THE BELTLINE CHRONICLES
Paperback detail:
08/2025
124 pages
$29.95
The Beltline Chronicles is an epic poem by Robert F. Barsky, with artwork by Susan Ker-Seymer, that represents the power of Atlanta’s Beltline as an impetus for stories, connections, and memory.
The Beltline Chronicles, like the Beltline itself, connects previously segregated neighborhoods and experiences, and thereby opens up a space of hope for a better world. The poem is accompanied by artworks by Susan Ker-Seymer, which evoke the layers, textures, and emotions of this powerful pathway.
The Beltline Chronicles references neighborhoods, histories of Atlanta, Great Books devoted to epic quests, as well as towering figures from the civil rights movement. The poet “George”, inspired by George Gordon Lord Byron, has a special interest in social justice, civil and human rights, and the complex relationships that exist between equity, peace, community, and public space. Martin Luther King emerges as the great hero of this epic exploration, and his words resonate throughout the Chronicles.
Robert F. Barsky
Robert Barsky’s poetic quests began during his undergraduate years under the tutelage of Allen Grossman and Jim Merod, and the spell cast by the Great Books. Captivated by Romantic poets and canonical literary quests, he has since found great inspiration in the higher climes of the French, Italian and Swiss Alps, and in the crevices and crevasses of the everyday. His fictional poet “George” is a perennial flâneur, whose love for serendipity’s playful ways continues to drive him towards surprising encounters upon enchanted pathways.
