Our Big "Back to School" Issue!
Literary Friends, Writing Conferences, Back to School Reading, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, Short Skirts and Whiskey Shots, Book Fests, Food Trucks and more!
This is another big one - they always seem to be big ones these days! - so we’ll keep this intro short and say: there’s a lot of new stuff up on Littsburgh, from press releases and excerpts and interviews to event listings.
If you haven’t visited the site lately, check it out!
Yours in books,
The Littsburgh Crew
Littsburgh on KDKA: “Getting kids excited about reading before going back to school!”
“Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (and Nick!) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week to help get kids excited about reading before going back to school…”
Regional News: 2023 Literary Cleveland Inkubator Writing Conference!
“The Inkubator Writing Conference is one of the largest free writing festivals in the country. In 2023, Literary Cleveland has extended the schedule to include over 70 hours of free programs featuring an expanded list of high-profile regional and national writers. New in 2023, Literary Cleveland will partner with area organizations to present special community projects that bring the conference out into Cleveland’s neighborhoods. Free registration for all events opened August 1 at 8am.”
Q&A: Kathleen Dixon Donnelly (author of “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s)
“My Ph.D., from Dublin City University in Ireland, was about writers and artists who hung out together. How did these friendships affect their creativity? I looked at four main ‘salons,’ two before and two after World War I: Yeats and the Irish Literary Renaissance who founded Dublin’s Abbey Theatre; Virginia Woolf and the writers and artists in the Bloomsbury group in London; our fellow Pittsburgher Gertrude Stein and the Americans who came to Paris in the 1920s; and, of course, Parker and the Round Table. Thirty-one creative people all together…”
Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books: 2023 Wrap-Up Report!
The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books just shared their 2023 wrap-up report with us, featuring: “2,000+ adult registrants, 500+ children’s activity attendees, 71 adult and children’s authors, 26 poets, 4 bookstores, 33 exhibitors” and more!
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Announces 2023/24 Words & Pictures Season!
“Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Words & Pictures presents acclaimed children’s authors and illustrators to readers of all ages,” including: Jon Klassen (The Skull), Rachel Renee Russell (Dork Diaries), Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris (The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom), and A.S. King (Attack of the Black Rectangles).
Start Reading The Luck of the Fall by Jim Ray Daniels….
“Jim Daniels writes with grace and unsentimental sympathy about ordinary, hard-edged lives, their celebrations and failures and strivings.” —Jean Thompson, National Book Award finalist for Who Do You Love
“In The Luck of the Fall, characters get lost; they fall, but the falls shape their lives in ways that might even be called ‘lucky’—if luck is defined as survival, despite the scars left behind…”
Three Poems from Short Skirts and Whiskey Shots by Andrea Janov…
“It's a collection is for all of us who tried. For those who lived without heat, without doors, with too many roommates, in walk‐ups with tuberculous windows, just to have a shot. For those who made it. For those who decided on something else…”
Read Local/Eat Local returns to Peters Township Public Library!
“The Peters Township Public Library will host 22 local authors at its 4th Read Local/Eat Local event. On Saturday, September 9, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the public is invited to visit the library for this entirely outdoor event in their parking lot. The library encourages the community to read books by Pennsylvania authors representing all genres for all age groups. No registration is required to attend…”
PA’s Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Grant: Open to Writers!
Littsburgh on KDKA: Talk Pittsburgh Book of the Month – July Pick!
Erica Hom and Leo Smith named City Books Writers-in-Residence for Fall 2023!
Start Reading Team Building: A Memoir about Family and the Fight for Workers’ Rights by (Pittsburgher) Ben Gwin…
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Announces 2023/24 Ten Evenings Season!