“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.
Amanda Page is an essayist and educator in Columbus, Ohio.
Contents
Columbus
Maggie Smith
Introduction
Amanda Page
Five Reasons Why Writers Should Move to Columbus
Annie McGreevy
Buckeye to All That
Mandy Shunnarah
I’m Here to Win
Harmony Cox
Art in a City That Can Kill You
Scott Woods
Every Day I Ride the Bus
David Breithaupt
Swole for the Revolution
Meryl Williams
The Blue Jackets Have Turned Columbus into a Major League City
Jeff Svoboda
Sitting Out the Anthem: Reflections on the Columbus Blue Jackets, Racism, and Protest
Dan Skinner
In a City Marked by Change, Columbus Crew SC Remains a Powerful, Unifying Force
Hanif Abdurraqib
The City That Raised Me Has a New Face
Tiffany Williams
What Would Jane Say?
Sarah Marsom
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Stacy Jane Grover
Life in Franklinton
Greg Phillips
Breakfast with Columbus
Nick Dekker
Consider the Johnny Marzetti
Shelley Mann Hite
Flat City Nights
Robert Loss
Can’t Last
Bela Koe-Krompecher
Van Sciver in Columbus
Van Sciver
In the Silent City She’s Yearned For
Jen Town
Cactus
Jen Town
Diorama Turned to Ashes
Jen Town
Black Woman Repetition (After Terrance Hayes)
Barbara Fant
Magic Before/Before Magic
Barbara Fant
Long Line of Strong Women
Barbara Fant
Transplant
Fayce Hammond
Fear of Fuel
Fayce Hammond
Main Street
Rose M. Smith
Billboard, 2013
Rose M. Smith
Ackerman Place
Psyche North Torok
Nighthawks (Buckeye Donuts)
Joseph Hess
American Folklore
Adam J. Gellings
The Whales Are Always Feeding
Ethan Rivera
Justice Be Like
Ethan Rivera
Shapes Heard Free
Darren Demaree
Do the Right Thing
Charlene Fix
Ornithology
Geoff Anderson
Phasmophobia
Geoff Anderson
Flyover Country
Steve Abbott
Hold Me Like Ohio
Amy Turn Sharp
Summertime
Robert Colby
Walking in the Topiary Park After Snowfall in February
Jeremy Glazier
On the First Snowfall
Will Evans
Auribus Teneo Lupum
Will Evans
The New Oath
Hannah Stephenson
Table Manners
Fariha Tayyab
Thanksgiving
Fariha Tayyab
The Dead Walk Over Your Land
Ruth Awad
Inventory of What Remains
Ruth Awad
Taillights
Ruth Awad
Some Friday
Andrew Anderson
Acknowledgments
Contributors
