology edited by Jason Segedy, out this month. It includes nearly two dozen pieces written by both prominent and ordinary Akronites, writing about history, culture, people, civic engagement, and the city’s past, present and future.
Among the best-known contributors are state representative Emilia Sykes, who hails from one of that city’s noted political families, author/journalist David Giffels, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove, a former U.S. and state of Virginia poet laureate, who was born and raised in Akron. The pieces range from one about buying a home in a city riddled by foreclosure and abandonment by Chris Drabick and Denise Grollmus writing once again about the unraveling of her marriage to Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney.
Belt will hold a launch party for the anthology at the Akron Public Library’s main branch. It’s free.