Photo by Rachel Hrbek

I just returned from the Tin House Summer Workshop, where I learned the following valuable lessons:

a) Don’t take a two and a half week vacation right before a deadline, particularly if you don’t have a laptop or smartphone;

b) While taking a cross-country train trip might sound like a romantic idea, Amtrak bathrooms beg to differ;

c) Be a good literary citizen.

The idea of being a good literary citizen was posed by Tin House editor Rob Spillman early in the conference, and was echoed by the many illustrious faculty members throughout the week. What does it mean to be a good literary citizen? It means that if you want people to buy and read your books, you should buy and read theirs.

In order to be a good literary citizen in the Rust Belt, you should have your ears attuned to the real-life foibles and dramas that happen here, and you should try and make sense of them, digest them, distill them into something the wider world can understand. You should support your libraries and independent bookstores. You should read as much as you can.

In addition to the fine selection of art, fiction, and poetry you’ll find in this issue, we’ve decided to take a closer look at Rust Belt culture. Is there such a thing? What makes us unique? In Bar Mleczny, noted demographer Jim Russell explains his concept of Rust Belt Chic. Associate Editor Camilla Grigsby’s candid conversation with Arabella Proffer pokes holes in the notion that all you need to attract artists is “cheap rent and a can-do attitude!” And Poetry Editor Wells Addington’s interview with Cleveland’s unsung poet of the underground is…well…not to be missed.

But don’t skip ahead to the back page: even on the internet, that’s still cheating. And good literary citizens never, ever cheat.

Christine Borne

Editor-in-Chief

“Having spent eighteen years of my life on the near west side of Cleveland, in the Ohio City neighborhood, I have acquired a fixation with physical decay and deterioration, and the beauty which can be found in it. This photograph, which I took while nearly submerged in Lake Erie, stands as a personal representation of my experience growing up and coming of age in one of the largest cities in the Rust Belt. Currently, I am studying fine art at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, in Washington, D.C., where I am in my third year.” – Rachel Hrbek