Thanks to Newcity for this great recent interview/review of our Great Lakes anthology, On an Inland Sea! Editor @mbwwelch.bsky.social reminds us all of the vital environmental element that runs through most of the collection!
Check it out here: lit.newcity.com/2026/04/02/w...
Thank you so much @elizabethniarchosneukirch.com for talking with me about "On an Inland Sea" ❤️
This is such a beautiful and astute review! Thank you so much for this ❤️
Intimacy is another theme that shapes the anthology. The Lakes as a living metaphor, or a guidepost as people struggle through their lives. In “The Bound Body,” Martha Lundin uses the terrible winter of 2014, when Lake Superior froze over, to think about her relationship with her body and identity. While it is a struggle, there is grace. She writes, “After all, I haven’t figured out yet how people become themselves. It is because I am still becoming myself. Lake Superior and her basin had one and a half billion years to get to where she is, and she is still becoming.” My father died in January of 2014, the morning the same record cold freeze Lundin describes hit Chicago. I remember walking with my oldest friend in a brutal blinding snowstorm to get another bottle of whiskey, and thinking not in metaphorical terms, but with the awareness that the lake and the weather and the cold had no concern for my little drama. It is with this awareness that I am grateful none of the pieces in On an Inland Sea stretch metaphors too far. No, the pieces Welch chose are more interesting than that. The personal stories position the Lakes as a part of life, a childhood memory, an unchanging and ceaselessly beating force that anchors even as everything in our lives changes and becomes more confusing or harder. The uncaringness of the water can become a comfort.
The cover of "On an Inland Sea: Writing the Great Lakes" an anthology edited by Michael Welch
I wrote about "On an Inland Sea," a collection of Great Lakes writing by @beltpublishing.bsky.social, edited by @mbwwelch.bsky.social. It's really a wonderful anthology, and deserves a place in the growing body of writing about the Lakes.
greatlakesreview.org/shaped-by-th...
This month features some of my favorite debuts of the year, our EIC @mbwwelch.bsky.social writes, including a deeply moving anthology about estrangement, and a book that turns history on its head. Check out the list below!
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/04/01/1...
We’re thrilled to co-host the Chicago release of THE MEMORY MUSEUM (@graywolfpress.bsky.social) by M Lin with Women and Children first in Andersonville! It’s on May 3 at 6:30pm!
www.eventbrite.com/e/memory-mus...
Super grateful to @rachellayown.bsky.social and @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social for this lovely interview! Get a glimpse of the publisher's life...if you dare!
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/20/i...
Absolutely not. If you are using AI to write you should 100% be ashamed.
Shame is one of the last bulwarks against a total slop apocalypse.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
I absolutely loved curating this series ❤️
This month’s entry from Nathan Hill is on the site now!
I wrote about the first national book banning bill, which effectively seeks to erase trans people. At the end I include a link to let your reps know that you oppose this bill and all it stands for. lithub.com/why-we-must-...
We're so, so excited to be part of Jeff Boyd's release event for his book HARD TIMES (@flatironbooks.bsky.social) and you can join us too! We'll be at the Book Cellar on 3/31 at 6:30 and Jeff'll be in conversation with Chicago's own Rowan Beaird 🤩 Hope to see you there!
I haven't panned a book in 7 years but I think novelists who've earned a $3 million advance are fair game. www.thefrontlist.org/p/yann-marte...
Was really happy to interview @mbwwelch.bsky.social for @michiganquarterly.bsky.social about ON AN INLAND SEA (@beltpublishing.bsky.social), the amazing Great Lakes anthology he edited which everyone should check out!!
sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2026/03/...
🌊🌊🌊
Thanks to everyone who braved a literal hail storm to join us for this celebration! 🌊
Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
"There’s something about being in nature and being alongside something that feels so much bigger than you that makes you turn inward."
Out now: @celldeathvic.bsky.social's interview with @mbwwelch.bsky.social on "On an Inland Sea” (@beltpublishing.bsky.social).
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/10/g...
Happy Pub Day to @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social editor-in-chief @mbwwelch.bsky.social. If you're in Chicago, the launch party for ON AN INLAND SEA is tonight at 6:30 pm at @roscoebooks.bsky.social.
Today’s the day! 🌊🌊🌊
Getting my name in the @chicagoreader.com is a pretty major Chicago bucket list item for me: review of On an Inland Sea: Writing the Great Lakes
chicagoreader.com/books/book-r...
@beltpublishing.bsky.social
@mbwwelch.bsky.social
Let’s all hang out at the @beltpublishing.bsky.social AWP Happy Hour!
This month, we’re welcoming a wide range of exciting new releases that bend their genre conventions and chart a new path forward of possibility in literature, our EIC @mbwwelch.bsky.social writes. Check out the rest of his picks for March's best books below!
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/02/1...
TONIGHT! Join us for our free panel with @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social celebrating the publication's 10 years. Panelists will discuss what makes a good review, the importance of book coverage these days, and how you can improve your chances to get your work reviewed.
Register: buff.ly/aBC7HDS
Check out @mbwwelch.bsky.social on the @literaryhub.bsky.social podcast talking a few of our favorite things... Bookstores and libraries anybody? 🤩
lithub.com/celebrating-...
Our table at the ABA Winter Institute!
If you stopped by yesterday, you probably saw a new face behind the table. That’s me (Andrew), a new employee for Belt, helping out with marketing. It was great to meet both new and longtime fans of Belt, and to chat a bit about the year’s upcoming projects!
"Rural spaces, especially agricultural ones, never let you forget that you exist in a body, that you won’t be around forever."
@rsdeeren.bsky.social's interview with @saramaurerwrites.bsky.social on "A Good Animal” (@stmartinspress.bsky.social) is out now.
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/02/25/w...
"This is my most Southern novel...The characters are all unique, and some of them are larger than life, and they talk a lot of trash. They’re funny."
@aaisforaarti.bsky.social's interview with @tayari.bsky.social on "Kin” (@aaknopf.bsky.social) is out now.
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/02/24/t...
Wooooo congrats!!!
I have a new article out in Newcity Lit today about the inimitable Camille Bordas!
lit.newcity.com/2026/02/23/c...
We’re excited to offer an exclusive cover reveal of Chicago Review of Books Daily Editor @celldeathvic.bsky.social's forthcoming debut novel, The Book of the Jaguar (Fairwood Press, August 18, 2026)! Check it out below 😍 and join us in congratulating Victor!
chireviewofbooks.com/2026/02/19/e...