Pittsburgh Review of Books, A Door to Reading and Community – Sony Ton-Aime
Before a writer sits behind a computer or typewriter to begin, the journey of the book has actually already begun. The same way that we can never say where a book’s journey starts or ends, it is the same for our programs here at Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures.
A lecture is only a point in time on the journey of building community around reading. Before one of the authors on our calendar even comes to Pittsburgh, they are already speaking with our patrons through their writing and now, we are proud to say, through consistent interviews published by the Pittsburgh Review of Books.
Last year, PRoB became our media partner and featured an interview conducted by a local writer with every one of our “Ten Evenings” authors. This is a feat that is hard to comprehend considering this was PRoB’s first year of existence.
Through these interviews, the authors come to know Pittsburgh better and have a clearer understanding of the readers that they will engage with. PRoB is the door they walk through to step into our community. As an Art Administrator, I see PRoB as a perfect partner.
Their work expands our lectures. Instead of the one event that is constraint in time and place, the reviews and interviews reach more people than our halls can fit and allow our community members to go back and engage with the authors’ works repeatedly.
I am personally grateful to PRoB as a reader. Outside of our events, I have been exposed to some of the best thinkers in Pittsburgh. The pieces they feature are simply exceptional, which I proudly share with my out-of-town friends to showcase what Pittsburgh has to offer.
PRoB makes me proud to live in Pittsburgh. I look forward to working side by side with them for many more years.
A Note for PRoB – Christine Stroud
While out of town this summer, I met a woman who’d never been to Pittsburgh and she asked me to describe the city. I talked about the rivers and the parks, but quickly moved on to the readings and the bookstores. When she followed up with: “So, are all your friends writers?” I said technically no, not all writers, but, mostly writers and also people who work with books—editing them, selling them, writing about them, teaching them, promoting them—and at the least really love books and are up for going to a poetry reading on a Wednesday. Which is all to say, that literary leanings of Pittsburgh are as ingrained in the texture of the city as water, soil, and brick it’s built on.
So, Ed was right when he said Pittsburgh deserved a review of books. Actually, I think he said, if Cleveland has one, Pittsburgh certainly should as well, and though I’m not Pittsburgh born and raised, I’ve been here long enough to agree that’s solid logic.
Pittsburgh should have a literary review, and it’s wild that it didn’t already, and if someone was going to fill that gap, of course it would be Ed. And of course, Ed would rally a team of incredibly smart and dedicated students to help him run the review, and of course he would team up with some of the best literary institutions of the city (looking at you Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures) to serve as community partners, and of course he’d host the best voices Pittsburgh has to offer, connecting them with the wider world—because Ed gets it. He understands what makes this literary scene so great, it’s the years of community and support. And when Ed saw a need in our community, he filled it.
And that, I think, is what the Pittsburgh Review of Books has done so well this year: it has recognized that the literary life of this city is not some small thing. It is a community of writers, readers, booksellers, teachers, editors, students, librarians, publishers, arts organizations, and all the people who show up on a Wednesday night because they want to hear what someone has written. PRoB has given that community a place to see itself, while also inviting the rest of the world in.
I’ve been lucky to watch that happen from my own corner of Pittsburgh’s literary world, and I’m grateful for ProB not just for the books it covers or the writers it introduces, but for the way it reflects and strengthens the community that makes this city such a wonderful place to be a person who loves books.
So, happy anniversary to the Pittsburgh Review of Books, and to Ed, who saw a gap and somehow knew exactly what to do with it. Here’s to many more years of reading, writing, thinking, and showing up on Wednesday nights.
