Parafine’s principals are accomplished publishing professionals, and partners in Cleveland’s critically lauded Belt Publishing. Founded in 2013 by Anne Trubek, Belt Publishing is a platform for new and influential voices from the Rust Belt and Midwest, and is committed to carefully edited, complex writing. “Belt Publishing… promotes a kind of progressive Rust Belt pride without succumbing to cliché or hipster irony,” said the New York Times of our work. Our titles have also been praised by Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, Ebony, Ploughshares, Lit Hub, and numerous other publications.
With the launch of Parafine, we are offering our deep knowledge of contemporary book publishing to a boutique market. Our editors can help you best tell your story, in your voice. Our designers will work with you to develop beautiful covers and professional interior pages. Our marketing team and distribution manager have the skills to get your project out into the world, to the best and broadest audience. Our existing audience knows to expect creative, high-quality books from Belt, and Parafine upholds those same standards.
Anne Trubek is the founder of Belt Publishing and Belt Magazine. She is the editor of Voices From The Rust Belt (Picador, 2018), and the author of So You Want to Publish a Book? (Belt, 2020). Other books include The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting (Bloomsbury, 2016) and A Skeptic’s Guide To Writers’ Houses (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010); she has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and numerous other publications. Prior to founding Belt she was Associate Professor of English at Oberlin College.
Martha Bayne is a senior editor with Belt Publishing and a freelance writer and editor based in Chicago. Since getting her start in publishing at the University of Chicago Press, she has worked as an editor at the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, and the South Side Weekly. She is the editor of the Belt titles Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology (2017), Red State Blues: Stories from Midwestern Life on the Left (2018), and The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook (2019).
Dan Crissman joined Belt Publishing as a senior editor in 2017. Previously, he was an editor at W. W. Norton, Overlook Press, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is the author of Brewing Everything: How to Make Your Own Beer, Cider, Mead, Sake, Kombucha, and Other Fermented Beverages (Norton, 2018) and the editor of Cleveland in 50 Maps (Belt, 2019).
William Rickman, a Midwest-converted New Yorker, is the orders and fulfillment manager with Belt Publishing. He also coaches high school and adult competitive rowing in Cleveland. When not doing Belt or rowing things, he keeps busy with beekeeping, travel, biking, reading and checking out live music.
Meredith Pangrace has been Belt’s designer since we launched in 2013. She’s helped launch several online and print publications, and served as art director for Scene Magazine from 2000-2007. She specializes in editorial design/production and WordPress website creation. She is also a musician and plays accordion for the folk rock band Maura Rogers and the Bellows.
David Wilson is a designer and illustrator based out of Ohio who has worked for The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and New York Magazine, in addition to Belt. When not creating work for clients he is busy making independent comics, zines, and short films. His book Rust Belt Arcana, with Matt Stansberry, was published by Belt in Fall 2018.