Walking Chicago's Coast
A 63-Mile Journey to the Indiana Dunes
by Michael McColly
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Pub Date Sep 15 2025 | Archive Date Sep 01 2025
Cornell University Press | Northern Illinois University Press
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Description
Blending travelogue, memoir, and environmental reportage, Walking Chicago's Coast takes readers on an urban journey. Michael McColly begins his walk at his far North Side Chicago apartment and proceeds for two long days along the shore of Lake Michigan to the Indiana Dunes National Park. As he walks, McColly reflects on the layers of history, the constructed magnificence, and the troubling divides in this polyglot mecca of the Midwest.
From its descriptions of grand parks and architecture to packed sandy beaches to polluted neighborhoods called "sacrifice zones" along industrial waterways and rivers, Walking Chicago's Coast shows how such urban hiking lets one contemplate a city's grandeur and history, confront environmental and social realities, and trigger emotions and memories. Through Superfund sites, brownfields, scrapyards, and industrial ruins, McColly discovers the remarkable patterns of urban nature and the surprising beauty along his path.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Michael McColly, in his beautiful new book, adds something new to the walking/thinking/essaying gesture: genuine feeling. Walking Chicago's Coast is a rhapsody of grief and appreciation." —David Shields, author of Reality Hunger
"McColly shows us the glories and flaws of a great city, its economic and racial divisions, and its devastated outskirts. He also shows us people working to mend communities and restore degraded lands."
—Scott Russell Sanders, author of The Way of Imagination
"McColly's improbable pilgrimage along Chicago's coast testifies to walking's transformative powers. This is a work of great wisdom, tenderness, and defiance destined to be a classic of urban literature."
—Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
Marketing Plan
- Seeking reviews in national and local media, focusing on Chicago-based newspapers, radio shows, podcasts, etc.
- Local book events and other author promotion.
- Excerpts in Chicago-based travel blogs and magazines.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781501783142 |
| PRICE | $19.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 186 |
