Between Friends

Tony Rehagen: The words were coming back to Don Belton. He had never been at a loss for lively conversation, debate, or reflection for the pages of his journal. But for years the potent words that had built the sentences of his early career—or at least the time and energy to commit them to manuscript—had seemed to elude him. It had been 13 years since he had published an essay, 16 since his last short story. And more than two decades had passed since his first novel, Almost Midnight, had trumpeted the arrival of a powerful new voice—a voice that had since been stifled by years of personal loss and professional tumult.

But after a career spent pinballing between temporary professorships at colleges all over the country and in his native Philadelphia, in July 2008 a 51-year-old Belton had landed in Bloomington, Indiana, and there, of all places, he was finally facing the page again. He had been appointed assistant professor in the creative writing department at Indiana University, a plum tenure-track position that afforded him the security and precious time to focus on his second novel. Belton eventually rented a house on Madison Street, just west of campus, and eagerly set to work.