About
We founded Belt in 2013 to promote voices from the Rust Belt, and we have expanded our focus to include smart narrative and serious nonfiction on any topic, as well as fiction with a regional foothold. In 2023 we were acquired by Arcadia Publishing, where we remain an independent imprint.
We are excited to tell overlooked stories, particularly those written by writers from the region we focus upon. We love cultural criticism, books with an urbanism theme or about progressive politics, smart histories that are not nostalgic, and creative nonfiction. We are drawn to scholarly research made plain. We publish everything from memoir to criticism, fiction, maps, and cookbooks.
Our titles have been finalists for the NBCC Autobiography Award, the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the ALA Stonewall award; longlisted for the PEN/Galbraith award for nonfiction, named “Best of the Year” by NPR and Publishers Weekly, and reviewed by the New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New Republic, and dozens of other outlets.
We value horizontal loyalty, writers over markets, the long game over the quick hit.
Our authors receive traditional publishing contracts and industry-standard royalties. Nordlyset handles our subrights.
We welcome both agented and unagented submissions.
Our Team
Anne Trubek is the founder and publisher of Belt Publishing. She is the author of So You Want To Publish A Book? (Belt 2020), and editor of Best of the Rust Belt (Belt 2024), and Voices From The Rust Belt (Picador, 2018). She is also author of The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting (Bloomsbury, 2016), and A Skeptic's Guide To Writers' Houses (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010). She has been publishing her Notes from A Small Press newsletter since 2018.
anne@beltpublishing.com
David Wilson is Creative Director at Belt Publishing, where he was a recipient of AIGA’s “50 Books 50 Covers” award for his Belt Revivals book covers. An illustrator, writer, designer, and filmmaker with an MFA from Kent State University in Visual Communication Design, David entered the freelance world over ten years ago, working on illustration, design, and video projects for clients such as The Atlantic, The WWE, Boom! Comics, The Boston Globe, Harvard, Forbes and many more. He is the co-author/illustrator of Rust Belt Arcana, author of The Everyday, and the writer/director of The Disposal of Dead Ned (Best Comedy Film at Poor Life Choices Film Fest). His latest work, Play Like A Girl, a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection, written by Misty Wilson, was a 2023 Buckeye Book Award winner and a MASL (Maryland Association of School Librarians) nominee. Currently, he is working on three unannounced graphic novels and a few things on the hush hush...
Phoebe Mogharei is a senior editor at Belt. Her writing has appeared in Chicago magazine, the Chicago Reader, Electric Literature, and the Chicago Review of Books. She officially joined Belt in 2022 and lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
phoebe@beltpublishing.com
Afton Montgomery does publicity and marketing work for Belt, which she joined in 2024. Her writing and criticism has been published in Electric Lit, The Millions, Chicago Review of Books, High Country News, The Common and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from University of Idaho, worked formerly as the buyer for Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, and calls the Rocky Mountain West home.
afton@beltpublishing.com
Sales
We are officially distributed by Arcadia Publishing as of May 1, 2024.
To order our books through Arcadia, please email retailers@arcadiapublishing.com or call 843-853-2070. Our books are available for order through Ingram Wholesale as of June 1, 2024.
You may access all our titles on Edelweiss.
Media inquiries: please contact publicity@beltpublishing.com
Rights are handled by Nordlyset Agency. Please contact: jennifer@nordlysetagency.com.
Query Us
Booksellers, Librarians, & Media
Interested in hearing about our forthcoming releases and publicity updates, with links to Digital Review Copies? Find us in Edelweiss, and use the sign up form on our Contact page to get added to our industry newsletter.