Fiction. Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Art. THE RUST BELT RISING ALMANAC is a collection of snapshots and stories from writers and artists in America's Rust Belt cities, published by The Head &amp; The Hand Press in Philadelphia. In our first volume, you, Courteous Reader, will read about escapes, remains, and models of growth. You'll green your thumb with an industrial soil-strength planting guide, find a road map for wandering, and learn about projects that are working (and people who aren't). Our almanac may not serve as a strictly meteorological or agricultural guide, but we hope it will help to measure the kind of atmospheric pressure felt between jobs, between communities, between the friends who are still here and the ones not so lucky, bound together by a common question: what's next for the Rust Belt? "The volume is at turns cheeky and earnest, with such section titles as 'On Reverse Pioneering,' 'On the Anatomy of Coal-Fired Power Plant,' and 'On the Collective and the Communal.'"—Bonnie Tsui, The Atlantic Cities online magazine

The Rust Belt Rising Almanac: Volume 1

Literature & Fiction

Literary

The Head & The Hand Press

Fiction. Art History. In Nathaniel Popkin's novel LION AND LEOPARD, the tragic demise of John Lewis Krimmel marks a flashpoint point between the young artist's European-influenced Romanticism and the Philadelphia art establishment long dominated by the formidable portraitist Charles Willson Peale. Peale's single-minded crusade to define American art through a dogma of reason and moral clarity clashes with the self-taught Krimmel's subversive notion that art must seduce the viewer—not lecture her—and it must touch the realm of the unknown. But how far will Krimmel go to spread his heresy? Spurned by Peale and his son Rembrandt, Krimmel aligns himself with the black sheep of the Peale family, Raphaelle, a master of deception. When Krimmel finishes a painting so intriguing that it is acquired by the art collector Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, Krimmel is accused by his powerful enemies of being a fraud. This sets off a maelstrom of events leading to a tragic fire, accusations of plagiarism, and a fateful confrontation with Peale that will have unthinkable consequences. Throughout these clashes between fathers and sons, peers and rivals, lovers and mentors, Popkin uses a vibrant framework of collected fictional narratives to illuminate for the reader a pivotal period when American art and culture were in their infancy.

Lion and Leopard

Popkin, Nathaniel

Literary nonfiction. Adrian was deployed two times to Afghanistan, first as an executive officer and then as a captain skirmishing with Taliban forces. Throughout his time overseas, he wrote letters to friends, fellow soldiers, and his family. Showing vulnerability to some and steadfastness to others, these letters form AFGHAN POST and chronicle his identity as it splinters under the strain of modern warfare. This epistolary memoir is a daring look into the mind and experiences of an Afghanistan war veteran. Its form allows readers to explore, along with Adrian, the social, emotional, and physical consequences of mental compartmentalization. As one blurber put it, AFGHAN POST is "the story of a sensitive, intelligent young man as he comes to terms with conflict, privilege, duty, and ultimately himself."

Afghan Post

Bonenberger, Adrian

United States

Literary Nonfiction. THE ASTEROID BELT ALMANAC is a collection of snapshots and stories exploring the intersection of science and art published by The Head &amp; The Hand Press. In our first volume, you, Courteous Reader, will find a technological call to arms, a biophysicist's hopeful prediction of life existing elsewhere, and a treatise on musical composition in the digital age, among other offerings. Our edition pays homage to almanacs of yore with its idiosyncratic timeline, weather glossary, and meteor shower guide, but we're also looking to the future for inspiration. The writers and artists represented in this modern-day almanac are all bound together by a common question: what's next for this world's explorers and those of worlds beyond?

The Asteroid Belt Almanac

Arts & Photography

Fiction. BLOWIN' IT follows Billy George—mid-twenties, underemployed, half in love—on a questionable road trip from Philly to the Southwest. Billy gets a check in the mail, quits his placeholder job, and drives a van filled with ancient Chinese artifacts across the country, encountering alluring anarchists, sagacious con men, and other lost souls along the way, until he lands at the geographic and figurative rock bottom of his life in Key West. For those of us growing older and further away from the attainments of previous generations, Billy George is an instantly recognizable, funnier, and more heedless version of ourselves. With a satirical style reminiscent of Terry Southern and a deferential nod to the Coen Brothers, author Wintfred Huskey writes with dead-on, deadpan humor about the economics of a quarter-life crisis. BLOWIN' IT asks important questions about the power of money, the attainment of happiness, and the purpose of failure. "Huskey's tale is comic to be sure, yet notably wise and touching. The narrative choices are bold, and the payoffs for the reader grand. This is one of those one-day books. You'll get so much of what you want, so often, that you won't stop reading until you run out of pages."—John Brandon

Blowin' It

Huskey, Wintfred

Contemporary

Literary Nonfiction. Essays. After completing Seeds of Discent in 2011, Nic Esposito promised himself that would be the first and last book he'd write about urban farming. He was happy to concentrate on growing food, while moving onto purely creative fiction. And then he moved to Kensington. Although he did begin two new manuscripts, his new life of co- managing Emerald Street Urban Farm in Kensington with his then girlfriend and now wife, Elisa, begged to be documented. As a neighbor would always say to Nic every time he'd see her walking her dog, "You can't make this shit up." So Nic didn't. He worked, and he lived, and he observed. In this collection of fourteen narrative essays, there are plenty of tales of chicken kills gone awry and rogue bee swarms being caught, but much more of the focus is on the people of this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. KENSINGTON HOMESTEAD offers a raw and oftentimes absurdly funny view of growing food in a city.

Kensington Homestead

Esposito, Nicolas

History & Criticism

Fiction. African American Studies. Jewish Studies. As Beth Fine would tell her daughter years after Freedom Summer, back in 1964, she was the girl who did everything wrong. She takes part in a wade-in to desegregate a public pool, and almost drowns. When she joins Northern volunteers to staff Freedom Schools and register voters in Mississippi, she speeds down a highway, hits a cow, and ends up in jail for prostitution. Beth believes in questioning authority, and her courage and commitment to social justice both define her and lead to her undoing. Alienated from her family, she still finds herself as an outsider in a movement that exposes the limitations of her good intentions. As she strives to transcend these limitations, her commitment deepens, her questions change, and the nature of authority and justice become harder to determine. "There has been surprisingly little fiction about the endlessly fascinating, necessary history of the civil rights movement, but WAVELAND is a compelling addition to that short bookshelf. In a variety of voices, Simone Zelitch has caught the complexity, the satisfactions, and the contradictions of those urgent times, and she's quite remarkably given us more than a little of the generations before and after. Brave actions have consequences and this moving novel does honor to those who bore them."--Rosellen Brown, author of Half a Heart and Civil Wars, winner of the Janet Kafka Prize

Waveland

Zelitch, Simone

Fiction. Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Religion &amp; Spirituality. Belief is often the basis of the difficult and worthwhile work of storytelling. In this fourth installment of our almanac series, THE BIBLE BELT ALMANAC, we humbly present to you, courteous reader, a collection of prose, essays, and poetry about the belief systems that bring us to our knees in contemplation and, occasionally, in frustration. While generally considered a particular region of the country, our version of the Bible Belt spans the nation. In this collection, you'll read the work of writers who bravely explore the ways in which faith and philosophy intersect with the creative process. For as our Dear Progenitor of Publications, Ben Franklin, once said: "Talking against Religion is unchaining a Tyger; The Beast let loose may worry his Deliverer" (Poor Richard Improved, 1751). Contributers include: Nic Esposito, Michael Novak, Sarah Grey, Meg Eden, Adam Teterus, Kate Click, Tim Fitts, John Stephens, Claire Rudy Foster, Bill Dowell, Julian Randall, Chris DiCicco, Catherine Brereton, Jennifer Hubbard, Teresa Rivas, and Linda Gallant.

The Bible Belt Almanac

Gallant, editor Linda

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