Contributors—including novelist Dave Eggers, scholar Hasan Kwame Jeffries, and journalist Rebecca Solnit—explore the region through topics ranging from art to music to urban farming to political history. An illustrated section introduces all of the artists involved in both iterations of Heartland, including established figures like Kerry James Marshall and exuberant newcomers like Whoop Dee Doo. An appendix surveys the lively state of independent and artist-run cultural initiatives from New Orleans to Detroit.

With essays by: John Corbett and Frank Veenstra, Joshua Decter, Dave Eggers, Charles Esche, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Andria Lisle, Hesse McGraw, Kerstin Niemann, Stephanie Smith, Rebecca Solnit, Matthew Strauss, Dan S. Wang, and Matt Weiland.

The publication will be published in conjunction with the opening of Heartland at the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago, 1st of October 2009.

Distributed by the University of Chicago Press, the book will be available this autumn at the Smart Museum Shop.
To order, the public may call 773.702.0528 or e-mail smart-books@uchicago.edu.