The Columbus Anthology
Edited and with an introduction by Amanda Page.
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Buy it here: Belt Publishing
Or buy it here: The Ohio State University Press
this is the book description from the ohio state university press…
“Most all of us have love/hate relationships with our hometowns. But what’s remarkable here are the myriad lenses through which the writers in this anthology view Columbus, its residents, its histories and everchanging present. This is a bountiful collection I will read again and again!” —Kathy Fagan, author of Sycamore
“What a vibrant, diverse collection of voices. The Columbus Anthology is a memorable chorus from a city too often overlooked.” —Lee Martin, author of Pulitzer Prize–finalist The Bright Forever
Columbus, Ohio, is a place whose identity centers on its supposed lack of identity—an American “every place” that has launched countless chain dining concepts. Enter the contributors to this wide-ranging volume, who are all too happy to fight back against that reputation, even as they recognize it as an inevitable facet of the ever-growing city they call home. “Maybe we’re not having trouble designing a definitive identity,” writes Amanda Page in her introduction. “Maybe we are a city that is constantly considering what it will become.”
Race, sports, the endless squeeze of gentrification, the city’s booming literary and comics scenes, its reputation as a haven for queer life, the sometimes devastating differences in perspective among black and white, native and transplant residents—and more than one tribute to Buckeye Donuts—make this anthology a challenging and an energizing read. From Hanif Abdurraqib’s sparkling and urgent portrait of Columbus’s vital immigrant culture as experienced through Crew games to Nick Dekker’s insights into breakfast as a vehicle for getting to know a city to the poetry of Maggie Smith and Ruth Awad, the pieces gathered here show us a Columbus far more textured than any test marketer could dream up.
