Reading Room Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Though he couldn’t keep his job after the Pittsburgh Pirates spun their wheels to begin the 2025 season, former skipper Derek Shelton could recognize the baseball man who best embodied the qualities needed for success: the legendary Earl Weaver. In his best-selling biography of the Baltimore Orioles’ Hall of Famer, The Last Manager: How Earl …

Miller Pens Excellent Biography of Baseball’s Diminutive Giant: Manager Earl Weaver Read More »

Books

Nostalgic and Piercing, Bardenwerper Examines the Charm and Decline of Small Town Baseball

by Fred Shaw

At first glance, Sewickley resident Will Bardenwerper’s Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America sounds like the kind of book that promises more than it can deliver. Instead, it’s a thorough examination of the state of minor league baseball through the lens of 21st century America (and often vice versa). …

Nostalgic and Piercing, Bardenwerper Examines the Charm and Decline of Small Town Baseball Read More »

Books

Daniels Explores Rustbelt Childhood in An Ignorance of Trees

by Fred Shaw

In his first nonfiction book, An Ignorance of Trees, touted as a “memoir in essays,” author Jim Daniels seeks to upend that old saw — “You can’t go home again” — by returning to his Rust Belt roots in Warren, Michigan. It’s an act borne of the nostalgia and reflection that comes with age and …

Daniels Explores Rustbelt Childhood in An Ignorance of Trees Read More »

Books

Refreshing Candor Imbues the Senator’s ‘Unfettered’

by Fred Shaw

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once said, “The only journey is the one within.” For people experiencing tough times (and the accompanying feeling of doom that might follow), it’s an important consideration. John Fetterman also regards those moments as important turning points in his life, and there are more than a few bumps to balance …

Refreshing Candor Imbues the Senator’s ‘Unfettered’ Read More »

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 …

Character Studies Drive Drue Heinz Winner Read More »

Books History

Rebuilding Pittsburgh — the Story of RIDC

by Steven Alschuler

The first time I visited Pittsburgh for more than a couple of days was Christmas week about 20 years ago. I stayed at the Omni William Penn and the only vivid memory I have is walking around Downtown on a cold Saturday afternoon, not being able to find anyplace good to have lunch. It seems …

Rebuilding Pittsburgh — the Story of RIDC Read More »

Books

Flick’s Rough and Tough Feminism Fits Pittsburgh

by Fred Shaw

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, …

Flick’s Rough and Tough Feminism Fits Pittsburgh Read More »

Books

Welcome to Wildcat

by Fred Shaw

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, …

Welcome to Wildcat Read More »

Books Sports

Myron Cope: The Man Behind the Terrible Towel

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Myron Cope: The Man Behind the Terrible Towel Read More »

Books

‘Slime Line’ Hooks the Alaska Salmon Industry

by Fred Shaw

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 …

‘Slime Line’ Hooks the Alaska Salmon Industry Read More »

Books

Drue Heinz Winner Explores the Difficulties of Family

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Drue Heinz Winner Explores the Difficulties of Family Read More »

Books Business

Changing the American Dream

by Chris Allison

Francis Ford Coppola’s epic, “The Godfather,” begins with the line, “I believe in America.” The film chronicles the tragic story of the Corleone family and their twisted version of the American Dream. It characterizes our national ethos by believing anyone can attain their version of societal success, regardless of where or into which class they …

Changing the American Dream Read More »

Books

Kennywood Crime Scene

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Kennywood Crime Scene Read More »

Books Culture History Profiles

Pittsburgh’s Mal Goode: Television’s First Black Broadcaster

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

On Oct. 28, 1962, the three major television networks interrupted their scheduled programs to broadcast a special report on what would become known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was a critical moment not only in American history, but also in the integration of American broadcasting. Just a few months earlier, ABC, at the urging …

Pittsburgh’s Mal Goode: Television’s First Black Broadcaster Read More »

Books

Dilworth Explores Coming-of-Age Themes in To Be Marquette

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Dilworth Explores Coming-of-Age Themes in To Be Marquette Read More »

Books

Walter Turns to AI Fiction with Doppelganger

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Walter Turns to AI Fiction with Doppelganger Read More »

Books

Demystifying Creative Nonfiction

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Demystifying Creative Nonfiction Read More »

Books

Miss Me Forever Hits “Home” with Bhutanese Protagonist

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Miss Me Forever Hits “Home” with Bhutanese Protagonist Read More »

Books

Edgy Road Adventures Lift Anne Ray’s Debut Scenic Overlook

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Edgy Road Adventures Lift Anne Ray’s Debut Scenic Overlook Read More »

Books

Is China Invincible?

by Dennis Unkovic

Many in the West are convinced that modern China is an invincible regime. We watched China transition in just a few decades from a poor agricultural society into a manufacturing and industrial colossus. We witnessed Xi Jinping become the undisputed leader of China in 2013 and emerge even more powerful than Mao Zedong at the …

Is China Invincible? Read More »

Books

Ed Simon and the Plight of Milton’s Satan

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Ed Simon and the Plight of Milton’s Satan Read More »

Books

Remembering the Beehive

by Fred Shaw

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 …

Remembering the Beehive Read More »