The Rockford Anthology [Paperback]

Screw Capital of the World. Forest City. Home of the Rockford Peaches ofA League of Their Ownfame. Rockford, Illinois, has many identities, most oriented toward the past. These days, the fastener industry has mostly rusted away, the trees are less plentiful than they once were, and professional womens baseball is no more. What defines Rockford today?

According toThe Rockford Anthology, its the people. Those who grew up here, who came by choice or by circumstance, or who decided to leave. People who lost someone or found a voice or built community here.

In this installment of Belts City Anthology series, the people of Rockford represent themselves in essays, poetry, and photographs. Here, youll meet someone who found the space to start a business after leaving the crowd in Chicago. Academy Awardnominee Bing Liu takes you on a personal tour of his childhood houses and the ghosts that lurk there. A local attorney and activist shares how the city pushed back when ICE wanted to bring a detention center to Rockford. And youll learn whyNew York Timesbestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby, stand-up comedian Ashley Ray-Harris, and an introverted expat living in Taiwan always say theyre from Rockford .?.?. not Chicago. Whether through stories of growing up or chronicles of fights to make the city better, a sense of Rockfords presentand futurestarts to come into focus.

Rachel Le?nis a writer, editor, and social worker. She serves as Managing Director for theChicago Review of Booksand Fiction Director for Arcturus. Her work has appeared inCatapult,The Rumpus,BOMB, and elsewhere. Shes the author of the novelHow We See the Grey(Northwestern University Press, 2026).

"A city with ten nicknames isnt simply beloved or hatedIts a place that has survived more than one history, a town demanding its own redescription. The Screw Capital wears a Peaches swl³¸