Team Building: A Memoir About Family and the Fight for Workers' Rights
The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook
Ben Gwin is the author of the novel Clean Time: The True Story of Ronald Reagan Middleton (Burrow Press) and Team Building: Inside the Unionization at Google's Pittsburgh Office (November 2022). His writing has appeared in Belt Magazine, The Normal School, Gulf Stream, and elsewhere, and is anthologized in The Pittsburgh Anthology (Belt Publishing) and Voices of the Rust Belt (Picador). Ben grew up in Titusville, New Jersey. He lives in Pittsburgh with his daughter.
How I Found Belt
I went on tour with Anne after Belt magazine published an essay of mine. It was fun. I met many great Rust Belt writers, and had an awkward panel discussion with Thomas Frank. I am a Belt Book Club member and author/editor.
Recommended Titles
Both of Elizabeth Catte's books (Pure America and What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia) are great, and exemplify the type of subversive stories I enjoy by Belt authors. Specifically those that do not play into the aggrieved laid off factory worker turned white nationalist trope.
Where to Find Me
bengwin.com