The St. Louis Anthology

by Ryan Schuessler

St. Louis is undoubtedly fragmented, physically so in that the city is dissected by rivers, highways, walls, and fences; but also in a more insidious way. It’s a city (like many) where race, class, religion, and zip code might as well be cards in a rigged poker game, where the winners’ prize is the ability to ignore that the losers have drastically shorter life expectancies. But it's also a city of warmth, love, and beauty―especially in its contrasts. The St. Louis Anthology dares to confront the city's nostalgia and its trauma, celebrating those who have faced both, living complex and nuanced lives in this city against a backdrop of its red brick, muddy rivers, and sticky summer nights when the symphony of cicadas and jazz is almost loud enough to drown out the gunshots. Edited by Ryan Schuessler, featuring nearly 70 pieces penned by St. Louis writers, journalists, clergy, poets, and activists including Aisha Sultan, Galen Gritts, Vivian Gibson, Maja Sadikovic, Nartana Premachandra, Sophia Benoit, Robert Langellier, Samuel Autman, Umar Lee, and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthologies, Poetry, Essays

256 pages, Paperback

Published June 4, 2019

Reviews

[Brett Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read this book, St. Louisans. This is an excellent selection of contemporary essays, poems and stories about your city. Read it. Buy a copy for your neighbor. Mail one to your least-loved local politician. I am happy to know some of the contributors, but finding it faced out in the Buder library (on Hampton) has been a gift, because, somehow, I didn't know about it until I found it about a month ago. Embarrassed that it took me this long to read, but I savored each page and relived many memories of what we have been through in this city.
The best part of it all for me, as I settle in to an apartment in Dutchtown, having been hidden in cheap flats in Shaw for decades, is reading accounts from those who have gone through much worse than I have over the years and are here to articulate it, to spell out, what it all means.
I'm going to come back to this after I purchase and reread it. I'm pretty giddy that this gem is in the stacks of our city.
Viva St. Louis!

[Julie Wiskirchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who grew up in St Louis and still visits frequently, I thought I knew the city pretty well but I learned a lot from this book and really enjoyed it. It's a collection of essays and poems that offer varied points of view and represent many communities, races, sub-cultures. You will read about Serbian refugees, Native American and Indians, black muslims and evangelicals, Italian-American immigrants and many more. Growing up in North County, I never found much written about that area, so I enjoyed the Jaywalking essay which also offers good insights on white privilege. There's humor in the book too and often centered on the St Louis foods that I miss, like in the poem An Ode to Imo's and the essay Merluzzo. Other favorites of mine were Sunup to Sundown, Consuming Fires, Refugee Money, Inside Out, Secret Socialist Lover. I put some of the books by these essay authors and poets on my "to read" list. This is an excellent sampler that both educates and entertains. Belt Anthologies have anthologies about various Midwest and Rust Belt cities.

[Michael Frazier · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no secret, whether you met me while living in the St. Louis area or while taking up residence in the mountains, I have been quite critical of The Gateway City in years past. In my defense, a vast majority of the city/county population don't make it easy for me to throw myself at them in praise. Citizens themselves admit it's a "baseball town with a drinking problem," or sometimes vice versa. However, after winning the Stanley Cup one year ago, I am of the firm belief St. Louis is now very much a hockey town and the Blues deserve the same amount of attention and affection as their Cardinal counterparts.

One of my best and most loyal friends Adam Steevens is published within this collection of essays on St. Louis. Like others who shared their accounts, Adam's piece focuses on the residual affects of the death of a young African American man (barely 18 years of age) by a white police officer in the city of Ferguson. Eerily similar to what has ensued in Minneapolis this week at the time of this review, peaceful protests turned violent and destructive. Why? Because white police officers continued to antagonize folks protesting for justice and equality among other things. Like it or not, the events of 2014 in Ferguson are defining moments for the greater St. Louis area and reminder that systemic racism remains a gaping wound in the United States.

Most likely, you have no desire to pick this book up unless you have lived in St. Louis or spent an abundance of time visiting. Readers encounter abundant diversity from cover to cover; diverse backgrounds that many may not have even known existed in eastern Missouri. This diverse contingent of contributors all have one thing in common; despite some of the hideous problems that have infected St. Charles or St. Louis Counties through the years, they all remain immensely proud to call St. Louis home. The rich history, heritage, tradition. From the French influence and the state's inception to the Serbian refugee population; Asian and Muslim communities among a myriad of others, St. Louis is as much a melting pot as any city in the Midwest. I have taken cheap shots at St. Louis because of their inferiority complex with Chicago (trust me, it's a thing), the amount of mediocre beer they consume from their precious Anheiser Busch brewery, what they consider "pizza" or even the way they slice a bagel. Silly? Absolutely. Unique? You bet. And that's why anyone who has been fortunate enough to call St. Louis home, even for an abbreviated time, should be proud of where they came from. Always be proud of the footprint you've left in that city and surrounding communities; Central West End, Delmar, Forest Park, Chesterfield, Maryland Heights, Fenton, Plaza Frontenac, Valley Park, Wentzville, Lake St. Louis, Hazelwood, Ferguson, Webster Groves, St. Charles, St. Peters, Florissant, Tower Grove... there are countless others, but they are all unique and not without their charm. They are why it gets increasingly more difficult to leave each time I return for a visit. I cannot wait to see my closest childhood friends again, to sit on the edge of my seat watching the Blues at the Kiel/Savvis/Scottrade/Enterprise Center, gallivant across the Arch Grounds, drive past my boyhood homes on the "little lake"... but mostly, I can't wait to be HOME.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The St. Louis Anthology is a collection of over 60 essays, poems, and stories that, when read together, do a brilliant job of depicting the essence of St. Louis, Missouri. I enjoyed reading many of these stories and simultaneously learned so much about the city I grew up in.

Extra memorable pieces for me include: Segregation in Heaven, Lombards and Sicilians: The Forgotten History of Italian Immigration to St. Louis, Merluzzo, Inside the Rent Strike of 1969, An ode to Imo’s, The Tour, In the Event of a Zombie Apocalypse, Inside Out, You Have to Act Tough, and My Brain Tumor.

“St. Louis is undoubtedly fragmented, physically so in that the city is dissected by rivers, highways, walls, and fences; but also in a more insidious way. It’s a city (like many) where race, class, religion, and zip code might as well be cards in a rigged poker game, where the winners’ prize is the ability to ignore that the losers have drastically shorter life expectancies.”

[Christa Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of poems, prose and essays about St. Louis by people with a St. Louis connection. This book shines a light on the diversity of the city, immigrants, lifers, those who love the city and some who don't. I saw a lot of library life in this book, not only the essay about the Carpenter library branch but stories about people we see in libraries every day. This book didn't necessarily reflect my St. Louis reality but that is a good way to be reminded how limited our experiences can be sometimes.

[Madalene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of essays, tales and poems about St. Louis, mostly in current day. Throughout I had the sense that this collection pulls together so much of the diversity of St. Louis that it felt almost like preparatory materials for a series like The Wire or Treme, where all perspectives on a city are pulled into an overview of the city as a whole and its many caring and multi-talented people. Especially liked the story "Jaywalking" and "Sk8 Sanctuary".

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the essays are eloquent, but on balance this was not really my cup of tea- most of the essays are about boring outer suburbs, the region's poverty and crime-ridden north side, and/or police brutality and corruption in the north side. After awhile, the stories began to get repetitive. If you want to persuade someone that St. Louis is a terrible place,. this book does an excellent job of it!

[Kimberly Schlarman · Rating 3 out of 5]

"St. Louis is both a wonderful city and one deeply uncomfortable with itself, dividing and conquering its own body like a hateful amoeba. The mix of midwestern stalwartness and southern hospitality that defines St. Louis make for a warm bath of humanity... But at the same time, it is a city bluntly founded on defining separateness..." from The Black Iron Fences of St. Louis by Asher Kohn

[Joanna Ganning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth book I've read from this anthology series, and is easily the best of them. Wonderful. A true gift to those who love St. Louis.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greater than the sum of its parts. Admittedly perhaps not as interesting to those of you who do not live in St. Louis.