Fred Shaw is a Visiting Lecturer in Writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
Flick’s Rough and Tough Feminism Fits Pittsburgh
Though the dictionary definition of feminism — “the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes,” — remains elusive, Sherrie Flick, author of the autobiographical essay collection Homing: Instincts of a Rustbelt Feminist, offers a more regional take in her essay “Instincts.” “Yet Western Pennsylvania is where my own particular feminism took root, …
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Welcome to Wildcat
When asked in an interview with writer Deborah Kalb about the significance of the title to his recent novel, Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance, Jeffrey Dunn points to the village of Braeburn, Pennsylvania, where “there is a road called ‘Wildcat Hollow Road.’ It’s a good Appalachian name: free but threatened, just like the wildcats whose coughs, …
Myron Cope: The Man Behind the Terrible Towel
For a Steelers fan, watching 60 minutes of football at Acrisure Stadium without a sea of Terrible Towels is hard to imagine. In the mythology surrounding Pittsburgh’s most popular sports franchise, a playoff game against the Baltimore Colts at Three Rivers Stadium on December 27, 1975, marked the first appearance of the “gimmick” that would …
‘Slime Line’ Hooks the Alaska Salmon Industry
Revealing might be the best way to describe Jake Maynard’s debut novel, Slime Line, as the Mt. Jewett native leans on the highs and lows of his big-hearted narrator, Garrett “Beaver” Deaver, to provide inside dope on what it takes to bring a harvest of salmon from sea to table. Maynard doesn’t paint a pretty …
Drue Heinz Winner Explores the Difficulties of Family
Maya Angelou once wrote, “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” Indeed, the relationships between mother and daughter found in literature make for a complicated spectrum, sometimes veering toward melodrama or bursting with profound insight — Amy Tan’s brilliant …
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Kennywood Crime Scene
According to the website novel Suspects, the police procedural grew out of the growing interest in true crime that began in the 1940s and ’50s, with Lawrence Treat’s V is for Victim being acknowledged as the first to “bring realism to the mystery genre.” With Dick Wolf’s Law & Order TV empire offering an easy …
Dilworth Explores Coming-of-Age Themes in To Be Marquette
Set mainly in the 1970s, Sharon Dilworth’s recent book, To Be Marquette, sometimes makes small moments feel symbolic by utilizing music from the era — think Bob Dylan and Peter Frampton — to help establish tone. However, it’s a song not included that might best summarize the origins of conflict in this well-paced book: Led …
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Walter Turns to AI Fiction with Doppelganger
Noted sci-fi novelist and pioneering computer scientist Vernor Vinge wrote in a 1993 paper for NASA that “Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.” If so, this tipping point, which he called a “technological singularity,” is upon mankind, one in which …
Demystifying Creative Nonfiction
For some, Pittsburgh is french fries on salads, rabid Steelers fans and Iron City beer. For others, it’s Andy Warhol, steel mills and pierogies. For Lee Gutkind, it’s the city where creative nonfiction, that nebulous, energetic literary genre he continues to champion, grew into prominence. In his latest book, aptly titled The Fine Art of …
All Things Random, Edible and Odd: Essays on Grief, Love and Food
Until the closing of Carmody’s Restaurant in Franklin Park after 62 years, turtle soup remained a fixture on its menu. Once a staple of fine dining, turtle soup typically came paired with a shot of sherry to both sweeten and thin the stew-y broth. For local writer Sheila Squillante, a first bowl of this dated …
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Miss Me Forever Hits “Home” with Bhutanese Protagonist
Tulsi Gurung is in a jam. that could be the abridged version of Erie native Eugene Cross’s latest novel, Miss Me Forever, in which his likable protagonist gets put through the paces. A more nuanced look at this highly readable story, set in Erie and Pittsburgh, might be that the orphaned Nepalese immigrant who arrives …
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Edgy Road Adventures Lift Anne Ray’s Debut Scenic Overlook
Part monomyth, part road-trip adventure, Scenic Overlook, Carnegie Mellon University grad Anne Ray’s debut collection of linked stories has the feel of a throwback. Mostly set in the analog, though not uncomplicated, time of the late 1990s, Ray uses 13 narratives to build something novelistic as her protagonist, Katie Hight, a 21-year-old college student on …
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Ed Simon and the Plight of Milton’s Satan
The notion behind IG Publishing’s “Bookmarked” series is to allow contemporary authors to reflect on how a particular book influenced their journey to becoming writers. “Part autobiography, part literary criticism,” the series aims to guide readers through a deep dive of a single book. The latest installment, Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost, features Pittsburgh writer …
Remembering the Beehive
A recent study by apartmentguide.com says Pittsburgh ranks sixth highest among 483 U.S. cities for coffee availability, based on population density and coffee establishments per square mile. It wasn’t always that way, before the iconic Beehive Coffeehouse opened in 1989 on East Carson Street. Readers and regulars alike can thank local journalist David Rullo for …
Lockett’s Short Stories Provide Authentic View of Appalachian Life
Learning an obscure Mauritanian language may not mean much around his central Pennsylvania hometown of Phillipsburg, but for Michael Lockett, now a transplanted North Sider, his time in the Peace Corps led to humility, empathy, and understanding different perspectives. Those three qualities color his narrative approach throughout a standout debut collection of short stories, In …
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Longing for Limelight
Hollywood has been alternately described over the years as “a tissue thin façade full of self-important narcissists” and “a place where dreams come alive.” This year’s winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Kelly Sather, paints her protagonists as dreamy, never-will-bes who dwell in the shadows of fame. The California native and former entertainment lawyer …
Real-life Heroes
On Jan. 25, 1904, 179 mostly teenaged miners died in a massive explosion at the Harwick Mine near Cheswick, where today a stone memorial marks their mass grave. A single survivor, Adolph Gunia, was pulled from the rubble by the mine’s designer, Selwyn Taylor, and his assistant, James McCann. Volunteers like Daniel Lyle dug through …
Dougherty’s Debut Highlights the Bonds Among Five Female Friends
Of her debut novel, Pittsburgh native Marianne Dougherty says it’s “about the power of female friendships to sustain us” — an accurate portrayal of what plays out over 380 brisk-reading pages. With a host of well-regarded freelance work in both local and national platforms, Dougherty has penned a tale about what bonds her strong feminine …
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The Making of the Mafia
There’s a scene in season one of “the Sopranos” when teen daughter Meadow asks, “Who invented the Mafia?” The question leaves Tony to consider how to respond with a mouthful of mu shu pork. That she then names those five New York City families with ease exemplifies the way La Cosa Nostra has become ingrained …
From Basket Ball to the NBA
While the debate over Pittsburgh’s status as a basketball town continues on barstools and radio waves across the region, what’s been settled by Claude Johnson, Carnegie Mellon University grad and author of The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball’s Forgotten Era, is the important role that a black player from Homestead, once a “basket …
Donora Death Fog: Clean Air and the Tragedy of a Pennsylvania Mill Town
Amid outcry over the recent train derailment and subsequent leak of vinyl chloride in nearby East Palestine, Ohio, and environmental rights groups’ concerns about emissions from Shell’s ethylene cracker plant in Beaver County, dialogue over the balancing act between commerce and public health continues. In his well-researched new book, Donora Death Fog: Clean Air and …
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A Satiric End of the World
What might the end of the world be like? According to Michael Simms in his debut novel, Bicycles of the Gods: A Divine Comedy (Madville Books, $ 19.95), it could happen a bit like a “screwball comedy” as he navigates a wacky scenario by using “apocalyptic satire” to boldly comment on the troubled state of …