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.
Author: Amanda Page
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Trillium
Published: 03/17/2020
Pages: 184
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9780814255742
Language: English
This title is not returnable
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