Rust Belt Magazine

“As with Joyce’s Dublin, place isn’t simply geographical–it is inherent in the working-class culture in which characters live. The tension remains across stories because it is, at root, based in economics and class status.” -- Donna Dzurilla

Author Joseph Bathanti’s East Liberty - Belt Magazine “As with Joyce’s Dublin, place isn’t simply geographical–it is inherent in the working-class culture in which characters live. The tension remains across stories because it is, at root, based in economics and class status.”

Membership - Belt Magazine Belt Magazine publishes the best writing, journalism, and photography by and for the Rust Belt and greater Midwest. And we can’t do any of it without supporters like you.

This month at the magazine, we've shared another selection of Rust Belt-oriented pieces recently published at our sibling publication, the Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB), including interviews with Damon Young and Stewart O’Nan, a consideration of Gertrude Stein and the history of the protest novel, as well as reviews of the local theater.

PRoB isn't only focused on our region, but part of our mission is to introduce this region to the world (and vice versa). Links to stories in the comments.

Our fund drive continues! Did you know memberships cover nearly all of our operating expenses? All new gifts are matched through 12/31: your $5/month gift unlocks $60 in matching funds – which goes straight to paying writers for their work! Can we count on your support?

Membership - Belt Magazine Belt Magazine publishes the best writing, journalism, and photography by and for the Rust Belt and greater Midwest. And we can’t do any of it without supporters like you.

Through 12/31, matches all new monthly and one-time gifts, up to $1,000, and recurring monthly gifts are matched 12 times! Your $5/month gift unlocks $60 in matching funds – which goes straight to paying writers for their work! Can we count on you?

Give today:

Membership - Belt Magazine Belt Magazine publishes the best writing, journalism, and photography by and for the Rust Belt and greater Midwest. And we can’t do any of it without supporters like you.

This month at the magazine, we're sharing a selection of Rust Belt-oriented pieces recently published at our newly-launched sibling publication, the Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB).

PRoB isn't only focused on our region, but part of our mission is to introduce this region to the world (and vice versa).

Read about the father of the Pittsburgh School of Poetry, the great editor Ed Ochester, parse the metaphysics of Michigan in the poetry of Cal Freeman, and examine the left-wing murals of the Croatian social realist Maxo Vanka in Millvale, Pennsylvania.

Home - Belt Magazine November 2025By Ed Simon In the Venn Diagram that demonstrates the relationship between Rust Belt Magazine and The Pittsburgh [...]2025-11-06T12:48:11-05:00By Ed Simon|

“A phrenological bust, an abandoned blast furnace, twin light-houses, a tree bedazzled in Spanish moss: each of the pictures – beguilingly mysterious as they were – gave every author an opportunity to consider what stories might lay just outside of the frame.”
A group of Pittsburgh writers recently convened in an historic space to share pieces created in response to the evocative photographs of Huck Beard. We’ll be sharing them this week, back from our hiatus, now publishing as Rust Belt Magazine.

October 2025 - Belt Magazine By Ed Simon On an autumnal evening in mid-September of 2025, Carnegie Mellon University creative writing professor and accomplished novelist Sharon Dilworth convened a reading which included herself and ten other authors at the historic Homestead Pump House in Munhall, Pennsylvania. Each of the gath...

The Relics of Morton Grove, Illinois All Saints Parish has a special status within the Catholic church because of the massive collection of relics that adorn its walls, vestibules, and nooks.

This September, Belt Magazine is getting both a make-over and a new partner in publication. Thanks to a grant from the Institute for Nonprofit News, Belt Magazine’s website will get a long overdue redesign, as well as a new logo. As part of that initiative, we’re going to be rebranding ourselves as well, returning to our roots as Rust Belt Magazine.

In that same month, the Pittsburgh Review of Books (or PRoB) will begin publishing intelligent cultural criticism and literary analysis intended for the reading public. A venture of the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University, PRoB will be a publication in the vein of other award-winning magazines and sites such as The Atlantic, Harpers, The New Yorker, The Believer, Literary Hub, and The Millions.

Introducing the Pittsburgh Review of Books Belt Magazine Becomes Rust Belt Magazine While Getting a New Publishing Partner.

A conversation between Bill Lychack and Sherrie Flick, in which the latter discusses the mystery of bears, the art of joy in writing and life, and her new collection of stories, “I Have Not Considered Consequences” (Autumn House Press, 2025)

https://beltmag.com/considering-consequences-with-sherrie-flick

Considering Consequences with Sherrie Flick A conversation with Sherrie Flick, in which the author talks the mystery of bears, the art of joy in writing and life, and her new collections of stories, "I Have Not Considered Consequences" (Autumn House Press, 2025)

“That’s how they mark the restroom doors here,
Hymns and Hers. When I was a kid this bar
was a funeral home. Prior that a foundry.”

Read “Hymns & Hers” and three other poems by Kristofer Collins.

Four Poems by Kris Collins Hymns & Hers That’s how they mark the restroom doors here, Hymns and Hers. When I was a kid this bar was a funeral home. Prior that a foundry. Frank J. Boyle cut the marble here and delivered the headstones to the lithe grass of new plots in Allegheny Cemetery not fifty steps from this