Currents in the Electric City
In Currents in the Electric City, an installment of Belt’s City Anthologies series, the story of Scranton gets told by the people who know it best.
Scranton, PA, is more than just the setting for The Office. It's a living city, one with a rich industrial and labor history, that also has a small-town feel. Who is considered “from Scranton” is fiercely guarded even as the city sees immigration from around the world. Neighborhood talk can reveal your family secrets before you even know them yourself, as Barbara J. Taylor writes. Pieces in this anthology talk about desires to leave, ties that bind, and decisions to stay, as well as impressions from newcomers to the Northeastern Pennsylvania hub. As coeditor Joe Kraus notes in his foreword, Scranton was once a prominent stop on the vaudeville circuit—vaudeville translating literally into “the voice of the city.” The chorus of voices that fill the poems and essays in this anthology tell a complicated story of the Electric city that many have heard of, but few know.
Joe Kraus
Joe Kraus is a professor at the University of Scranton in the Department of English & Theatre where he teaches American literature and creative writing. He is the author of The Kosher Capones (Northern Illinois UP, 2019), and his creative work has appeared in The American Scholar, Riverteeth, Under the Sun, and The Baltimore Review among other places. He is a two-time Pushcart nominee, has been long-listed for Best American Essays, and won the 2007 Moment/Karma Foundation International Short Fiction Contest.
Brian Fanelli
Brian Fanelli is an Associate Professor of English at Lackawanna College whose creative writing has been published in Paterson Literary Review, Main Street Rag, Louisiana Literature, Blue Collar Review, and elsewhere. His latest book of poems is Waiting for the Dead to Speak (NYQ Books), winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Poetry Prize. His writing on genre films has been published in Bright Lights Film Journal, Horror Homeroom, and The Schuylkill Valley Journal. He’s also a regular contributor to 1428Elm.com and HorrorBuzz.com. Brian has an MFA from Wilkes University and a Ph.D. from SUNY Binghamton University.
Andrea Jade Talarico
Daryl Fanelli
Daryl Fanelli is the author of Synonyms for (OTHER) Bodies (NYQ Books). Her poetry has appeared in Diode, Poet Lore, Harpur Palate, The American Journal of Poetry, Best American Poetry blog, and elsewhere. When she’s not writing, Daryl likes to curl up with a good book, teach herself something new, strike a yoga pose, or watch a spooky movie with her husband and cat.
Mandy Pennington
Mandy Pennington is a writer, marketer, teacher and actor with a passion for storytelling. She serves as the director of digital strategy at Wilkes University and recently completed her MFA in the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is currently querying a coming-of-age memoir set in the decaying movie theater she grew up in. Her solo play adapted from her memoir, Girl Walks Into a Movie Theater, will premiere this summer at Lackawanna College, presented by Scranton Fringe.
Her writing can be found in Currents in the Electric City: A Scranton Anthology (Belt Publishing), 2022 American Writer’s Review (San Fedele Press), Hippocampus Magazine, Used Car Dealer (yes, really) and Search Engine People. Her first play, My Condolences, premiered at the 2018 Scranton Fringe Festival, where she currently serves as a marketing committee volunteer and active performer.
Mandy lives in northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband and two mischievous cats. Learn more: @mandybpenn or mandybpenn.com.
Dawn Leas
Dawn Leas is the author A Person Worth Knowing, Take Something When You Go, and I Know When to Keep Quiet. Her poetry has appeared in Antiheroine Chic, New York Quarterly, The Paterson Literary Review, Literary Mama, SWWIM, and elsewhere.
She’s a writing coach, teaching artist, and the assistant director for the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. She’s also a proud back-of-the pack runner, hiker, salt-water lover, and mom of two grown sons.