In the Middle of the Middle West: Literary Nonfiction from the Heartland

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Becky Bradway
Indiana University Press, Nov 6, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 306 pages

The 42 essays in this collection take their inspiration from the Midwest—not just from its physical terrain but from its emotional terrain as well. They come from writers of diverse backgrounds: poets, novelists, filmmakers, and journalists; some who came and stayed, some who came and left, and some who were born and raised in this place. The essays revolve generally around issues of conflict between place and identity, and the theme of diversity—be it religious, sexual, racial, artistic, cultural, occupational, or geographical—runs throughout. Writers featured in this collection include Maxine Chernoff, Stuart Dybek, Michael Martone, Cris Mazza, James McManus, Scott Russell Sanders, Mary Swander, and many others of national reputation.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Midwest
3
That Glorious Time of Old
8
Your What Hurts?
14
Fag
19
Little Man in the Woods
28
One Tentative Taxonomy of a Region
47
Big Trees Still Water Tall Grass
54
A Walking Tour of the Chicago Lakefront with Detours
63
A Hard Saw
162
Boilermen
165
Bits of Glass
171
Momentary Stay against Confusion
177
The Poet as John Nachtigal
182
Midwestern Dramas
186
Being Midwestern
191
Rural Writers
200

Back Home in Indiana
71
What You Can See MidWinter in the Midwest
74
Walking the Prairie Rail Trail Thinking about Loss
76
Railroad Crossings
81
Connections
89
A Chicago Story
98
Abracadabra
101
Michael Jordans Lips
117
Not From Here
119
Displaced
130
Desperately Seeking Blue Mound
136
Still on Cortland Street
149
The Pluses and Minuses of Life in the Midwest
153
My Father in White Above the Royal Blue
157
Excerpts from Americas Magic Mountain
207
No Queens on Pickett Street
214
How Does It Feel?
219
JW
228
The Baby Shower
236
Remembering Canute
245
Positively 4th Street
253
The Basement
262
Welcome to the Land of Freedom
267
A Menagerie of Mascots
279
The Basement
291
Contributors
299
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About the author (2003)

Becky Bradway is the author of Pink Houses and Family Taverns (IUP, 2002). Her essays have appeared in DoubleTake; E: The Environmental Journal; North American Review; Troika; and elsewhere. She lives in Normal, Illinois.