Articles Archive - Pittsburgh Quarterly

The weather in Pittsburgh was rather bleak during March 1896. Snow and sub-freezing temperatures were the norm. Nicer weather arrived on March 10, so two young men took that opportunity to test a remarkable new apparatus. Anyone who was on the streets of the East End that day caught a glimpse of the first automobile …

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Books

Character Studies Drive Drue Heinz Winner

by Fred Shaw

There’s a delicious sense of duality that runs through the lead characters in Bill Gaythwaite’s debut story collection, A Place in the World, winner of the 2025 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. It’s a trait wielded prominently by Katie, the protagonist of short story “Off the Grid,” who recalls her former bouncer boyfriend Nick returning a …

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People Profiles

Richard P. Simmons: A Great Man and a Great Friend to Pittsburgh

by Douglas Heuck

“The values of the organization are set at the top. The entire organization looks up to see what the CEO is doing—not what he or she is saying. So for those of you who aspire to be a CEO, remember the burden that you carry—not just to make the handful of strategic decisions you will …

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Opinion Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VII

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VI Alex Dick, Co-Founder, Dick Building Company Divisiveness dominates national politics while capital and talent …

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Opinion

Don’t Save the Old PG, Create a Modern New One

by Bill Steigerwald

The new owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are now said to be in the process of figuring out which 50 of the 100 or so current journalists of the old PG to hire and how to run and finance a deliberately nonprofitable newspaper in the Digital Age. The last-minute rescue of the PG by the Venetoulis …

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Birds

Jean Jacques’ Audubon and the Eastern Phoebe

by David Liebmann

Jean Jacques Audubon was born in 1785 to a naval officer and a maid in what became Haiti. Raised in his father’s native France, he came of age interested in fencing, music, dance, riding, and, importantly, drawing. His father had invested in property near Philadelphia in the young United States, and at age 18, Audubon …

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Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VI

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. V Amanda Gillen, Executive Director, The Frick Pittsburgh Museums & GardensTo me, the heart …

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Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. V

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. IV Jerad Bacher, President & CEO, VisitPITTSBURGHNow is the time to intentionally forge what’s …

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Obituaries People

Gumberg, Tobin, McGregor, Blumstein, Sheetz, Northrop, McDonough, Fenves, Davidson, Murphy, Patterson, Queenan

by PQ Staff

Ira Gumberg, 72With a Harvard Business School degree, he joined J.J. Gumberg Company, the real estate company his grandfather started, and as chairman, he helped grow the shopping center mall business. The company launched its retail property division in 1977 and built the first American-style mall in India, eventually expanding throughout the subcontinent. He was …

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Nature

The Indian Pipe

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

An eerie plant appears in the woods. i bend down and study its translucent white color — ghostly against the vibrant green of mid-summer. The three-inch stems have specks of gray and black, and its tiny leaves resemble scales. Some of the pipe-shaped flowers stand upright, while others droop in a melancholy manner. I think …

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Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. IV

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. III Kendra Whitlock Ingram, President & CEO, Pittsburgh Cultural TrustThe arts have a unique …

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Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. III

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. II Wayne Walters, Superintendent, Pittsburgh Public SchoolsAs Mayor O’Connor begins his tenure, Pittsburgh’s path …

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PQ Poem

Tracing

by Noah Davis

Tracing My mother has two, six-inch long scars on the front of her shoulders as if heaven made a mistake and stitched wings on the wrong side and angels had to saw them off. But truthfully, while playing basketball, the bird of her bone simply fell from the nest of her joint. She was opened by a surgeon’s knifedifferently …

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Sports Sports & Outdoors

When the Steelers Hired Three Coaches — In One Season

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

As Mike McCarthy takes over as coach of the Steelers, sportswriters across the country remarked about the Steelers’ “unprecedented stability” with just four head coaches in 57 years, “unmatched by any NFL franchise in the Super Bowl era.” Well, sports fans, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, in the early years, the opposite was …

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Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. II

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. II Jim McQuade, President & CEO, Dollar BankMayor O’Connor has a real opportunity to …

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American Spirit History

Elegy for an Irish American Catholic Family

by Mark Holan

My mother died in late November at the age of 95. She was the last surviving member of her Irish American Catholic family. Her passing closed the century-long story of a Pittsburgh archetype, once more familiar, now a faded shade of green. Her parents emigrated from rural County Kerry, separately and single, shortly before Ireland’s …

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PQ Poem

Ice Ball

by Frank Lehner

Ice Ball A couple of kids sniggering behind a corner mailbox in waitgot me good they did. One, off the top of my cool tossle cap and the second, a square plunk to the shoulder that stung.Then there they ran up Bell Avenue then left through Wilson’s yard vanished I could hear the laughing delight …

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Arts

Barebones’ “Infinite Life” Offers a Night of Revelatory Drama

by Stuart Sheppard

Between the actor and the viewer exists a crucial component of the theatrical experience: the character of the space between them. Size of stage, type of stage, and distance between the audience and the stage are rarely cited as qualities that engender the success of a play, but I would argue, after experiencing Barebones Productions’ …

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PQ Poem

Attempt

by Lloyd Wallace

Attempt I’m trying to seehow far a man can walkwhile standing still. Maybe that is death:falling asleep, and travelling so far inside the bodyyou can’t find your way out again. Winter nights, a few small cloudsshriveled up like chicken hearts. The wind chasing its own tail forever. I’m here, my love,I’m still alive. I’m singing …

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Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. David Holmberg, CEO, Highmark HealthI lived Downtown for many years before the pandemic and saw firsthand the experiences that brought people together. Pittsburgh’s future depends on creating a vibrant, welcoming …

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Science

How Pittsburgh Will Conquer Space

by Beth Marcello

If the biosciences are to medicine what steel was to manufacturing, then Pittsburgh is on the cusp of its next great economic boom. Ashok Trivedi believes that we are. Trivedi is so bullish on the biological sciences that he endowed the just-launched $25 million Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Medicine at the University of …

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Opinion

Mayor O’Connor, Let’s Travel to Japan and Show Our Appreciation

by Dennis Unkovic

Mark Twain’s famous quote, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” can easily apply to our region today. Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania are in the midst of a renewed period of self-evaluation. While there are some who perceive our future with pessimism, I tend to believe the opposite. Our region is now uniquely positioned …

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