You are forgiven if you’re not up on the middle school slang that has redefined the word “Ohio” (my beautiful native state) as cringey or weird.

Does that mean the writing from Ohio authors or about Ohio places is also weird? In some cases (and often my favorite cases) yes.

It has been more than a minute, Rust Belt Girl followers, and I appreciate you for hanging on. Busy days around here with a book project going and essays popping up here and there. And of course there’s work-work to contend with. And my teenagers who keep me hip (surely that’s not a word they’d use) through their generation’s reinvention of language, music, and fashion. (A whole wardrobe of hooded sweatshirts and oversized black jeans, anyone?)

But I’m thrilled to share with you my latest essay, which is part essay and part book review. The book? Matthew Meduri’s debut novel Collegiate Gothic. Part satirical campus novel, part crime procedural, and part Italian architectural treatise, this one is quite fun (and, yes, a little Ohio.)

I’d love it if you checked out my essay–“Campus Weird: Collegiate Gothic Skewers Academia (and Ohio) in Fine Form” at Belt Magazine. (Bonus points for identifying the Ohio college campus building in the photo. I only know because a friend told me.)

Then, go check out Matthew’s novel over at Bordighera Press.

What have you been reading and writing lately, readerly and writerly friends?

Hankering for Rust Belt author interviews, book reviews, and more? Check out my categories above. I hope you’ll follow me here, if you don’t already, so you never miss a (quite infrequent) post. Thanks! ~Rebecca

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7 thoughts on “Ohio is Ohio, and I love it”

  2. Congrats on the essay! Very interesting. The only time I’ve been to Ohio is to go to Cedar Point when I was much younger. There’s a park that’s really popular that I want to go to and hike. Hocking Hills. Have you heard about it? Is it near you?

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    1. I am from NE Ohio but left when I was 19. I’ve lived in VA and MD since then, and I always miss it. I don’t know if I’ve hiked at Hocking Hills, but I do know it’s very popular. NE Ohio (I think that’s where it is) has an amazing park system, so you really can’t go wrong. Worth a visit, I think! My dad lives close to Cedar Point, though there’s only one of the four in my family who really enjoys amusement parks, so we’ve never gone. Seems a shame. But there’s lots to do on Lake Erie in that area that we do like.

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      1. I think we always miss the hometown we grew up in. I grew up in the seventies and eighties, and I wish my kids had the kind of childhood I did. But with the explosion of technology we’ve experienced in the past 50 years, it has changed alot of things. Some not in a good way unfortunately.

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